City Island

Out to sea in the Bronx

By Patrick Verel | Special to amNew York

August 24, 2006

How different is City Island from the rest of the city?

Lifelong residents are known as "clam diggers" and transplants are "mussel suckers." When you ask a City Islander for a phone number, they often give just four numbers since every number on the island starts with the prefix "885."

And if you wander off City Island Avenue, the neighborhood's main drag, you might be accosted by children selling lemonade.

City Island, home to about 4,500 residents, has the feel of a New England village. It is the only city neighborhood to be designated one of 17 historic maritime communities along Long Island Sound.

There are four yacht clubs, two sail lofts and several commercial marinas.

It's still the kind of place where an interview might be rescheduled if the fish are biting.

"It's a town on an island in the city, which means it's a small town where everyone knows everyone else," said Peter LaScala, president of the City Island Chamber of Commerce.

Find it
The 1.5-mile-long, half-mile-wide island sits alongside Hart Island at the junction of the Long Island Sound and Eastchester Bay. It is accessible by a bridge leading from City Island Road, which cuts through Pelham Bay Park.

Real estate
As housing costs have risen and the island's economy has shifted away from shipbuilding, Betty Lavelle-Esola, a broker at City Island Real Estate, said the island has lost some of its more eclectic residents. Fishermen, boat builders and artists are slowly being replaced by teachers, cops and doctors.

"We used to have a lot of throwbacks to the '60s," she said. "We used to have a lot of boat building and yacht clubs, but now they're being converted into condos."

The water and the sense of community are City Island's biggest draws, said Sue Kawczynski, also of City Island Real Estate.

The island has mostly single-family houses. Although two-bedroom, one-family homes can be bought for around $500,000, they can go for nearly $1 million if on waterfront property. Rentals average $700 a month for a studio to $1,500 for a two-bedroom.

Jacqueline Kyle Kall, owner of Port of Kall Realty, said houses usually only come on the market because of death, divorce or families moving to other places on the island.

"Everybody wants to live here because it's nautical and it's historical," she said.

What's selling
-1,571-square-foot, 2-bedroom condo on Deep Water Way: $660,000
-1-family house on Bay Street: $495,000
-3-bedroom Cape on Centre Street: $520,000