On the eve of an “It’s Now or Never!” meeting to strategize ways to convince the City Council to oppose the City’s rezoning plan or to convince the City to change it, Save Coney Island has launched a new website. The group’s new url is www.saveconeyisland.net. Bookmark it!
The first blog entry on May 17 says:
Save Coney Island will be holding an organizational meeting to plan our final strategy and decide the events for the summer. We need to turn this into the city-wide issue it deserves to be!
This is our last chance!
Please attend this meeting:
WHEN: Tuesday May 19th at 7PM
LOCATION: Downtown Brooklyn at FUREE Headquarters
ADDRESS: 81 Willoughby Street, Ste. 701 (7th Floor)We’ll fill you in on the background to the fight to save Coney Island, and help you get involved.
Want to get involved but can’t make the meeting?
E-mail us at Info@SaveConeyIsland.net and introduce yourself. Let us know if you have any special skills, connections or ideas that might be help us Save Coney Island!
The new website’s “Fix the Plan” page urges the city to expand the acreage allotted to outdoor amusements, keep high-rise towers out of Coney East, and provide safeguards against the displacement of small businesses and local entrepreneurs by chain operations.
Another page features comments on the city’s current plan from the New York Times editorial board, The Municipal Art Society, Dick Zigun of Coney Island USA, Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, among others.
The New York Times editorial board on the current plan: “This zoning proposal would allow a row of four hotels between the Stillwell Avenue subway stop and the outdoor entertainment area. The hotels could too easily become a wall, blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean. The hotels also squeeze the outdoor rides into a narrow strip of about 12 acres — an area that is simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.”
Save Coney Island’s redesigned website also features a discussion board, but the site is so new there aren’t any posts yet. Yours could be the first one!
Save Coney Island was founded by Lola Staar boutique owner Dianna Carlin in 2007 with a rally on the steps of City Hall and a MySpace page . Since then the grassroots group has grown to over 4,000 members and captured media attention with rallies at last May’s Opening of the Beach and New Year’s Day 2009 on the Beach and Boardwalk.
Save Coney Island! On The March, Jan 1, 2009 Save Coney Island Rally/Polar Bear Swim. Photo by Michael O’Neil
photo via revbilly, flickr
Amusing the Zillion 
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