October | 2011 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for October, 2011

Oct 24, 10:30 am: Last Chance to Stop Coney Island Concretewalk?

Posted in Redevelopment, tagged Boardwalk, Brighton Beach, Coney Island Boardwalk, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, Friends of the Boardwalk, Public Design Commission on October 23, 2011| 2 Comments »

Coney Island’s world-famous, 2.7-mile Boardwalk is listed among America’s Best Beach Boardwalks by the travel editors at National Geographic, Travel + Leisure and USA Today. Will it qualify for this honor if only four blocks in the amusement area remain wood and the rest is paved with concrete and plastic wood? A Parks Department spokeswoman told Brooklyn’s Courier News that concrete was chosen because it’s about $40 per foot cheaper than real wood.

The Bloomberg administration’s plan to pave the Coney Island Boardwalk will be voted on by the City’s Public Design Commission. A friend forwarded the info that the PDC hearing is at 10:30 am on Monday, October 24th. It is recommended that you get there at 10 am to sign in. “Please bring others if you can as this is our best chance to defeat this,” writes Rob Burstein of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance. The local Community Board voted 21 to 7 against the plan in May, but their vote was ignored because New York City’s CBs are advisory boards.

News stories about the Boardwalk redo gave the impression that the Public Design Commission vote was a foregone conclusion, possibly because the members are all Mayoral appointees. However, after reading the letter from Burstein and Friends of the Boardwalk’s Todd Dobrin, we took a closer look at the Design Commission. “The Gatekeepers,” a report in the Architect’s Newspaper, described the PDC as “little known to the public and a mystery even to many architects.” Commission members are a distinguished group including architects, artists and representatives of the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library. They serve pro bono. Hey, we think it’s worth a shot. It could be your last chance to save Coney Island’s Boardwalk from becoming a Concretewalk.

PLEASE SAVE THIS DATE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 24TH
WHERE: NYC PUBLIC DESIGN COMMISSION,
253 Broadway (opposite City Hall), 5th floor, New York, NY
TIME: TO BE ANNOUNCED AND FORWARDED

Dear friends and neighbors:

I’m writing to ask you to join us on Monday, October 24th, at the NYC Design Commission. There will be a hearing about the proposed plan to replace the iconic Brighton Beach and Coney Island boardwalk with concrete slabs. A small group of us showed up a few weeks ago to express our displeasure with this Parks Department’s proposal so the hearing was changed to the date above. This was so that the Commission could hear our objections regarding this plan for the boardwalk.

THIS IS OUR BEST CHANCE FOR DEFEATING THIS PLAN!We need a substantial number of people at this hearing to express their displeasure with the proposal. The people on this Commission have no idea what impact their decisions have on this community. As neighbors who enjoy the boardwalk and don’t want it turned into a sidewalk or driveway, I’m hoping to prevail upon you to join us and express your outrage at this horrendous plan. We all have too many responsibilities and too little time, but many of us are taking off from our jobs yet again in order to attend this most important meeting. Won’t you join with us? Your presence is important! This Commission is not an advisory body. They make the final decision as to whether or not this project goes forward. Please don’t let cynicism about the good it does to show up at a hearing such as this stop you from coming. It CAN make a difference! Look at what happened when enough of us showed up to object to construction of the proposed amphitheater in Asser Levy/Seaside Park. This Commission stopped the plan because enough community members showed up to object. Please support us and our community once again. Please attend and tell your friends and neighbors to join us!

The time on the 24th will be announced in the next day or two and I will forward it on once it’s been set. Thanks for your consideration and support!

Rob Burstein, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance
Todd Dobrin, Friends of the Boardwalk

UPDATE March 7, 2012:

The next public hearing at the Design Commission is set for Monday, March 12. For more info, see the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance’s new website.

UPDATE October 25, 2011:

Victory! ATZ is happy to report that the Design Commmission has stopped the Parks Department from going ahead with the concretewalk. NY1 covered the hearing — watch the video here. As Todd Dobrin of Friends of the Boardwalk says in the vid: “I think that it’s great that the Design Commission has come to the conclusion that more environmental and engineering studies are required before this project goes forward.”

Reversal of Fortune on the Coney Island Boardwalk

Posted in amusement park, Food & Drink, Redevelopment, tagged Central Amusement International, Coney Cones, Coney Island Boardwalk, Luna Park, Paul's Daughter, Ruby's Bar, Sodexo, Zamperla on October 20, 2011| 13 Comments »

Sodexo This Way: Sign directing trainees to Sodexo restaurant in Luna Park, Coney Island. April 12, 2011. Photo © Mr Jones via Amusing the Zillion

Bringing in Miami Beach restaurateurs and French food services giant Sodexo to operate in Coney Island has turned out to be a fiasco for Luna Park developer Central Amusement International. We’re just glad some of the people in charge realized Coney Island is neither Miami Beach nor a corporate cafeteria before we lost all of our original, irreplaceable businesses and ended up with a shuttered Boardwalk.

After kicking out nine Coney Island Mom and Pops from City-owned property to make way for upscale eateries, the park division of Italian ride manufacturer Zamperla is now reported to be offering multi-year leases to at least two local favorites — Paul’s Daughter and Ruby’s Bar. The veteran businesses were supposed to pack up and get out by November 4th. Let’s hope they can negotiate a lease without too many onerous clauses and more of them get the invite. And if a spot becomes available, please, please bring in people who know and represent Coney Island and Brooklyn, New York.

Easter Brunch at Paul's Daughter on the Boardwalk. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

One of the reasons for Zamperla’s about-face is that the Miami Beach restaurateurs who opened Coney Cones in July are pulling out of a $5 million deal that would have put new eateries on the Boardwalk from West 12th Street to Stillwell. According to yesterday’s New York Post story by Rich Calder, Coney Cones co-owner Michele Merlo said business at his new store had been “very disappointing” because of the bad weather and told other Boardwalk vendors “they can’t make money off Zamperla’s existing lease offer.”

Sources tell ATZ that Merlo and his partner Julio Gonzalez have offered to sell Coney Cones, which was a $200,000 investment for them and pays an annual rent of $75,000, to a veteran operator in Coney Island. The ice cream shop is located at the Boardwalk entrance to Luna Park and serves gelato, salads, panini, and Kobrick’s coffee. Currently open every day from 11am till around 7pm, it will close for the season at the end of the month.

Unmentioned in yesterday’s flurry of news reports was another newcomer to Coney Island also pulling back from the original plan. Sodexo, which has food and drink kiosks in Luna Park and operates the new Cyclone Cafe on Surf Avenue, was slated to take over Paul’s Daughter. Last December, Sodexo rep Sandy Boyd showed up at the 40-year-old Boardwalk establishment to pick up plans from the City’s architectural firm. As ATZ reported in “Paul’s Daughter Dishes on the Boardwalk Brawl” (ATZ, January 13, 2011), when one of the architects asked Boyd if Sodexo was going to be a year-round restaurant, she replied “oh no, it will be seasonal, there aren’t enough people here off season.” This was a remarkable admission since part of Zamperla’s rationale for bringing in new businesses to replace the veterans was that the Boardwalk eateries would be open year-round.

On the menu at Sodexo's Cyclone Cafe: Healthy Dining at Luna Park. Photo © Mr Jones via Amusing the Zillion

Sodexo, the world’s 21st largest corporation, has kept a low profile in Coney Island. The only sign we’ve seen with their name is the piece of paper at the top of this post. It was put up to direct trainees to their restaurant in the spring. ATZ broke the news last year that Sodexo has an exclusive contract with CAI to provide food within the parks and was investing $2.4M in Zamperla’s Coney Island. At the time Luna Park CEO Valerio Ferrari told ATZ that $1.4 million was being invested in the new sit-down restaurant. He said it would be open year-round and feature waiter service and a variety of food. As for the Boardwalk, Sodexo-run restaurants were set to take over “some but not all” of the Boardwalk locations, Ferrari said, including Paul’s Daughter and Pio Pio Riko, which flanked the Boardwalk entrance to Luna Park. Things changed.

Sodexo’s Cyclone Cafe opened this season on Surf Avenue at West 10th Street with a menu of burgers, salads, sushi and brick oven pizza, but it is neither a sit-down restaurant nor a year-round venue. It has been closed on sunny weekdays in recent weeks while the Boardwalk Mom and Pops were open. During Halloween Horror Nights at Luna Park, the cafe is open only to patrons of the ticketed event inside the park. While its Surf Avenue lights blaze, its shutters are closed to the public. When the spot was Gregory and Paul’s, the picnic tables on the sidewalk were one of our favorite spots to sit and have a bite to eat while friends rode the Cyclone.

Shuttered on Surf Avenue: Sodexo's Cyclone Cafe. Photo © Mr Jones via Amusing the Zillion

We’re happy to have officially suspended the Photo of the Day in ATZ’s “Countdown to Corporatization.” The sad goodbye to our Boardwalk friends began with “The Chief of the Coney Island Boardwalk” on October 8th. Rumors of another reprieve had been flying for a few days, which is why we stopped the series on Saturday.

One note of caution: The owners of Ruby’s Bar and Paul’s Daughter have not yet negotiated lease deals with Luna Park operator Central Amusement International, which holds a 10-year lease on the City-owned property. The specter of a dark Boardwalk puts the pressure on everyone for the deal to get done. But the Coney Island Rumor Mill has been abuzz about onerous terms in the leases that CAI has offered to the handful of operators who were previously invited to stay as well as to the Miami restaurateurs. The businesses are also expected to foot the bill for the rehab of the buildings as well as pay a higher rent and stay open year round.

Sodexo's Luna BBQ, Luna Park Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i

One of the problems with a mandated year-round Coney season and hours is that unlike Luna Park, the restaurants are not subsidized businesses. Each of the Boardwalk Mom and Pops has been paying $100,000 per year rent, plus a $10,000 surcharge initiated this year to help keep the Boardwalk restrooms open later and for sanitation and fireworks. Believe it or not, $100,000 is also the base rent that CAI/Zamperla USA pays annually to the City. In addition, they also pay a small percentage of the gross receipts. For example, ten percent of gross receipts over $7 million. According to the NYC Economic Development Corporation’s lease with CAI (which ATZ obtained last year through the Freedom of Information Act), the City will receive 15% of the fixed rent paid by any subtenant. Zamperla gets to keep the other 85%. We think they have a pretty sweet deal with the City and should pass the sugar.

However, CAI/Zamperla USA has also invested nearly $30 million in building and operating Luna Park and Scream Zone. According to CAI’s contract with the City, Luna Park also received a subsidy of $5.7 million from the City for “among other things, facilitating the purchase of certain equipment necessary for the Tenant to operate the Premises as a first class amusement park.” CAI’s Luna Park and Scream Zone as well as the property occupied by the Boardwalk businesses are on City-owned land in Coney Island purchased from Thor Equities for $95.7 million in 2009 and leased to the amusement operator for a ten-year period that began in 2010.

Popeyes Chicken Returning to Coney Island’s Surf Avenue

Posted in Food & Drink, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, Herman Popper, Popeyes Chicken, Popper Building, Surf Avenue on October 17, 2011| 4 Comments »

Popeyes Chicken former location in the now demolished Henderson Building. Surf & Stillwell Aves., Coney Island. August 21, 2011. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Popeyes Chicken is returning to the south side of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue after more than a year’s absence. The owner has leased the first floor of the Popper Building at 1220 Surf Avenue, just a few doors down from his previous location and has started renovations. The restaurant owner had been in business year-round in Coney Island for 27 years when he lost his lease in the now-demolished Henderson Building at the corner of Surf and Stillwell. The Thor Equities-owned property was one of four lots in Coney Island rezoned by the City for high rise hotels, which set the stage for Thor’s evictions of longtime businesses and demolition of historic buildings.

The popular fried chicken and biscuit restaurant served its last supper at midnight on August 24, 2010. A previously reported deal to lease space in a proposed new restaurant building on the north side of Surf fell through after Horace Bullard sold the property instead of leasing it.

The Popper Building has a distinctive old copper sign that says “Herman Popper & Bro.” Though it does not have landmark designation, the building as well as its original owner have a colorful history. Herman Popper was a whiskey distiller and wholesale liquor seller who once supplied most of the Bowery dives and concert halls. His business extended to Sundays, though selling liquor on the Lord’s Day was then illegal. When his friend John “Boss” McKane was tried in 1894 for conspiracy, Popper was called to testify since he had been in charge of one of McKane’s “paster” booths in a notorious ballot-box stuffing scheme. “Yes sir,” he said when the City attorney asked “Isn’t your Coney Island place open on Sunday?,” according to a report in the New York Times. “The witness got tangled up at once, and wanted to take back his answer.” Finally he acknowledged he ‘received orders’ on Sunday, as directed by John McKane.

The Popper’s most recent first floor tenants were a group of homegrown flea market vendors, some of whom have found new locations in the neighborhood. The building was home to a Carvel ice cream shop from the mid 1970’s through about 1995, according to former Playland arcade operator Stan Fox. He also remembers a greyhound racing game and other games at the location. The art dealer who has owned the building since 1998 occupies the second floor. Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York popped in for a visit in the summer of 2009.