July | 2012 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for July, 2012

Coney Island Boardwalk Advocates Sue Parks Department

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Boardwalk, concrete, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, Friends of the Boardwalk on July 13, 2012| 1 Comment »

Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On Thursday, the advocacy groups Friends of the Boardwalk and the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance along with neighborhood residents announced that they had filed a lawsuit against the New York City Parks Department. According to CBBA’s website savetheboardwalk.wordpress.com: “The Parks Department abused its discretion when it decided that its plan for the Boardwalk was not subject to any environmental review, even though the potential for negative environmental impact is obvious and far-reaching.”

The suit aims to stop the agency from replacing additional sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk with concrete and plastic wood. The above photo taken a few weeks ago by ATZ shows the concrete-slabbed Boardwalk between West 33rd and West 37th Streets in the West End of Coney Island. It’s not a pretty sight. The cracks, repairs and drainage issues mentioned in the suit can be seen in the close-up shots. The Parks Department’s plan to redo the Boardwalk was approved by the Public Design Commission at a charade of a public hearing in March.

Section of Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The petitioners are the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance and its president Robert Burstein, Ocean Parkway resident Arlene Brenner, Boardwalk resident Brunilda Figueroa, Friends of the Boardwalk and its president Todd Dobrin, and Ida Sanoff, an environmental advocate who led the fight against the amphitheater in Seaside Park. All are longtime residents of Brighton Beach.

The release says:

The lawsuit seeks to prevent the Parks Department from implementing a plan to replace 56,000 square feet of wood boards on the section of the Coney Island Boardwalk running from Coney Island Avenue to Brighton 15th Street with concrete and plastic. The lawsuit also contends that the Parks Department has a longer-range plan to replace most of the Boardwalk – approximately 1 million square feet of wood – with some combination of the same concrete and plastic materials.

The lawsuit contends that the Parks Department violated the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) and New York City’s Environmental Quality Review (“CEQR”) regulations by not subjecting its plans to the necessary environmental review. Under SEQRA and CEQR, state and municipal agencies are required to determine if actions they undertake may have a significant impact on the environment. Under the law, factors such as erosion, flooding, drainage problems, and impact on existing use must be considered. Additionally, an agency must consider the project’s impairment of the character or quality of important historical or aesthetic resources and existing community or neighborhood character.

Section of Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The full complaint can be read via scribd

View this document on Scribd

Photo of the Day: Lucky Luciano & Scarface in Coney Island

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged Al Capone, Coney Island, Lucky Luciano, Scarface, Wax museum, window display on July 11, 2012| 1 Comment »

Mobster-themed window display featuring Lucky Luciano & Al Capone. Surf Avenue, Coney Island. June 28, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On the north side of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue, the florist with the surreal Roman centurion window display that we photographed last year has morphed into a party planner with a hokey mobster-themed window display. Al Capone earned his infamous nickname “Scarface” in 1917 after getting slashed in a fight at Coney Island’s Harvard Inn. Charles “Lucky” Luciano became mob boss soon after inviting Joe “The Boss” Masseria to lunch at Nuova Villa Tammaro on West 15th Street, where Joe got rubbed out in 1931. Photos of the two mobsters (and an unidentified third man) along with faux bags of loot, bootleg liquor and getaway car are part of the window display across the street from Luna Park. May we suggest that in addition to the bar/batmitzvahs and sweet sixteen parties, the party planners open up a wax museum a la Lillie Santangelo’s World in Wax Musee? If you’re too young to remember it, watch Charles Ludlam’s silent horror short “The Museum of Wax,” shot in the late 1970s.

Coney Island 2012: Free Movie Screenings on the Beach

Posted in Events, film, tagged Brooklyn, Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Coney Island Development Corporation, Coney ISland Flicks on the Beach, free event, outdoor movies, Rooftop Films on July 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Outdoor movie shows in Coney Island date back to the early days of the cinema. Hot dog inventor Charles Feltman’s grand restaurant and amusement park boasted the Seaside Garden Theatre where films were shown with live musical accompaniment. “At every performance 2,000 persons are seated in the outdoor theatre,” according to a 1917 article in the New York Sun. “The garden has won favor with the ‘movie’ public because of its location, which is by the sea.”

The 2012 season debut of Coney Island’s free outdoor movie series on the beach was last Monday. A nice crowd came out for Ghostbusters as you can see in Bruce Handy’s photo above. The movies are projected onto a giant screen set up on the beach between W 10th and W 12th Streets. In the past, pre-show entertainment has featured the Coney Island Sideshow, celebrity impersonators, trivia contests and dancing. The pre-show is at 7pm with the feature film starting at around 8:30pm. Here’s the rest of the 2012 schedule:

July 9 – Edge of the City: Underground NY Shorts By the Sea
Edge of the City: Underground NY Shorts By the Sea is a collection of independent short films, including The Best Thing I Ever Done—an endearing account of Domenico DeMarco, owner of the legendary pizza shop Di Fara—and A Man Named Magick, about a charismatic Midtown magic shop owner. The showcase begins at 8:30pm.

July 14 – Bound for Glory (1976)
David Carradine plays Woody Guthrie in this Oscar-winning biopic, set in the Dust Bowl, about the folk artist’s experience with the working class after leaving Texas to join the Okies headed to California in search of work.

July 16 – Manhattan (1979)
See Diane Keaton, Mariel Hemingway and Meryl Streep in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning love story.

July 23 – The Muppets (2011) (Postponed due to rain)
Jim Henson’s much-loved characters return to the big screen, as Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) aim to reunite the gang in an attempt to salvage The Muppet Theater.

July 30 – Girl Walk // All Day (2011)
This feature-length film is actually a long-form dance music video, featuring three dancers who use the cityscape as their stage. The movie is set to Girl Talk’s sample-heavy 2010 album, All Day.

August 6 – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt in the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series. Hunt and his team, who are implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, must go rogue to clear the Impossible Missions Force’s name.

August 13 – The Muppets – Rescheduled from July 23
Jim Henson’s much-loved characters return to the big screen, as Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) aim to reunite the gang in an attempt to salvage The Muppet Theater.

The free movie series in Coney Island is sponsored by the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC) and NYC & Company in conjunction with Rooftop Films.