October | 2012 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for October, 2012

Playland Arcade Demolition Under Way in Coney Island

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged arcade, Coney Island, demolition, Horace Bullard, Playland, Stan Fox on October 23, 2012| 9 Comments »

Playland Arcade Building, August 12, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

Demolition began today of the long vacant Playland Arcade, which has been closed since 1981. The interior walls were gutted by a demo crew using a small bulldozer. Asbestos removal is slated for Thursday with the exterior walls expected to come down soon afterwards.

ATZ asked former arcade operator and Coney Island regular Stan Fox, who operated Playland with his brother from 1957 until 1971, how he felt seeing the last of the arcade. “As I would walk by the empty arcade thousands of times over the years, in my mind’s eye I would see the ghosts of people who worked in Playland,” said Fox. “I would hear the sound of Skee-Ball going up and down the alleys, the ka-chunk of the plates rolling over, the ding-ding of the pinball machines and the jingling of coins being emptied into change bags.”

Owned by Horace Bullard, the Playland building was posted with a City-issued demolition order in September. Bullard is also the owner of the adjacent Thunderbolt lot, which has been vacant since the City tore down the roller coaster in 2000. In recent days, City workers cleared weeds from the lot. Bullard also owns the landmarked Shore Theater, which is for sale for $13.5 million.

An arcade operated in the Playland building from the 1930s until 1981, according to Stan Fox, who grew up working in his brother’s penny arcades in Coney Island. He says the arcades were operated by four sets of brothers over a 50-year period: the Silver brothers (Silver’s Penny Arcade), the Katz brothers (Star Penny Arcade), Alex Elowitz and Stan Fox (Playland Arcade), and the Getlan brothers, who kept the Playland name.

Alex Elowitz got his start in the arcade business working as a 12-year old change boy for the Silver brothers, says Fox. After a stint in the Army, Alex returned to Coney Island and in 1949 opened his first Playland Arcade on 20th Street and the Boardwalk in the Washington Baths building. Playlands at 15th Street and the Boardwalk and 12th Street and the Boardwalk (where Nathan’s is now) followed.

In 1957, Alex and Stan opened their fourth Playland Arcade in the building currently under demolition. They bought the business from the surviving Katz brother for $50,000 and leased the building from Klein and Moran, who also owned the Thunderbolt. “Rent for the whole season was $15,000 in 1957,” says Fox. “In those days 10th Avenue between 42nd and 49th Streets was Coin Machine Row. We ordered a ton of new equipment and renovated the place.” The brothers operated the arcade until 1977, when they sold the business to the Getlan brothers. In 1981 the arcade machines were auctioned and the business closed, leaving Playland vacant for the past thirty years.

UPDATE February 14, 2013:

The demolition of Coney Island’s Playland Arcade, which got underway in October, was interrupted by SuperStorm Sandy. The job was finished today. It’s gone! Charles Denson of the Coney Island History Project managed to save the remaining letters on the facade– L, N and D– and several of the murals. An exhibit is scheduled for this summer.

Photo of the Day: Flyering for the Boardwalk, Not Sidewalk!

Posted in Redevelopment, tagged Boardwalk, Coney Island, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, Friends of the Boardwalk, hearing, Parks Department on October 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Flyering for the Boardwalk, Not Sidewalk! October 14, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

In advance of the Coney Island Boardwalk’s day in court on Thursday, a costumed character named Smart and Intrepid Egg Head passed out flyers on the Boardwalk about the October 25th hearing: “COME AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR A WOOD BOARDWALK!!!”” Printed in English, Russian and Spanish, the flyer says:

It is vitally important for us to have a large turnout present in the courtroom when our case is heard. It will indicate to the judge the widespread level of concern that exists with regard to the Park Department’s plan for the Boardwalk. BOARDWALK NOT SIDEWALK!

Our lawsuit: We claim that the Parks Department did not subject its plans for concreting over the Coney Island Boardwalk to the necessary state environmental review…

Thursday, October 25th, 9:45 AM Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams St. Downtown Brooklyn, Hearing Part number: 38. Judge: Martin Solomon. Closest subway stops: Court St, Jay St/Borough Hall.

We will meet outside the hearing room at 9:30AM sharp and then enter and sit together. RSVP 718-449-7017 or robburstein@hotmail.com.

Go to www.savetheboardwalk.wordpress.com for more info, to check for last minute date changes and to sign the petition!

In July, the advocacy groups Friends of the Boardwalk and Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance along with neighborhood residents filed a lawsuit against the New York City Parks Department to stop the agency from replacing additional sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk with concrete and plastic wood. The Mayor’s Public Design Commission unanimously approved a ten-foot-wide Concrete Lane for so-called “emergency vehicles” and an adjoining Plasticwalk for a pilot project in Brighton Beach. Sections of the Boardwalk in Brighton Beach and Coney’s west end near Sea Gate are already a Concretewalk. You can see what it looks like here and here.

MillionTreesNYC Plants 200 Trees on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue

Posted in News, tagged Coney Island, greening, Hetzi Juniper, MillionTreesNYC, New York City Parks, Parks Department, street tree, Surf Avenue on October 19, 2012| 5 Comments »

Hetzi Juniper Trees on Surf Avenue in front of Luna Park, Coney Island. October 18, 2012. Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

Coney Island now has more trees than rides! The greening of Coney Island’s Surf Avenue from Sea Gate to West 5th Street is under way with 200 trees being planted by New York City Parks and Recreation. The trees in the amusement area are Hetzi Junipers and other species west of MCU Park. The tree planting crew started two weeks ago in the west end of Coney Island and worked their way east to the amusement area. This week curbside trees were planted on the south side of Surf Avenue in front of Nathan’s, the Eldorado Bumper Cars, Coney Island USA and Luna Park. Yesterday at a bus stop on the north side of Surf Avenue, the trees were planted adjacent to an empty lot instead of curbside, as seen in the photo below. Just for the record, the ride count in Coney Island is now at 64, according to ATZ’s latest ride census.

Coney Island is one of several New York City neighborhoods slated for block tree planting this fall. The Parks Department selects blocks with few or no trees, planting on both sides of the street. The street tree program is part of MillionTreesNYC, a public-private initiative with the goal of planting and caring for one million new trees across the City’s five boroughs over the next decade. According to the program’s website, they’ve reached 612,625 trees and are counting.