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August To-Do List: Zipper Matinee & Good Ol’ Coney Island

Posted in amusement park, film, News, tagged Amy Nicholson, Coney Island, documentary, Mom and Pop, old timers, Zipper on August 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Extended through August 29: The Documentary “Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride” at IFC Center in the West Village. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

In the waning days of summer, there are two things we suggest you put on your to-do list if you’re in the City. “Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride,” Amy Nicholson’s documentary about the rezoning of Coney Island and the City’s standoff with Thor Equities’ Joe Sitt, opened earlier this month at the IFC Center to great reviews. If you haven’t seen it yet, the film has been held over for matinee screenings through August 29. Or see it in LA, beginning August 30. We had a second look at the Coney Island doc after having reviewed the film when it opened at DOCFEST last year. As we wrote last November…

Eddie and his Zipper crew–Don, Joe, Larry and Jerry–are a likeable bunch of guys who cut up jackpots about how far back they go in Coney and with each other. Watching them disassemble the Zipper is heartbreaking, all the more so because in the film, this scene happens as the City Council votes “Aye” on the rezoning that will shrink the amusement zone and allow retail and high rises on the south side Surf Avenue. It’s poetic license because the vote was held in July 2009, two years after the Zipper had left Coney Island. But it is exactly right, because the land remained vacant all that time.

The Zipper site is presently part of Wonder Wheel Way and Scream Zone, which along with Luna Park was built after the City ended the stand-off with Joe Sitt shown in the film and bought 6.9 acres of his land for $95.6 million in November 2009. “It’s a vision offering major new opportunities for retailing and thousands of new housing units,” says Mayor Bloomberg at the City Hall press conference announcing the land deal and the City’s own redevelopment plan for Coney Island.

In the doc, Eddie’s Zipper represents all of the mom-and-pops who were displaced by the real estate speculation that was set off by the Bloomberg administration’s rezoning of Coney Island and the rebuilding that followed the City’s purchase of Thor’s land. The names of the businesses, including Batting Cage and Go Kart City, Shoot Out the Star, Shoot the Freak and Steve’s Grill House, are memorialized on the screen in the final credits.

During the Q & A after a recent screening, a couple said they knew the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel were protected because they’re landmarked, but they wanted to know if any other mom-and-pops had survived. They hadn’t been to Coney Island in four or five years!

Grandma’s Predictions, newly restored 90-year-old fortunetelling machine under the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. May 12, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Go before the end of the summer and help keep the surviving old timers alive and thriving. The good ol’ Coney Island to-do list includes getting your fortune told for 50 cents by Grandma’s Predictions, a 90-year-old arcade machine beneath the 93-year-old Wonder Wheel; clams on the half shell at Paul’s Daughter, the 50-year-old Boardwalk restaurant and clam bar formerly known as Gregory and Paul’s; marshmallow treats and candy apples at the nearly 75-year-old Williams Candy, Coney’s last old school candy store; and a ride on Eldorado Auto Skooters, a 40-year-old disco palace of bumper cars whose motto is “Bump Your Ass Off.”

ATZ also recommends the Coney Island History Project’s exhibit of murals from the demolished Playland arcade; the 25-cents-a-dance “Miss Coney Island” doll and the row of games next door; the restored 1940s Mangels Shooting Gallery at Coney Island USA; Spook-A-Rama, Deno’s classic 1950s Pretzel dark ride renovated post-Sandy; and Ruby’s, Coney Island’s oldest bar, where part of the ceiling is made from 1920s Boardwalk wood, making it one of the only places where you can still walk “Under the Boardwalk.”

Clams on the Half-shell at Paul’s Daughter, Coney Island Boardwalk. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Photo of the Day: Solar Charging Station in Coney Island

Posted in News, tagged AT&T, Boardwalk, charging station, Coney Island, Goal Zero, Pensa, solar power, Street Charge on July 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

AT&T Solar Charging Stations, Coney Island Boardwalk. July 4, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Post-Sandy public amenities on the Coney Island Boardwalk include this new solar powered charging station at West 8th Street. Known as Street Charge, the modular unit accommodates up to six devices at one time and will be here through October, Goal Zero’s Mark Olsen told ATZ. Industry leader in portable solar power Goal Zero teamed up with AT&T and Brooklyn design studio Pensa to bring the charging stations to New York City’s streets, parks and beaches. Additional locations include Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Rockaway Beach. Besides providing power, Street Charge will have the potential for lighting, WIFI, and signage for ads and way finding, according to Goal Zero.

AT&T Solar Charging Stations, Coney Island Boardwalk. July 4, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Long Live Coney Island’s Swaying, Singing Astrotower!

Posted in News, tagged Astro Tower, Astroland, Astrotower, Coney Island, demolition, Luna Park on July 3, 2013| 8 Comments »

Coney fan with new Astrotower Tattoo “Astroland 1962-2008 R.I.P” on the park’s last day, September 7, 2008. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Update July 6, 2013, 9:41PM… RIP Astrotower! The sad and startling four-day, July 4th Holiday Week Demolition of the Astrotower ended this morning with the last sections of the tower being chopped down and hauled off to the scrapyard on Cropsy Avenue. The base has been covered with tarp–it looks like a grave. Coney fans on social media are referring to what’s left of it as the Astrostump or the Lunastump.

ATZ’s updates from July 3 through 5 have been moved to the end of this post, which was written in the early morning hours of July 3, when we thought the swaying tower had been declared safe and the parks would open at noon the next day as usual. Luna Park sent out a tweet every hour overnight linking to this July 2 Facebook post which says “The NYC Buildings Department has announced that the Astrotower is stable and poses no immediate risk.”

For those of us who know and love the swaying, singing Astrotower, one of the last survivors of Astroland in Coney Island, yesterday’s news reports that the FDNY had rushed to the scene to monitor the stability of the tower was shocking. The Daily News described the Coney icon as the “Tower of Trepidation,” all because an alarmed tourist, unaware that the tower has always swayed, called 911. The amusement parks had to be closed and evacuated.

Late Tuesday night, Luna Park reassured Facebook fans that the Department of Buildings deemed the Astrotower stable. Whew! We hope that means the parks reopen today, the big Fourth of July celebration can go on as scheduled and the tower will finally get some TLC. And maybe a sign that says Swaying Tower of Coney Island?

Here’s magicalthemepark’s video of the swaying Astrotower back in May…

ATZ was skeptical from the get-go that the Astrotower was “unstable.” The tower has always swayed. “It all has to do with the angle of the wind. A very strong flow of wind at the right angle will cause it to sway,” Mark Blumenthal, former operations manager of Astroland told ATZ. “If it’s a high tide, it may help it.” He recalled an incident during Matt Kennedy’s 100th birthday party at Gargiulo’s in 2005 when he had to rush back to Astroland because the tower’s sway had caused police and firetrucks to converge on the scene. A former NYC Department of Buildings inspector was called in to do an engineering report and the tower passed muster.

In this video by Jay Singer, the mystical tower also sings like an Aeolian harp…

Ever since Luna Park was built on the Astroland site in April 2010, there’d been talk of Zamperla re-purposing the Tower as signage or possibly restoring it as a ride. Since nothing was done, the 270-foot observation tower got rusty and began to look like a neglected step-child amid the glittering new rides on the skyline.

Last September, after the Tower was relit for the first time since Astroland closed in 2008, Luna Park confirmed via their Facebook page that it “will provide Coney Island with a spectacular, night-time extravaganza,” but will not be reactivated as a ride.

Zamperla removed the gondola –which had given the Astrotower its nickname the “Bagel in the Sky”– and counter weights from the tower in March, after getting a permit to do so last summer. The lighting of the Astrotower with LEDs, similar to what was done with the Parachute Jump, has been planned for next season.

This fabulous on-ride video by amusement ride site The DoD3 shows the Astrotower in operation in 2007, which was its last season.

According to the Coney Island History Project, the $1.7 million Astrotower was manufactured by the Swiss company Von Roll and installed in 1964. “It required a foundation of 1,100 tons of concrete and 13 tons of steel reinforcing bars. Like Astroland’s other space-age themed rides, the tower was built specifically for the park.” During the rezoning hearings, the Municipal Art Society and Save Coney Island said the structure was eligible for the State and National Registers.

Update: July 3, 2013, 5:00PM… At a press conference this afternoon, Luna Park officials announced that the Astrotower would be torn down, according to NY1 News. The more prominent sway of the tower was attributed to the removal of parts of the structure. As ATZ reported, Zamperla removed the gondola –which had given the Astrotower its nickname the “Bagel in the Sky”– and counter weights from the tower in March, after getting a permit to do so last summer. This was obviously a big mistake as anyone who worked for Astroland will tell you the cab, which weighed 10 tons, was always parked mid-tower to stabilize it.

Buildings Department Commissioner Robert LiMandri was quoted on NY1 on July 3rd: It is not unusual for the tower to move a bit, but the Buildings Department determined the amount of sway to be too much in low wind to be able to say for sure that it would not collapse. The city said that contractors working for Luna Park removed elevator machinery late in the winter, and they said that has now increased the sway of the Astrotower, making it unsafe.“Part of that work was to actually remove some of the structure from the elevator that the Astrotower was,” said Buildings Department Commissioner Robert LiMandri. “When you do that, you decrease the weight at the top, and so therefore, you would get additional sway. At no time did any of those contractors or engineers identify that that would be a problem, and they went forward and did that.”

Sources in Coney Island tell ATZ a “compromise plan” has been reached to take off the top of the tower overnight. It will be death by decapitation for the Astrotower (a terrible thing) so that the parks and businesses east of 12th Street, which were closed and evacuated, will be able to open on the Fourth of July (a good thing). Somebody please wake us up from this nightmare.

Update: July 4, 2013, 3:11PM… The top of the Astrotower was removed, a more than 12-hour operation that enabled Luna Park, the Cyclone, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park and concessions in the immediate area to reopen at 3 PM on the 4th of July. That night, the businesses, which would ordinarily stay open till 2AM on Fourth of July were ordered to close at 12:30 AM so that the demolition could continue.

Update: July 5, 2013, 8:45PM… Overnight and in the morning, demolition work on the Astrotower continued. By the time work stopped around 1:30PM, the tower had been cut down to 1/3 of its original height, which was 275 feet. The work is expected to continue tonight after the park closes for business.

Update: July 7, 2013. All that remains of the tower is the AstroStump also known as the LunaStump.