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Photo of the Day: Santa Spotted on Coney Island Boardwalk

Posted in Photo of the Day, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Photography, Santa Claus on December 21, 2010| 3 Comments »

Santa Claus is coming to town. December 19, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Santa Claus is coming to town. Dec 19, 2010. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Santa has already arrived in Coney Island! Photographer and ATZ contributor Bruce Handy spotted him on the Boardwalk on Sunday. “Not often I ask a person to pose, but hey, Santa can’t say no, that would make him a grinch,” writes Bruce. Speaking of grinches of Christmas past and present, rumor had it that Santa was holding Joe S’s piece of coal behind his back.

After attending the Salt and Sea Mission’s Christmas gathering on Stillwell Avenue, Santa returned to the North Pole to get ready for the big sleigh ride on Christmas Eve. Happy holidays, dear readers!

Photo of the Day: Demolition of Coney Island’s Shore Hotel

Posted in Photo of the Day, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, demolition, Lindsay Wengler, Shore Hotel, Thor Equties on December 10, 2010| 4 Comments »

Shore Hotel Demolition. December 9, 2010. Photo © Lindsay Wengler/Single Linds Reflex via flickr

This week Thor Equities’ demo crew continued to wreak havoc on historic Surf Avenue. By Thursday afternoon, they had knocked off the top story of Coney Island’s approximately 107-year-old Shore Hotel. Photographer Lindsay Wengler also got some apocalyptic shots of the rubble that once was the Bank of Coney Island and a bulldozer poised to attack on Henderson Walk. War is hell. Oh wait, we mean Coney Island redevelopment is hell.

For photos and stories of the Shore Hotel in its glory days as well as its seedy days, see Vanishing New York’s post from August 2009. Thor’s ownership destroyed the building. As VNY wrote: “Plywood went into the windows in the summer of 2007, as Thor and the city aimed to blight Coney in preparation for its demolition. When the City’s Plan goes through, a massive high-rise will stand here.” The City’s rezoning of Coney Island, passed by the City Council in 2009, allows four high rise hotels of up to 27 stories along the south side of Surf Avenue.

In the other out-with-the-old in Coney news story of the week, this morning’s 10 a.m. court date for the eviction of the “Coney Island Eight” was adjourned till January 10, 2011.

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Photo of the Day: R.I.P. Bank of Coney Island

Posted in Photo of the Day, Real Estate, tagged Bank of Coney Island, demolition, Eric Kowalsky, Joe Sitt, Redevelopment, Thor Equities on November 24, 2010| 4 Comments »

Demolition of Thor Equities-Owned Bank of Coney Island. November 23, 2010. Photo © Eric Kowalsky

R.I.P. Bank of Coney Island (1923-2010)

Eternal memory. Eternal memory. Grant to this demolished piece of Coney Island history, O Lord, blessed repose and eternal memory.

Thanks again to Eric Kowalsky for his excellent photo documentation of the Bank of Coney Island. For more info on the building, see “Photo of the Day: The Bank of Coney Island, Now & Then” (ATZ, October 14, 2010) and “A Rare Peek Inside Endangered Old Bank of Coney Island” (ATZ, October 9, 2009).