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.
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.
Vintage postcard of the 1926 Tornado Roller Coaster, also known as The Bobs, on Stillwell Avenue East, Coney Island
News that the landmark Childs Building on the Boardwalk will be developed into a music venue brings the delightful prospect of Coney’s amusement area extending all the way from 21st Street to the soon-to-be-renovated to the tune of $150 million New York Aquarium on West 8th. An RFP to develop and operate amusements on a narrow City-owned lot at 15th Street makes it likely that Coney Island will get a major roller coaster as well.
The Coney Island Rumor Mill has been saying for months that Luna Park operator and ride manufacturer Zamperla was designing a brand-new coaster for Coney with some claiming to have seen the design. When Italian Wired asked Alberto Zamperla over the summer what his company was secretly working on, he mentioned only a super coaster inspired by the sci-fi Western “Cowboys & Aliens” as well as an interactive water attraction to be built in Coney Island before being sold around the world.
Will the new amusements on 15th Street pay tribute to any of Coney Island’s famed coasters of the past? We’d love to see an homage to the Tornado, aka “The Bobs,” which is pictured above. The 1926 thriller was a complex ride built on a narrow lot on Stillwell Avenue East and had an array of other rides, games, sideshows and restaurants beneath it. What more could we ask for in Coney Island? It’s time to bring out ATZ’s big wish list. This is actually the first of a series of posts since the list is a bit longer than we anticipated!
When a $168 million, 26-acre surf park was planned for Randall’s Island several years ago, our first thought was they should be building it in Coney Island. A year-round surf venue in Coney would attract surfers and spectators, residents and tourists alike. Then the project fell through due to funding problems and technology flaws. Over the past two years, new surf parks and surf pools are once again in the news, thanks to innovations in artificial wave surfing.
Next year, the first indoor surf park in the US will open in Nashua, New Hampshire featuring what American Wave Machine Inc. describes as the world’s largest standing wave surfing machine. The all-season surfing venue will have a retractable glass roof, glass walls for spectator viewing, surfside lounging area and a cafe. Last year in Lima, Peru, the company debuted the world’s first surf arena at La Ola Movistar SurfStream, which visitors from the US in the above vid describe as “The closest thing to surfing outside of the ocean yet. If I was a kid I would not leave this thing.” Promo vids of special events at the arena show world-class surfers competing in contests while rock bands play poolside. Build it and they will come to Coney!
Coney Island once had dozens of year-round arcades, now there are just a few open seasonally. Meanwhile in California, Las Vegas, Baltimore, and on the Jersey Shore, pinball museums have become local gathering places and year-round tourist destinations. The Asbury Park Boardwalk is making a comeback and part of the allure is the bells, buzzers and flashing lights of pinball. The Silver Ball Museum Arcade and Pinball Hall of Fame boasts the top 200 machines from the electromechanical wonders of the 1930s and ’40s up to the solid state electronic games of today.
When we visited Silver Ball last year, owner and pinball machine collector Rob Ilvento explained: “Every game you’re playing at the museum was the top game of that year. Six thousand titles were made, like everything else some games are fun some aren’t. If the operators couldn’t make money, the manufacturer would stop making it, so it may make it rare but it doesn’t necessarily make it collectible. The ones that I put in the museum are not only collectible but have a fun factor when you play.”
Signage above the machines narrates the history of pinball and the stories of the individual games. Patrons pay $10 for a one hour pass, $20 to play all day and $25 for a family of six on a Sunday night. The museum also hosts parties, weddings, fundraisers and pinball tournaments.
Coney Island is famous as the place where the hot dog was invented and the roller coaster was perfected. Coney is less well known as the place where William F. Mangels invented the Whip since the ride doesn’t operate here anymore though it thrives elsewhere. The same thing can be said for the game of Fascination and Frozen Custard, among other Coney Island originals. Why not bring them back for people to enjoy once again, perhaps in a special section of the revitalized Coney devoted to historic rides and attractions?
In Margate, England, the Dreamland Trust is creating the world’s first heritage amusement park with a 1914 Whip, a 1920s Caterpillar and other rides collected from around the UK, as well as their park’s original 1920 Scenic Railway, the oldest of its kind in Britain. “Work is now underway to reinstate Dreamland as one of the UK’s best-loved amusement parks with a heritage story to tell,” according to the website of the £10m park, which is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, the UK government and their local council.
Last year we wrote “Bring Back the Whip! A Birthday Gift for William F Mangels” (ATZ, Feb. 1, 2011), which includes a Whip Census. If you know of any Whips not on the list, please let us know. It’s a shame that Coney Island, where this classic ride was invented in 1914, doesn’t have an operating Whip. If you want to ride it, you’ll have to take a trip to Rye Playland, Knoebels, Kennywood, Cedar Point, Trimper’s or any of the other parks or carnivals listed on ATZ’s Whip Census. The Whip was one of the first and most popular thrill rides. Old timers tell us there used to be quite a few Whips as well as quite a few carousels and roller coasters in good ol’ Coney Island. Wouldn’t it be fitting to have a Mangels Whip installed in Steeplechase Plaza next to Mangels’ B & B Carousell? It’s not in the plans, so we’ll add it to our wish list for 15th Street.
UPDATE September 28, 2012…The date of the hearing is now set for Thursday, October 25th. According to an email from Rob Burstein, all of the other information- location, time, etcetera-mentioned below remains the same.
After the Public Design Commission’s shameful approval of the New York City Parks Department’s boondoggle of a Concretewalk, we’re happy to know the Coney Island Boardwalk will get its day in court next month. “We desperately need you and all of us to SHOW UP ON OCTOBER 4th OCTOBER 25!” wrote Rob Burstein of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance on Friday night in an email to supporters of keeping the boards in the Boardwalk. “Please take this one morning to stand — or in this case sit — with us, and collectively let’s once more attempt to save this beautiful icon!”
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. A ten-foot-wide Concrete Lane for so-called “emergency vehicles” and an adjoining Plasticwalk had been unanimously approved by the Public Design Commission 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 and the photo below.
As most of you know, the law firm of Goodwin-Proctor is representing us in a lawsuit against the Parks Department. The suit alleges that they failed to perform the required environmental impact studies to assess the numerous negative impacts that their intended plan will have for our community and all who make use of the Boardwalk were it to be implemented, and asks that the Court compel them to do so before going forward.
We need a huge number of people to show up to achieve our desired effect. There are few times in life when by virtue of our presence we may affect the outcome of something we care deeply about. This is one of those times.”
The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, October 4th, starting at 9:45am. The case will be heard in Kings County Supreme Court at 360 Adams Street in downtown Brooklyn near the Court Street station. The Hearing Part number is 38 and the judge hearing the case is Martin Solomon. Burstein asks supporters to meet outside the hearing room at 9:30am sharp and then enter and sit together. “My cell phone number is 718-449-7017, in case you want to call me about something between now and the 4th, or on that day,” he says. “Please send me an email letting me know that you’ll be coming, robburstein@hotmail.com.”
Let’s hope the Supreme Court hearing room is bigger than the one at the Public Design Commission, which was not designed to accommodate the public. Many of us were left standing in the hall and missed some of the testimony. You can read ATZ’s report on that charade of a hearing in “The Coney Island-Brighton Beach Concretewalk Blues” (ATZ, March 22, 2012)
UPDATE September 11, 2012:
Is Maryland’s Ocean City, which has a new wood Boardwalk, more innovative than NYC? Read Todd Dobrin and Ron Bursteins’s op-ed in Monday’s New York Daily News. Dobrin and Burstein are founders of the two advocacy groups who are bringing the case against the Concretewalk to court.
Amusing the Zillion 