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Archive for the ‘Redevelopment’ Category

City Councilman’s Proposal to Landmark the Boardwalk Could Halt Concretewalk

Posted in Redevelopment, tagged Boardwalk, Brighton Beach, concrete, Coney Island, Coney Island Boardwalk, landmark designation, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Mark Treyger on December 8, 2014| 2 Comments »

For friends of the Boardwalk, “Landmark the Boardwalk!” is a new rallying cry to go along with “Boardwalk Not Sidewalk!” thanks to City Councilman Mark Treyger. The council member for Coney Island and Bensonhurt told the New York Daily News that he sent a letter to the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to propose the boardwalk be designated a scenic landmark. “Historically, it’s been a boardwalk, not a sidewalk,” said Treyger, a former high school history teacher who has proven to be a champion of the community in the Council. Getting the boardwalk on the LPC’s calender could stop the Parks Department from redoing portions of it with concrete and plastic wood, a process already underway in Sea Gate and Brighton Beach.

In March of 2012, a ten-foot-wide Concrete Lane for so-called “emergency vehicles” and an adjoining Plasticwalk were unanimously approved by the Public Design Commission for a pilot project in Brighton Beach. At the charade of a public hearing, public testimony was cut to 2 minutes per person and six commissioners appointed by Mayor Bloomberg got to decide the future of the Boardwalk for the people of New York. One of the public comments at the hearing was that the Boardwalk should be renamed the Public Design Commission Concretewalk because it will no longer be the Riegelmann Boardwalk. As Borough President of Brooklyn, Edward Riegelmann took charge of building the Boardwalk, which opened in 1923, making it just a few years younger than the landmark Wonder Wheel.

Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita

We’ve been very disappointed with Mayor de Blasio’s decision to carry on with Mayor Bloomberg’s Coney Island Concretewalk despite letters from newly elected local councilmen Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch asking for a moratorium until further environmental studies could be done. Last June, Daniel Zarrilli, head of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency, a holdover from the Bloomberg administration, told the City Council: “The use of concrete in boardwalks is not going to change at this point, is a sound decision and that stands,” according to the Daily News. Ironically, the news was released on the eve of the Mermaid Parade, where the mayor and his wife marched on the Boardwalk not Sidewalk with their son and daughter, who were King and Queen of the Mermaid Parade.

Send a message to Bill de Blasio urging him to support the landmarking of the Coney Island Boardwalk. Here is a link to an online form to contact the Mayor.

UPDATE December 19, 2014:

City Council members Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch, whose districts include the Coney Island-Brighton Beach Boardwalk, have just launched a public petition calling for the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the boardwalk a “Scenic Landmark.” Please help their efforts by signing this petition at Change.org and sharing it with your friends. It could be our last chance to stop the Boardwalk from becoming the Concretewalk.

If you do not wish your name to appear publicly simply uncheck the box beneath the red “Sign” tab before you click it.

Link to petition: https://www.change.org/p/nyc-landmarks-preservation-commission-designate-historic-riegelmann-boardwalk-as-scenic-landmark

Photos from Friends of the Boardwalk's website show the results of prior projects where the NYC Parks Department used concrete. Photos © Mary Ann De Luca via FOBConeyIsland.com

Chainification of Coney: Rainbow Shops Return to Thor’s Retail Building

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged chain store, chainification, Coney Island, Rainbow Shops, Thor Equities, zoning on May 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Rainbow Shops in Thor Equities Retail Ride of a Lifetime building in Coney Island. May 3, 2014. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Last June, Rainbow Shops, a retail chain featuring discount clothing and shoes, opened on the Stillwell Avenue side of Thor Equities’ “Retail Ride of a Lifetime” Building across the street from Nathan’s Famous. At the end of October, Rainbow closed and was emptied out, but now they’re baa-ack with sun hats and flip flops galore. The Bloomberg administration’s 2009 rezoning of Coney Island’s amusement area allows accessory retail on the block where Shoot Out the Star and other games once amused in the demolished Henderson Building and where they would no longer be able to afford the rent.

Founded in 1935 and headquartered in Brooklyn, Rainbow Shops and sister brands have over 1,000 locations and join a slew of chains and franchises leasing space in the new Coney Island, including It’Sugar, Applebee’s, Johnny Rockets, Burger-Fi and Subway Cafe.

Flipflops galore at Rainbow Shops in Thor Equities Retail Ride of a Lifetime building in the New Coney Island. May 3, 2014. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Meanwhile, the dummy “ARCADE” next door to Rainbow Shop remains as vacant as ever. Thor’s retail building continues to flaunt two ARCADE signs but no arcades, despite the fact that 15% of amusement frontage was required by zoning regulations to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy from the City. ATZ wrote about this sham in June 2013 and again in October 2013. We tweeted about it last week.

Apparently having an ARCADE sign is fine with the City’s Department of Planning and Department of Buildings as long as the space is not occupied by say a chain store? Aww, don’t be cynical. The Funny Face, Steeplechase Park’s ubiquitous symbol of merriment, smiles down from the marquee. As the sign atop the building says: “Thor Equities and Brooklyn Welcome You to Coney Island!”

DUMMY ARCADE sign on Thor Equities Retail Building where THERE IS NO ARCADE. Stillwell Avenue, Coney Island. May 3, 204. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Will Rides Return to Thor Equities Vacant Lots in Coney Island?

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged 2014, carnival, Coney Island, flat rides, Stillwell Avenue, Thor Equities on March 24, 2014| 4 Comments »

Thor’s Coney Island: Aerial view of vacant lots on south side of the Bowery between W 12th and W 15th where amusements once thrived. July 7, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita

Thor Equities’ huge vacant lots on Stillwell Avenue in the heart of Coney Island were cleaned up over the weekend and two different sources say rides are coming. The news is unconfirmed and it’s hard not to be skeptical considering the history of what’s been here since Joe Sitt acquired the land and began evicting longtime ride and park operators in 2006. But everybody — or almost everybody– wants to see the property activated instead of sadly sitting vacant (and yes, that is a pun). If temporary rides are in the stars for Thor’s Coney Island this season, let’s hope it works out this time. Despite various amusement operators efforts to negotiate lease deals, the lots remained vacant in 2010 and again last year, when a stop-work order was issued on a permit for “temporary parking for the amusement district.”

A little history in case you weren’t around to experience the drama: In October 2006, eight amusement businesses, including Norman Kaufman’s Batting Range and Go Kart City and Eddie Miranda’s Zipper, which inspired the film Zipper, received notice from new property owner Thor Equities to be out by the end of the year. On Memorial Day Weekend 2008, Joe Sitt proclaimed “The Summer of Hope” and filled the reviled empty lots on Stillwell with carnival rides from Reithoffer Shows and Geren Rides for a limited run. Hope died when the rides left in mid-July and were replaced by a couple of inflatable bounces.

After the carnival left: Batman and Cinderella’s Castle inflatable bounces on Thor’s vacant lot in Coney Island. August 8, 2008. Photo © Tricia Vita

Skeptics said the amusements were a ruse in the lead-up to the Coney Island Rezoning of 2009. At the time, Sitt and the City were at a standoff in negotiations over a compromise plan that would reduce the acreage of the amusement zone and allow high-rise hotels on the south side of Surf Avenue.

The Cobra was among the flat rides at Cha Cha’s Steeplechase Park on Stillwell Avenue. June 23, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita

Failed flea markets made a mockery of the rezoning in 2009 and 2011. “Festival by the Sea” and the “BK Festival” were granted City permits as a “temporary fair” because a flea market is not a permitted use on this property in Coney Island. Clever, huh? In 2012, rides, games and sideshows returned to Thor’s Stillwell lots for the first time since 2008. As a critic of flea markets on land where the Tornado roller coaster (1927-1977) and the Bobsled (1941-1974) had once thrilled, we were happy to see the BK Festival and Thor Equities take this new direction.

Among the rides were the Cobra, which amusement park blogger The DOD3 describes as White Trash Carny Ride #7. “Every Cobra I’ve been on looks like it’s stuck in a 70s timewarp but they all give wonderfully intense rides,” he writes. Other WTCRs on his list are the Skydiver (#1), the Zipper (#3) and the Trabant (#9), all of which Coney used to have. A Trabant was one of the rides at Dreamland, a temporary park on the former Astroland site in 2009.

There were problems at the Stillwell Avenue park from the get-go. Originally set to open on Memorial Day Weekend 2012, the park was not able to open till four weeks later. A Giant Slide and Zipline never opened at all. Filing of paperwork with City agencies and bureaucratic red tape was blamed for the delay. City permitting issues relating to fencing closed the park intermittently and irregular hours had some visitors asking if and when it was open. The Mega Whirl, a prototype ride that combined the thrill of the Whip and the Tilt-A-Whirl debuted here and its abandoned platform remains on the lot, a symbol of financial ruin and broken dreams.