« Open Thread Transit Overload for Brooklyn »

March 11, 2009

Local Officials Propose Big Changes to City's Coney Plan

surf-ave-coney-0309.jpg
A local politician with sympathies for Thor Equities and a poor grasp of English grammar is trying to throw a wrench into the City's plan for the revamp of Coney Island. Community Board 13 is supporting a recent plan proposed by City Councilman Domenic Recchia to increase the size of retail stores that would be allowed along Surf Avenue from 2,500 square feet to 10,000 square feet. Responding to critics' fears that the amusment area will end up looking like a suburban strip mall, Recchia said, "We don't want no Walmarts in Coney Island." Ouch! The retail boost is only one of about 20 changes that Recchia has put on the table; others include opposing the city's plan to reserve 12 acres of land for amusements, increasing parking at KeySpan Park and banning any new construction that would block the Parachute Jump. A Thor Equities spokesman called the proposals "the beginning of an attempt to make a bad plan better" and a Bloomberg flak described some of the changes, including the retail suggestion, "problematic." What a mess.
Local Officials Call for Major Revamp of Coney Island Plan [NY Daily News]
Photo by dietrich




Posted by Brownstoner at 9:29 AM | Comments (22)
Categories: Coney Island Area, Development

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/8782

Comments

the whole issue has turned into one giant clusterf*ck, it's actually really depressing. bigger retail spaces? yeah good luck. what is so wrong with just having a nice clean beach and food and amusement vendors available for people who dont go out on the weekends to the hamptons?

*r*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at March 11, 2009 9:37 AM

Recchia isn't the only one who sounds like a fool in that article. The guy describing 10,000 square foot stores as 'big boxes' is only off by an order of magnitude.

Why would the city want to 'protect' 12 acres for amusement uses? That's what the area's C7 zoning has done for the last nearly 40 years, and during that time the amusement area has steadily withered away, to be replaced by weeds and bus parking. I think this demonstrates the lack of viability of an amusement-only district out there.

Posted by: Sparafucile at March 11, 2009 9:43 AM

If he doesn't want no Walmarts, how many does he want? Three, four? He needs to be clear.

Posted by: dittoburg at March 11, 2009 9:49 AM

Recchia is unbelievable. Instead of rebuilding the area into a place everyone can enjoy, he wants to make it into suburban Podunk. I used to theink he had Coney Island's best interests at heart- now I think he is just anoth paid off-sell out politician. Why do I never learn these guys can't be trusted to do anything but smell a money trail and follow it.

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 10:26 AM

Whatever the solution they better do something fast. I was out there last week and shocked by the condition of the place. Say what you will about the physical condition of the amusement park over the last few years but it had a shabby yet romantic charm that I always enjoyed (as did hundreds of thousands of others) but what is there now is literally a wasteland. It borders on criminal.

Posted by: wasder at March 11, 2009 10:29 AM

yeah i dont take advantage of the city as much as i should but i went out there the end of last summer and had a blast and saw nothing wrong it. it just felt right and looked right and so what it's not all shiney and new looking with chain stores. who the hell takes a 1-2 hour trip by train to get out there anyway to shop for big items? maybe it might be good for the locals who live there, i dont know, but it was such a nice unpretentious part of the city to spend a day in the sun.

*r*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at March 11, 2009 10:48 AM


"but it had a shabby yet romantic charm that I always enjoyed (as did hundreds of thousands of others)"

Indeed we did, Wasder. It's died away year after year, piece by piece and now it's almost gone. Pretty sad.

Posted by: East New York at March 11, 2009 11:23 AM

Ever get the feellig that unless you are new, shiny, expensive, and under 35 this isn't a city for you anymore? Oh- and you have to be rich too.

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 11:46 AM

"Ever get the feellig that unless you are new, shiny, expensive, and under 35 this isn't a city for you anymore?"

No. For me, this will always be my city, no matter how much it changes. We're inexorably bonded. But it does take time and patience deal with some of the changes.

Posted by: East New York at March 11, 2009 11:49 AM

I wish I had your attitude, ENY. I love NYC- and you're right- it will always be my city. Just sometimes I feel my city doesn't want me, not the other way around.

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 11:54 AM

bxgrl--I think what you have articulated is a far more nuanced and thoughtful variation on the anti-gentrification rants of some of our more volatile posters. I appreciate the fact that you are able to discuss this kind of thing without turning it into an exercise in finger-pointing and class warfare.

Posted by: wasder at March 11, 2009 11:59 AM

I haven't been since Ghouliani knocked down that creepy old scooby-doo rollercoaster which had the house underneath it.

Posted by: dittoburg at March 11, 2009 12:03 PM

i feel that way all the time bxgirl, but im like who cares i dont care if the city wants me. it's stuck with me. it's gonna have to deal.

*r*

Posted by: PitbullNYC at March 11, 2009 12:04 PM

ditto--it was called the Thunderbolt. I was so sorry when it was knocked down. Have a bunch of cool photos of it though. It was also the basis for a house that Woody Allen fictionally resided in in one of his films (can't remember which). When I first moved to NYC as an adult I lived with my grandmother in Sheepshead Bay and there was still a family living in that house.

Posted by: wasder at March 11, 2009 12:10 PM

And I wish I had that attitude too, rob! :-)

Thanks wasder- don't you think gentrification is both a 2 way street and a double-edged sword? I don't blame people- if you loook at New Yorkers they always pull together, they live their lives and deal with change all the time. But then you get politicians who never miss an opportunity to mess it up. Coney Island would have come around. Keyspan Park was the beginning. All the groundwork laid with the Coney Island museum and the Coney Island hisptory project, and the Wall of Remembrance- not to mention the wonderful ocean- people were beginning to come back. Now politicans have once again ruined the cycle.

What I find so very painful about losing Coney Island is that NYC is losing a part of something so integral to its soul. Coney Island was the classic kids fantasy (adults too!), it always had such magic to me. Maybe all the great memories I have of going there as a kid- I don't know. Maybe I'm just the kind of person who gets left behind in thses tings.

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 12:37 PM

wasder - post a pic!

Posted by: dittoburg at March 11, 2009 12:48 PM

"don't you think gentrification is both a 2 way street and a double-edged sword?"

Completely agree. I am obviously of the "gentrifier" demographic (ie white, upwardly mobile etc) but have very working class Brooklyn roots and have lived all over the borough at one time or another. I appreciate a beer at the seaside in one of those divy russian bars on the boardwalk in Manhattan Beach and also a very fine and expensive Martini. It is so easy on the internet to force people into boxes. There are many things that have been lost in NYC over the years that weren't necessarily sexy or lucrative or even safe that I miss none-the-less. then again well planned out urban renewal such as what seems to have occurred in the Myrtle Ave corridor (I am sure many will disagree with this) improves the city. Nuanced positions are a tough thing to defend on the internet, that much I know is true.

Ditto--will scan a shot or two of the Thunderbolt for you.

Posted by: wasder at March 11, 2009 1:01 PM

wasder- I love the old building details and signs. Any of those? Childs has some of he mose wonderful terracotta I've seen.

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 1:06 PM

Please do post a picture wasder...the Woody Allen movie was "Annie Hall". When he has flashbacks to his childhood the family is living in a house that shakes from being right under a loop in the roller coaster...but I always assumed it was the Cyclone.

I can't even really face telling my daughter about what happened to Coney Island. I have this fantasy that by this summer or next some rides will be back and we can go. She adores it and so do I. sigh.

Posted by: mscrochety at March 11, 2009 2:50 PM

mscrotchety--there was never a house under the Cyclone but there most definitely was one under the Thunderbolt. It was never operational in the years I used to hang out there alot but there were definitely still people living in the house underneath it.

Posted by: wasder at March 11, 2009 2:56 PM

Honestly- I would have loved to live in that house. But I'm kinda odd anyway :-)

Posted by: bxgrl at March 11, 2009 3:10 PM

wasder - it's very cool that people actually lived in that house! I assumed it was Woody's imagination. I moved to Bklyn in '86 and don't remember ever seeing the Thunderbolt during my CI visits. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

Posted by: mscrochety at March 11, 2009 3:11 PM

Post a comment

Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.

Latest Restaurant Additions