Boardwalk Standards Get the Axe
At Coney Island, the times they are a-changing: Yesterday the owners of Shoot the Freak, Ruby’s bar, Coney Island Souvenirs, Gyro Corner, Beer Garden and four other boardwalk operators found out their leases would not be renewed. Also, as the New York Times reports, the operator of the Cyclone roller coaster is also leaving Coney…
At Coney Island, the times they are a-changing: Yesterday the owners of Shoot the Freak, Ruby’s bar, Coney Island Souvenirs, Gyro Corner, Beer Garden and four other boardwalk operators found out their leases would not be renewed. Also, as the New York Times reports, the operator of the Cyclone roller coaster is also leaving Coney Island after 35 years. Central Amusement, a subsidiary of Zamperla, will probably take over the roller coaster and spend several million to renovate boardwalk buildings and fix violations. Amusing the Zillion says the Zamperla CEO didn’t think the vendors “have the vision that we have for the boardwalk.” The company plans to invest in new businesses in an effort to keep the boardwalk livelier and open all year.
Nine Coney Boardwalk Vendors Lose Leases [NY Times]
Only Two of 11 Boardwalk Businesses Invited Back [Amusing the Zillion]
Coney Island Losing Boardwalk Vendors [Crain’s]
Changing Times at Coney [Brownstoner]
Photo by Tricia Vita
MM – I dont get the outrage. I mean do you really support a “freak show”??? I know its kitchy and cool in a retro sort of way but you know the ‘freaks’ are people too. As to the other businesses and their employees like busboys, janitors, etc… presumably the new businesses will need to hire similar workers.
I agree it will be a real shame if the new stores turn out to be Dave & Busters and Johnny Rocket types…but than that should be the argument…that the stores should be first offered to local merchants with successful business plans (sort of like they seemed to do at Brooklyn Bridge Park with the concessions) – not that a bunch of run down and offensive stores should remain.
MM — I don’t disagree with your sentiment at all! But the business owners in this town aren’t without blame…
As I said last night at the end of the “Boardwalk” thread
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Give me a break… there hasn’t been anything ‘charming’ about Coney Island since the 1930s. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice if it were charming again — but it has NOTHING to do with the material used in the promenade.
Everyone knows this is a NYC disease, right? We have MILLIONS of people within an hour on public transport… and no other amusement park area (i.e., no competition). But we can’t maintain a better than skeezy seashore amusement park for a decent price. It’s overpriced, run down (even if it’s new) and going bankrupt.
Why? Everything costs too much, so the prices have to be too high so it’s unaffordable. The employees at any retail/service job are horrible and rude. And it tends to be dirty.
You can have a freshly oiled redwood boardwalk, that’s not gonna make Coney Island anything other than a bit sad…
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Honestly… just look at the photo of Ruby’s. It’s a dirty shit box. (I went there regularly, by the way. But it’s still a shit box.) That’s not the government’s doing.
Nice try Tyburg6. The crowd at Ruby’s were not yuppies who were “slumming it”. Coney had a few establishments that retained the raffish air of historic Coney Island that should be retained even as it “improved”. THe fact is, Coney Island, has history and it should be respected as it changes. It is not an either or proposition. Wholesale wiping of the slate clean of establishments that have been operating in Coney for years is not the answer.
I assure you that this is an economic decision done solely to maximize the revenue of Central Amusements International. Nathan’s is retained because as a national fast food chain it has the funds to pay the increased rents and national fast food chains are part of the “vision” of the future of Coney Island. The Boardwalk will still be dirty, but instead of some locally owned quirky establishments, it will resemble the Penn Station concourse by the Sea.
Enjoy your Taco Bell Chalupa next year on the Boardwalk.
It is so disheartening to see that people’s hard worked and hard won small businesses are tossed out without a second thought. We’re not just talking “plastic” or “real” here. These are real people’s livlihoods, from the owner to the busboys to the janitors. The city bends over constantly to keep the financial sector jobs here, and prostitutes itself to real estate developers daily, but can’t manage to mediate or do something for viable small businesses in Coney Island and elsewhere, especially in the “outer boroughs”. There should be a mixture of old and new, shiny and a bit tawdry here. If your business is not sucessful because of the whims of the market and lack of customers, that’s one thing. To be forced out because you don’t meet some bigwig’s idea of the New Coney Island, or the New Downtown Brooklyn, is a whole ‘nother thing entirely, and is wrong.
This nostalgia for the “old coney island” is silly.
I was surprised when I went to the ‘new’ astroland, how nice it was, very modern rides that surpassed any amuzement parks I have been to.
How many of you are really ordering fried clams from Rubys?
Don’t fear the change.
Hmm… I think it’s funny that everyone is bemoaning the “plastic” vision of Coney Island. The truth of the matter is that you just want Coney Island to remain a run down dump for the rich, out-of-touch Park Slope/Carroll Gardens types to have an “authentic” New York Experience. Cuz… ya know… we don’t want to live that, we just want to visit.
Well, GUESS WHAT! Most of NYC lives the grittiness and wants a place to Escape!
You want your pretty little Bishop’s Crook street lights and you want to make sure your neighbor can’t paint his door green and every other picayune thing to make your home as Laura Ashley as you can… BUT only if there’s gritty, “real” New York places to vist — umm, once a year?
Seeing as there’s little to know Coney Island left, I may never go there again…
🙁
Is Peggy O’Neils safe?
Cha-Cha’s got the axe too. Of the 11 businesses on the Boardwalk, 9 were kicked out. Nathan’s on the Boardwalk, as a national fast food chain available in malls across New York, was of course permitted to stay because national fast food chains are part of Central Amusement International’s “vision”. Ruby’s will be replaced with a “sports bar”. Maybe they can move the shuttered ESPN Zone from Times Square to Coney Island. Or better yet a Dave and Busters.