Historians Line Up Against City's Coney Plan
Taking a page out of the anti-Dock Street play book (which didn’t work out so well in the end), the organizers of the movement to stop (or modify) the city’s plan for the rezoning and redevelopment of Coney Island have recruited a pedigreed list of historians to sign and go public with a letter of…
Taking a page out of the anti-Dock Street play book (which didn’t work out so well in the end), the organizers of the movement to stop (or modify) the city’s plan for the rezoning and redevelopment of Coney Island have recruited a pedigreed list of historians to sign and go public with a letter of opposition. Here’s the meat of the letter:
The City’s rezoning plan for Coney Island, however, dishonors its past and sacrifices its future. It would shrink the area reserved for amusement parkland to only 12 acres. It would insert soaring high-rises into the very heart of Coney Island’s historic amusement district. It would invite developers to tear down many of Coney Island’s remaining historic buildings, some dating back more than a century. This shrunken amusement district, hemmed in by high-rises, would leave little room for the innovation and creativity that have been Coney Island’s hallmarks for more than a century.
Signatories include Ric Burns, Charles Denson and Francis Morrone. The deadline for modifying the plan originally was this past Monday but may be extended to this coming Monday; the City Council is scheduled to vote on the plan in its current form within the next two weeks.
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HONOR CONEY ISLAND’S PAST, SAFEGUARD ITS FUTURE:
AN OPEN LETTER FROM NEW YORK HISTORIANS ON CONEY ISLAND REZONING
We are writing as historians, scholars and chroniclers of New York City,
Brooklyn and Coney Island in order to express our profound concern about
the City’s rezoning plan for Coney Island.
Coney Island is a place of great national historic significance. It is the
birthplace of the modern American amusement industry.
The City’s rezoning plan for Coney Island, however, dishonors its past and
sacrifices its future. It would shrink the area reserved for amusement
parkland to only 12 acres. It would insert soaring high-rises into the
very heart of Coney Island’s historic amusement district. It would invite
developers to tear down many of Coney Island’s remaining historic
buildings, some dating back more than a century. This shrunken amusement
district, hemmed in by high-rises, would leave little room for the
innovation and creativity that have been Coney Island’s hallmarks for more
than a century.
This plan must not be allowed to pass in its present form. The City
Council must step up and fix this plan. It needs to expand the acreage for
amusements, remove the high-rises from the heart of the amusement district
and preserve Coney Island’s historic buildings.
Please listen to the Municipal Art Society of New York, which has warned:
We are concerned that the proposed area set aside for open-air amusements
is of insufficient size and that as a result this revitalization effort
will not be successful.
Listen to Charles Denson, executive director of the Coney Island History
Project, who warned: This rezoning… reduces what was once known as the
world’s playground to something the size of a children’s playground….
Coney Island’s future as a world-class tourist destination is being
sacrificed.
Listen to Dick Zigun, founder of Coney Island USA, who warned: If the
city gets its way, it won’t be Coney Island anymore. And if we lose Coney
Island now, it will be gone forever.
The City Council has a responsibility to protect this iconic American
place. If it fails to fulfill this responsibility, the judgment of history
will be a harsh one.
Kevin Baker
Former columnist, American Heritage magazine
Chief historical researcher, The American Century
Author, Dreamland
Thomas Bender
University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, New York
University
Marshall Berman
Author, One Hundred Years of Spectacle: Metamorphoses of Times Square
Distinguished Professor of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
Ric Burns
Emmy Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker,
Producer and Director, New York: A Documentary Film, Coney Island
Edwin Burrows
Co-author, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
(Winner of 1999 Pulitzer Prize in History)
Distinguished Professor of History, Brooklyn College
Charles Denson
Author, Coney Island: Lost and Found
Richard Haw
Author, The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History,
Associate Professor of English, John Jay College
Phillip Lopate
Author, Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan
John Cranford Adams Chair, Hofstra University
Deborah Dash Moore
Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History, University of Michigan
Francis Morrone
Author, An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn
Barnet Schecter
Author, The Battle for New York
Mike Wallace
Co-author, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
(Winner of 1999 Pulitzer Prize in History)
Distinguished Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center
*Institution names are for identification purposes only.
MM:
This is hardly my own unique idea. Most cities in this country are pursuing just what I suggested and it is generally supported by everyone who studies the matter.
No one would be displaced. Look at Chicago, they have successfully done just what I described with infamous projects like Cabrini Green. The Coney Island projects are just a bit more unique in that there is a LOT of land, like Cabrini had, so that you could replace the towers with new development with minimal impact. My thinking is simply that if the area is going to be going under such a change, why not try to do that too?
And, by the way – towers does not equal density. The density of those towers on an FAR basis is much lower than the average block in most of the more urban parts of the city, even someplace like Park Slope. I do like towers, but it’s a separate notion from density.
Polemicist, I agree with your first paragraph, but have a problem with getting rid of the public housing towers. (I thought you liked density.) I agree those places are awful, but where do the people go if you get rid of them? Also, having mixed income dwellings replace them is a great sounding idea, but that really means that 90% of the people who are in the towers now will never be allowed back. No one cared that big ugly prison-like housing towers were out there when no one of any means wanted to trek out there, but now Coney By the Sea is going to be hot stuff, so poor people shouldn’t be the ones with an ocean view? In a fair world, plans would be made to provide for new, better and more livable low income housing as part and parcel for the entire plan, with as much care and speed as is apportioned for the rest of the project. In a fair world……..
If anyone does contact the local political folks, try to reference the MAS plan. It really is the best plan put forward, has been endorsed by many authoratative folk such as the New York Times, and would just be all around real cool.
I am sad however that removing the public housing towers was not part of any plan. With so much underdeveloped land, Coney Island could have been the perfect place to get rid of those prisons and create a mixed-income development. Nowhere else in the city would be politically tenable to do this.
thanks, bxgrl!
Here is the link to find your City Council member and their phone number and email address
http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml
Call their LEGISLATIVE OFFICE number first. Try calling during the workday.
If you’re really, really into this, here’s a link to the zoning & franchises subcommittee page. Avella, Felder and Katz are among the members:
http://council.nyc.gov/html/committees/zoning.shtml
I’ll certainly try to call, Coney girl. Thanks for the info.
Call your Councilmember and Speaker Quinn today and urge them to fix the City’s plan. Christine Quinn’s legislative office # is(212) 788-7210, though her comment line was filled with calls yesterday and not taking any more messages. Here is a link to the Save Coney page with more info on calling:
http://www.saveconeyisland.net/?p=388
It is urgent that you call asap. Prior to the the full Council vote, the Council’s franchises and zoning subcommittee will vote on recommendations change the plan as early as Monday.
Good luck to them. Coney Island was built as the working man’s amusement park. The city makes noises about preserving that which defines the everyday New Yorker, and in this case, the everyday Brooklynite, and what’s more Joe Brooklyn than Coney Island? Yet, they only mean it when it’s convenient, or it’s something or someplace that no one of better means wants. Yeah. The list of historians and supporters is impressive. Having heavy hitters who can get publicity always helps. I hope they are successful.
Well, if you think the Kiss font is bad design, wait till you see what the City plans for Coney Island. Not that Coney Island can’t use serious help- but not to make it another plasticized, disneyfied version of corporate American fantasy.
absurd use of the KISS font. I’m against this group soley based on bad design.