Coney Island

It's only July and already the so-called "Summer of Hope" is winding down on Coney Island.

Gowanus Lounge is reporting that the various rides and attractions touted by controversial developer Joe Sitt back in April are currently being dismantled, apparently headed to some other carnival site in Tennessee.

This Coney Island music video has been around for a few months now, but we only stumbled upon it today (via a Brooklyn Paper article). The tune was performed (i.e., delivered in public comment form) at the uncharacteristically not-boring planning meeting Tuesday evening on the city's proposed Coney Island rezoning.

We thought we’d post a few renderings from the city’s slideshow at its rowdy Coney Island scoping meeting Tuesday evening.

All goes without saying that renderings are a crucial tool in the battle to win public support for development projects in the city. The last batch made by the city, now somewhat obsolete given that the plan has since been modified, emphasized rides and roller coasters, whereas this time the city seems to be trying to stress the street-level vitality that could come as a result of the plan.

Renderings from the Department of City Planning:

Leading up to tonight’s scoping meeting of the Coney Island revamp, various advocacy groups and others are staking out positions on the city’s plan, a few of which have ended up in our inbox. The comments are on the latest iteration of the plan, which was altered after it met opposition from Councilman Domenic Recchia, who sided with landowners including major property owner Joseph Sitt.

The hearing, which starts at six in Coney Island, has attracted a large bit of attention given that it's ostensibly intended for comments on what should or should not be included in a draft environmental impact statement.  read more »

Coney Island merchant Dianna Carlin continues her quest to reopen her Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink in the abandoned Childs Restaurant building with the first of two fund-raisers tonight.

Ms. Carlin is trying to raise the necessary funds for an assembly permit to cover the whole 60,000-square-foot building -- the cost of which is considerable.  read more »

Gowanus Lounge has the text of Dick Zigun's resignation letter from the Coney Island Development Corporation. The Mayor of Coney Island is rather peeved at the Bloomberg administration's current plan for the amusement mecca. As he told my colleague Eliot Brown in May, "The new plan sucks."

Mr. Zigun elaborates in his letter:  read more »

Proprietors of venerable Coney Island institution Ruby's Bar & Grill hope to reopen Friday afternoon, following vigorous repairs to replace a collapsed floor in the men's room that sent one patron to the hospital over the weekend.

Much maligned developer Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, who owns the building, is chipping in on the cost of repairs, which were completed yesterday, according to a source at the bar.  read more »

The Health Department has shuttered venerable Ruby's Bar & Grill on the Coney Island boardwalk following a bizarre incident on Saturday, which I reported in this week's Observer.

A cop on the scene summed it up thusly: “One guy was taking a leak, the floor partially collapsed, and he fell 10 feet.”

Police closed down the bar soon after the accident on Saturday. It reopened Sunday. Then the health inspector closed it down again yesterday, according to a well-placed source on the boardwalk.

The jukebox at Ruby’s Bar & Grill was cranking out its usual eclectic mix of beachy classics—Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers In the Night,” Milli Vanilli’s “Blame It on the Rain”—this past Saturday when proprietor Michael Sarrel abruptly pulled the plug.

“Finish your drinks!” he told patrons of the venerable Coney Island venue at 5:22 p.m.  read more »

"How about making some noise for opening the beach?" Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said from the podium, as brightly dressed protesters standing behind a police line chanted, "Thor no more! Thor no more!"

So began another politically charged season at Coney Island under appropriately gloomy skies on Thursday morning.  read more »

Mermaids, hula-hooping transvestites, scantily-dressed burlesque dancers, tattooed carnies, and a host of other Coney Island characters took their act over the bridge last night to raise money for Coney Island U.S.A., a 29-year-old, nonprofit arts program that supports the amusement park’s mainstream underbelly.

If Memorial Day was not approaching, the good-naturedly lascivious scene inside the Angel Orensanz Foundation’s headquarters—ironically a former Lower East Side synagogue—could have easily been mistaken for a Halloween party.

Busty, bikini-clad, not-quite-spring-chicken, burlesque dancers and mermaids mingled as costumed swing dancers twirled their way across the dance floor to the music of Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings.  read more »

For those of you who have always wanted to go see the Coney Island Circus Side Show or the Mermaid Parade but are too lazy to trek out to Brooklyn, tonight is your night.

The amusment park's motley crew of underbelly performance artists is coming to the Lower East Side from 7 to 11 p.m. for Coney Island USA’s annual Spring Gala at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings are performing, and the Brooklyn Bombshells will kick off the night with swing dance lessons.  read more »

Pat Singer, the founder of the Brighton Beach Neighbors Association, has lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood for 44 years.

But she is not, as she estimates roughly 80 percent of her neighbors are, a Russian immigrant, and does not speak the language.

So she had a hard time one evening around Thanksgiving of last year explaining to the 20 or so elderly Russian Brighton Beachers what they were doing at her organization’s offices at Brighton Beach Avenue and 14th Street on a Monday evening.  read more »

Even on dreary days like today, we can smell the old-hot-dog-and-rotting-garbage-breeze blowing in festival season this summer. At Coney Island, the Village Voice's 8th Annual Siren Music Festival on July 19 is one main events, with a decent line-up this year. Pitchfork alerts us that Indie rock god Stephen Malkmus (Pavement reunion, please!) and the Jicks, Canadian noise rockers Broken Social Scene and CMJ Music Festival darlings Parts & Labor and Dragons of Zynth will be playing, along with Beach House, Times New Viking, the Dodos, Annuals, the Helio Sequence, These Are Powers, Film School, and Jaguar Love.

Joe Sitt, the developer who owns much of the amusement district at Coney Island, today announced a new set of rides and other amusements to fill his vacant lots for the summer. On the list for the new “Dreamland”: bumper cars, a “Giant Gondola” and a petting zoo, among others.

Mr. Sitt's efforts come as amusement enthusiasts are pushing back against the city’s new plan for Coney Island, a proposal they claim is far too generous to the landowner. The city’s prior proposal would have effectively forced Mr. Sitt to sell or swap the bulk of his land, as the city wanted to create a 15-acre city-owned amusement zone. That plan ran into opposition from local Councilman Domenic Recchia, who sided with Mr. Sitt, and thus the city was forced to compromise, given the power of local elected officials in major land-use changes.

Now the city and Mr. Sitt are negotiating over the revised plan, which Mr. Sitt has thus far resisted supporting.  read more »

The Bloomberg administration is getting squeezed from all sides with its Coney Island plan, as its most recent proposal is taking fire from both advocates of the historic amusement hub and the area’s major landholder, Joseph Sitt.

Key advocates who once rallied behind the Bloomberg administration are now coming out strongly against the city’s proposal, expressing dismay that it would further shrink down the amusement district, putting retail and some hotels where city-owned land for amusements was once planned.

“The new plan sucks,” said Dick Zigun, the director of the nonprofit Coney Island USA who is often called the unofficial mayor of Coney Island. “They initially came together and came up with a plan that everybody got on board for … This is so watered down it is unacceptable.”  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg and Joseph Sitt just can’t seem to get along.

Mr. Sitt, the major landowner in Coney Island, has been resisting the city’s quest to remake the Brooklyn enclave. He opposed the city’s earlier plan and now has reservations about a compromise that would allow him to develop much of his land just north of a nine-acre amusement zone.  read more »

The debate over the future of Coney Island has become enmeshed in politics; standing at center stage is Councilman Domenic Recchia.

“I tell you one thing, we’re going to get a new boardwalk,” the Brooklyn Democrat said, stomping his foot last week on the decaying wooden planks of Coney Island’s signature walkway.  read more »

Coney Island merchants sent out a terse press release Friday afternoon in response to "an ominous fence which is obstructing the entrances to an entire block of businesses on the boardwalk."

The Parks Department, which erected the fence a day earlier, issued the following explanation via email to The Observer:

The Parks Department is currently doing maintenance work along the boardwalk including the area between West 12th Street and Stillwell Avenue to reinforce its support structures and repair decking material. The affected areas will be repaired or replaced, and fencing will be removed, prior to the start of the busy beach season. While we regret any inconvenience this may present to adjacent business owners, safer structures will be a benefit in the long run and, in the meantime, we are preserving access wherever possible.

Seaside merchants have long complained about the sorry state of Coney Island's rickety boardwalk.

And some say the city's latest attempt to address the situation isn't really helping:

"Instead of fixing the boardwalk in front of the businesses that go from Stillwell [Avenue] to 12th Street, the Parks Department decided to build this enormous barricade in front of all our stores," said Dianna Carlin, owner of the Lola Starr Souvenir Boutique. "So now all of our businesses are completely blocked in by this wall, which they say will be there all summer."

Charlie Bendit stood atop Coney Island’s ancient Childs Restaurant building, peering out to sea.

“Can you imagine being up on the roof and having a wedding overlooking the ocean? What a wonderful experience,” he said. “In the summertime, you can have part of it outdoors, part of it indoors. You can have an outdoor dancing area, which is what the roof used to be used for.”  read more »

"It was a great night and it was definitely a huge success by all accounts," gushed Coney Island T-shirt maven Dianna Carlin following last Saturday night's splashy grand opening party at her Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink in the abandoned landmark Childs Restaurant building on the boardwalk.

Sponsored by Glamour magazine and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (promoting a new perfume called "Dreaming"), the event featured appearances by sparkly dressed pop singer Ashanti and pig-tailed actress Marisa Tomei (sporting her own kitschy T-shirt: "I'M PULLIN' FOR PEE-WEE").

"We had 1,000 people RSVP," Ms. Carlin said. "Luckily, not all of them showed up. ... For a while, we ran out of roller skates."

Yet no one has done any skating at the makeshift rink since Saturday's party.

   read more »

Curbed and Gowanus Lounge have photos (and video!) from Saturday evening's opening party for the Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink in Coney Island. The rink is the brainchild of Dianna Carlin, whom my colleague Chris Shott profiled in last week's Observer.

Ms.  read more »

My colleague Chris Shott profiled unlikely Coney Island activist Dianna Carlin in Wednesday's Observer, including her efforts to open a roller rink in the Brooklyn neighborhood. (The New York Post has a story on Ms. Carlin in today's paper. It's, um, labeled EXCLUSIVE.)

Ms. Carlin emailed us on Wednesday about the opening-day party for the Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink. It's tomorrow at 6 p.m.  read more »

The Bloomberg administration’s plans to revitalize and reinvent Coney Island have been through a noticeable evolution. A year ago, the city wanted to partner with the private landowners in the amusement district at Coney to give the historic hub a makeover, establishing the neighborhood as a regional destination.

Then the city determined that the private landowners—one in particular, Joe Sitt of Thor Equities—were not the perfect partners they had imagined. In November, the mayor announced a plan that would put the city in the captain’s seat by taking control of the entire amusement zone, buying out or trading property with the owners.

Then last night, at a forum at the Museum of the City of New York, a city official acknowledged there were talks going on to reach some sort of agreement where the city would realize a remade amusement district in conjunction with the private landowners, which would represent a reverse from the November announcement. The official, Coney Island Development Corporation president Lynn Kelly, said she could not expand much beyond that, but did say of the plan that “the different landowners could partake in all of this.”

Why the shift since November?

As often with development fights, local politics reign supreme.  read more »

When Coney Island stalwart Dianna Carlin talks about her “wild roller-coaster ride,” she isn’t referring to the rickety old Cyclone.

Last March, the gingery 34-year-old T-shirt designer from Detroit was facing eviction from her small souvenir shop on the boardwalk.  read more »

Tonight the Coney Island rezoning plan moves one step further toward completion with a public scope meeting where residents are invited to comment on the scope of the environmental impact.

Since the Economic Development Corporation has not even started conducting the environmental impact assessment, the controversial rezoning remains a world away—its projected enactment date is 2019, 10 years after ground is broken.

Alas, one of the rezoning scheme’s most vocal opponents, Senator Carl Kruger, will not be speaking at the hearing because he failed to get a flu shot this year, but will be submitting testimony, his representative said.  read more »

“I think it’s very bad-ass,” said Brooklyn burlesque queen Angie Pontani. “It’s a really bold move and I’m proud of the city for coming up with it.”

She was referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial plan to redevelop Coney Island.

“In the face of Coney Island becoming a high-rise luxury condominium development, I think this is definitely a really good scenario,” Ms. Pontani told The Observer. “I think anything that preserves the amusement district is a good idea.”  read more »

Back in November, state Senator Carl Kruger bussed in a reported 500 people to a city-run information session on the redevelopment of Coney Island, disrupting and ultimately shutting down the meeting in a show of opposition to the plan.

Well, now the expenditure report for Mr. Kruger’s campaign committee has gone online, and the final tally is in: it seems the senator paid $2,475 to bus company Dimino Express for the event, only a small portion of the $1.63 million he lists as having in his campaign account.  read more »

Perhaps legislators all received new gavels for the holidays, as there seems to be a whole bunch of hearings in the next few days relevant to economic development.

A list for those that like sitting in the uncomfortable chairs of City Hall and elsewhere:  read more »

The Bloomberg administration seems to have met a foe in its plans to redevelop Coney Island. And no, we’re not talking about Joe Sitt, the owner of the bulk of the prime amusement-area land that the city wants to take (the city has offered a land swap).

Rather, the biggest resistance so far, at least in public and in the media, has come from State Senator Carl Kruger, a feisty Democratic lawmaker who loves the spotlight, and seems to have put opposition to Coney Island at the top of his agenda.  read more »

The mayor did a good job last week of making his Coney Island plan look like a done deal, but it is far from over. The local City Council member, for one, is casting doubt on the idea of acquiring the land in the core amusement area and turning it into city-owned parkland the way the Bloomberg administration is proposing.

“I believe there should be hotels. I believe there should be an amusement district,” Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. told The Observer. “But in my view, the result should be different than the one [Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff] proposes. I believe that we should recreate an amusement district and work with the present landowners and not map it parkland. You still have other landowners besides Thor Equities that were there for 50 years when nobody else was, and they won’t be able to capitalize on the plan if you map it parkland.”

Thor Equities, founded by developer Joe Sitt, has bought up about 80 percent of the area in the past few years and has proposed turning it into a modern amusement park with hotels, time shares and condominiums. He is not a particularly popular player to root for, but there are a few other landowners who would be affected as well.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg wants a year-round amusement park—just like the area’s big landowner, Joe Sitt. So why the power struggle?  read more »

Joe Sitt's PR rep sent us the developer's reaction to the Bloomberg administration's proposal to acquire his Coney Island properties. Notably, Mr.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to acquire the property that Joe Sitt has been buying up at Coney Island, throwing a wrench into one of the most aggressively marketed real estate ideas in recent history and putting the city into the unusual role of playing carnival barker.

In a speech today before the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Bloomberg said that he wanted to turn the central amusement area into city-owned parkland that would “preserve the world’s most famous urban amusement park in perpetuity,” according to his prepared remarks.

The Bloomberg administration and Mr. Sitt, the chairman of Thor Equities, have been battling over just what should go in the 15 acres stretching from the Cyclone to Keyspan Park, a minor league baseball stadium. Mr. Sitt has wanted to rezone it to permit a phantasmagoria of rides, entertainment, retail, restaurants, hotels—and, most infamously, condos.

“The city will work with existing landowners to acquire many of the properties in Coney East," the mayor said. "We hope to achieve a win-win outcome with each of them. That’s what we want for all the people of Coney Island, and Brooklyn.”

Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. You are in for a ride.

Mayor Bloomberg is expected to unveil a rezoning plan for Coney Island at a lunch of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce this Thursday. Over the past year, the administration has beaten back the ambitions of Joe Sitt, a developer who wants to put condominium towers, a hotel and time shares in the current amusement area along with more modern rides and attractions.

A spokesman, John Gallagher, confirmed that the mayor would be speaking about “Coney Island rezoning and development,” but would not give details.

Thor Equities boss Joe Sitt just keeps caving to the carny lobby -- extending leases along the boardwalk, possibly preserving Astroland for another summer -- all the while his ambitious Coney Island renaissance scheme remains on the backburner.

Can't a developer catch a break?

This week's Brooklyn Paper keeps piling on, with more Sitt-ripping comments from Yale-educated freak-show operator Dick Zigun:

The so-called mayor of Coney Island, Dick Zigun, last week sent a formal denouncement of the developer to city decision-makers. In the letter, Zigun, the founder of the Coney Island Museum and the popular Mermaid Parade, called Sitt a “bully.”

Zigun has his own gripe with Sitt, accusing him of backing out of [a] deal to sell Zigun a historic Surf Avenue building for a new home for the Coney Island Museum.

“I am totally outraged,” Zigun said about his dealings with Sitt. “He told me and the city for a year and a half that he would work to preserve the character of Coney Island and save this building, and now he is not.”

What, Thor Equities not follow through on its stated goals? Somebody better inform the folks at Albee Square.

Joe Sitt’s new team, reported on Curbed and Gowanus Lounge, has got the Web speculating about his next move: Is he giving up, retrenching, or sweet-talking his way to a compromise on his Coney Island wonderland?

Consider this: His new public relations consultants, Knickerbocker SKD, worked on the transportation bond act, Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign and the Bloomberg-friendly Campaign for New York’s Future. His new lobbyist, Jim Capalino, has repped the Lenora Fulani-linked All Stars Project and the Moynihan Station developers.

Not exactly your street fighters in other words.

Mr. Sitt's new spokesman, Knickerbocker's Stefan Friedman, e-mails to say:

Thor Equities is committed to realizing the great potential that lies in Coney Island. In working with the City, local residents and businesses, as well as understanding the needs of its millions of visitors, we hope to experience a collaborative Coney Island Renaissance.

A panel of experts convened by the Municipal Art Society will meet tonight to discuss the forthcoming transformation of Coney Island.

Noticably missing from the debate: Thor Equities developer Joseph Sitt, whose controversial plan to soon raze and reconstruct the Brooklyn beach community's amusement district includes a proposed rezoning to allow high-rise luxury condos along the boardwalk.

"The panel organizers offered the one developer slot to Taconic," explained MAS spokesman Brian Connolly, referring to Taconic Investment Partners, which itself is planning a slew of residential development around, but not inside, the carnival-ride and arcade zone.

Details on the Sitt-less event after the jump.  read more »

As the amusement haven sizzles into its final summer before Joseph Sitt vies for luxury condos and hotels, some can’t wait for the ‘face-lift’.  read more »

• Michael Pescatore ran the East Coast's biggest "chop shop" (stolen cars galore!), and then he meticulously built a kingly "14,431-square-foot mansion on Long Island's Gold Coast." If only he hadn't messed with the interior designer, he wouldn't be in prison now. [Village Voice]
• How expensive is New York real estate? Expensive. The Real Deal breaks down the boroughs' priciest blocks: from Columbia Heights to East 78th to Douglaston (to Staten Island's Todt Hill). [Real Deal]
• "Findologist" Professor Solomon has written a 152-page illustrated book on the rainbow-colored history of Coney Island. And the masterwork is free. [Boing Boing]
• "Several of the top kitchens" in Manhattan are listing some charming snapshots (at top) of Times food critic Frank Bruni. The headline says "Wanted Dead or Alive," and below it are listed his 24 common eating companions. New York kitchens are pretty creepy. [Eater] - Max Abelson
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• Mmmm... spring. It's definitely sprung in Friday's weather. And Save Coney Island took advantage of it to protest at City Hall the plans of Thor Equities for the iconic Brooklyn neighborhood.
[Curbed]
• What better way to pass a spring day than tossing "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" on the turntable and sitting back with a margarita? Sur La Table, at Crosby and Spring streets, now sells a Jimmy Buffett's Frozen Concoction Maker for just $300. (Lost shaker of salt not included.)
[Gawker]
• We don't know how we missed this New York trend, but, apparently, creepy old men have trouble getting single women to visit their apartments. Good to know.
[NY Times]
• Prediction: The next few days will be stressful for Yaakov Horowitz. As the chief rabbi at Jersey City-based Manischewitz, the world leader in matzo production, Mr. Horowitz oversees the company's annual production of 75.6 million sheets of matzo--a lot of which will be consumed once Passover starts Monday evening.
[CBS 11] - Tom Acitelli
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• Dashed hopes in foreclosures wave.
[NY Times]
• Take a look at New Museum of Contemporary Art.
[NY Times]
• Wal-Mart chief to city: Forget you.
[NY Times]
• Sitt shifts condos in Coney Island plan.
[NY Post]
• Mt. Sinai selling Fifth Avenue apartment building.
[NY Post]
• Istithmar flips 230 Park Avenue for $1.15 B.
[NY Post]
• Columbia to serve first West Harlem eviction notice.
[NY Sun]
• ESDC never saw Atlantic Yards business plan.
[NY Sun]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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• Lipstick Building selling; could get $600 M.
[Daily News]
• Subprime-mortgage bust forces out borrowers.
[Daily News]
• The end of San Gennaro in Little Italy?
[Daily News]
• 'Tread carefully' in buying foreclosed properties.
[Daily News]
• Why buyers should read offering plans closely.
[NY Times]
• Bleecker Street's old housing showpiece.
[NY Times]
• Living in--and looking at--Howard Beach, Queens.