As the City Council considers the proposed rezoning plan for Coney Island, The New York Times today in an editorial reiterated its support for much-needed improvements to the City’s plan:

We like the Municipal Art Society’s idea of doubling the size of the amusement area and removing hotels from the south side of Surf Avenue. This way, when visitors get off the subway, they will meet sunlight and open air, not a high-rise barricade.

Read the full Times editorial here. Read the previous Times editorial in which the paper originally put forward this position here.

The Bloomberg administration’s plan to shrink Coney Island’s amusement district and to block it off with four high-rise hotel towers is now before the City Council. There isn’t much time left to request changes to the City’s plan.

If you want to save Coney Island, PLEASE CALL your City Council member TODAY (the sooner the better!).

To find your City Council member and their phone number, plug in your street address and borough here:  http://council.nyc.gov/html/members/members.shtml

Call their LEGISLATIVE OFFICE number first. Try calling during the workday.

* Tell them you live in their district.

* Tell them that you’re calling about the plan for Coney Island currently under review by City Council.

* Tell them Coney Island is an issue of CITYWIDE concern and that the current plan would RUIN Coney Island forever.

* Tell them that the area for open-air amusements needs to be EXPANDED and that the proposed high-rise hotels need to be MOVED out of the amusement area.

* Tell them to urge the Department of City Planning and Coney Island Councilmember Domenic Recchia to FIX the City’s plan.

* Tell them your address and tell them you would like to know what their position is on this issue.

* Tell them to check out saveconeyisland.net for more information.

Be polite. Be brief. Be passionate. Leave a message if nobody answers.

If you REALLY want to Save Coney Island, also call Speaker Christine Quinn and Coney Island Councilman Domenic Recchia to deliver the same message.

Christine Quinn’s legislative office and district office:  (212) 788-7210 and (212) 564-7757.
Domenic Recchia’s legislative office and district office: (212) 788-7045 and (718) 373-9673
PASS THIS ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET.

Post has been updated and re-dated.

As spectators and competitive eaters gather in Coney Island to watch the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, a dark cloud hovers over this iconic eatery.

The City’s flawed rezoning plan for Coney Island would endanger Nathan’s Famous and other historic structures in the area.

The City’s plan shrinks Coney Island’s famed amusement area and inserts four soaring hotel towers — rising up to 27 stories — into the heart of the historic, low-rise amusement district. These high-rises would be placed along the south side of Surf Avenue, endangering many of Coney Island’s few remaining historic buildings, including Nathan’s Famous.

The City’s own environmental impact statement for its rezoning plan notes: “Nathan’s Famous… is located on a potential development site…. There are no procedures in place that would ensure pre-construction design review or preventative measures to minimize effects on Nathan’s Famous of construction and potential demolition or enlargement.”

Save Coney Island spokesman Juan Rivero said: “The City’s decision to endanger some of Coney Island’s most historic buildings is madness. The City needs to fix its plan and relocate these high-rises. The idea of replacing Nathan’s with a high-rise would be hard to swallow — even for a champion competitive eater.”

Coney Island’s Community Board 13, The New York Times editorial board and the Municipal Art Society all have urged the City to move the proposed high-rise hotels outside of the core amusement district.

The New York Times warned that the “hotels could too easily become a wall, blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean. The hotels also squeeze the outdoor rides into a narrow strip of about 12 acres — an area that is simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.”

For background see here and here.

The hearing got off to an inauspicious start — the same tired, thirty minute presentation of the City’s plan, complete with number juggling, fantastical job projections, and inaccurate assertions. The council members, who had heard the same exact pitch three months earlier, were not impressed. One after the other, they challenged the City on its lack of progress on issues that should have been resolved by now (most notably, the acquisition of Thor’s land).

Several confrontations between council members and the City bear mention. Councilmember Recchia’s requested that the City get rid of the needless Wonder Wheel Way and thereby increase the area devoted to open air amusements. Councilmembers Avella and Felder, for their part, faced down the City’s arrogant threat that it’s “this or nothing” and that it’s “now or never”.

Those who stayed till the end of the seven hour hearing were treated to a final display of fireworks (days before Independence Day, no less). It came to light during one of the testimonies that the Coney Island Development Corporation (i.e., the City) had rented three buses to bring in people to speak in support of the City’s plan. Council members were not too happy about that. The busing, of course, is in keeping with the City’s longstanding practice of using City employees to collect petitions in support of their plan — of, in effect, purchasing the image of public support with public money. They must feel a need to resort to these ethically questionable practices in order to sell a plan that just about no one is happy with.

For our part, we had a great showing at hearings, and our message was heard loud and clear. Hundreds of brochures were distributed by the end of the day; and the call for more amusements and for no hotels south of Surf became a constant refrain throughout the period of public testimonies. Thanks to everyone who joined us!

Public Hearing at City Council
The Land-use subcommittee of the City Council will be holding a public hearing this week.

Wednesday, July 1, 10:00 AM
Council Chambers – City Hall (between Broadway and Park Row)

It is very important that we attend.  The City Council is scheduled to vote by the end of July and this could be our last chance to testify before City Council and tell councilmembers to either fix or kill the City’s plan.  The area devoted to open-air amusements must, at a minimum, extend from the Boardwalk to the Bowery and the high-rises must be removed from the south side of Surf Avenue.  If the best the City can currently muster is a plan that would permanently destroy Coney Island’s potential as an amusement destination, then everyone would be better off if they scrapped it altogether.

YOU MUST GET THERE EARLY TO GET THROUGH SECURITY, FIND A PLACE IN THE HEARING ROOM, AND SIGN UP TO SPEAK!  Once inside, look for one of our volunteers wearing “Save Coney Island” stickers.  To offer testimony, you must sign up at the beginning of the hearing.  You will typically be given no more than three minutes to express your view.  We hope to see you all there.  This could be our last public hearing; so let’s make our participation count.

Our legislative lunch was attended by representatives of 20 council-members and in some cases by council members themselves — evidence that the City’s flawed plan is an issue of city-wide concern. Our presentation discussed several dimensions of Coney Island amusements. CIUSA founder Dick Zigun spoke about the ruinous impact that the City’s plan would have on Coney Island’s historic amusement district. Carol Albert, co-owner of Astroland, drew from her experience with the iconic, 46 year old amusement park, to discuss the viability of open-air amusements and their economic potential. Dianna Carlin, founder of Lola Saar Souvenir Boutique and Dreamland Roller Rink, discussed the needs of small businesses in Coney Island and argued that the City’s plan threatens their displacement. Finally, Juan Rivero from Save Coney Island summarized the speakers’ recommendations.

– Expand the area zoned for open-air amusements so that it expands from the Boardwalk to the Bowery.
– Remove the high-rise towers from the South Side of Surf Avenue, in the heart of the amusement district.
– Promote independently-owned small businesses and prevent their displacement.

During the last portion of the presentation, Matt Ryan from Jobs with Justice and Carmen Gonzales, a community resident and member of ACORN, discussed the inadequate commitment in the City’s plan to affordable housing and union jobs.

Our guests were very receptive to the arguments we put forward. After the presentation, we entertained questions that allowed us to explain our recommendations in greater detail. We are very grateful to Councilmember Gerson for sponsoring our lunch and for his interest in helping save Coney Island from the City’s proposal.

Throngs of marching mermaids sent the City a clear message at this year’s Mermaid Parade: Don’t shrink Coney Island! Fix your flawed rezoning plan!

A few days earlier, Save Coney Island had sent some Mermaids into Manhattan to deliver a simple message to the City Planning Commission: Fix the City’s flawed rezoning plan! But the City Planning Commission didn’t listen, and as a result the future of Coney Island’s famed amusement zone has been placed in grave danger.

So Save Coney Island enlisted the Mermaid masses at the Mermaid Parade. The Mermaids marched en masse with signs that demanded: “Don’t Shrink Coney! Fix the Plan!” They were cheered on by hundreds of onlookers holding the same signs — calling for the City to protect the mermaids’ native habitat.

“Coney Island’s Mermaids will not be seduced by the City’s siren song,” said Save Coney Island spokesperson Juan Rivero. “They know that radically shrinking the historic amusement district is a bad idea, and they know that building four high-rise towers — up to 27 stories tall — in the heart of the amusement area will ruin Coney Island’s open-air, seaside atmosphere.”

UPDATE: There are some great photos on Flickr here, here, here, here and here.

Advocates for a vital Coney Island amusement district blasted the City Planning Commission’s decision today to approve — without meaningful revisions — a rezoning plan that would radically shrink the size of Coney Island’s famed amusement area and insert four soaring high-rises up to 27 stories tall into the heart of the amusement area.

“This plan spells disaster for Coney Island. In refusing to make urgently needed revisions to its Coney Island rezoning plan, the City threatens the very future of a world-renowned amusement destination,” said Juan Rivero, spokesman for Save Coney Island. “The City continues to defy calls from the community and amusement experts to fix its plan.”

The city’s current rezoning plan would destroy Coney Island’s unique character and undermine its historic amusement district: It limits the area reserved for the outdoor rides to a narrow 12-acre strip of land, down from some 60 acres currently zoned for amusements. The four proposed high-rises would ruin Coney Island’s open-air, seaside atmosphere and endanger Coney Island’s historic buildings. The plan also clears the way for chain retail and other generic commercial uses within the amusement district.

Save Coney Island is urging the City to expand the number of acres reserved for open-air amusements and to move the proposed high-rises outside the heart of the amusement district. In these recommendations, Save Coney Island is joined by many important community and city-wide voices.

The New York Times editorial board and the Municipal Art Society both have publicly warned that the area the plan devotes to outdoor amusements is insufficient and urged the City to move the proposed high-rise hotels outside of the core amusement district. Coney Island’s Community Board 13 also recommended that the high-rises be moved.

“Coney Island equals amusements, and we have to make the amusement area bigger, not smaller,” said Dianna Carlin (aka Lola Staar), proprietor of the Lola Staar Souvenir Boutique. “It’s time for the City Council to step in and demand urgently needed revisions to this plan. Unless the City fixes its plan, the birthplace of the American amusement industry and a world-renowned tourist attraction will be irreversibly diminished. Is that the legacy that the mayor wants to leave?”

Read more…

Mermaids took to the streets of Lower Manhattan today to deliver some important information to members of the City Planning Commission in advance of their vote later this week on a flawed City rezoning plan for Coney Island. The Coney Island-loving mermaids took a break from preparations for next weekend’s Mermaid Parade to urge the City Planning Commission to the rezoning plan, which would radically reduce the size of Coney Island’s amusement district.

“Coney Island equals amusements. It’s not brain surgery. We have to make the amusement area bigger,” said Miss Cyclone Angie Pontani, who led the contingent of mermaids. “If this plan goes through as it is, it’s going to be a tragic loss, and 20 years from now, people are just going to say, ‘What was the City thinking?’”

The mermaids dropped by the office of City Planning Commission chair Amanda Burden to deliver a brand-new rendering of the soaring hotel towers — rising up to 27 stories — that the City wants to place in the heart of Coney Island’s historic, low-rise amusement district. The image — produced by local activist group Save Coney Island — is the first approximate to-scale view made available to the public of the proposed high-rise towers. Shockingly, the City has yet to publicly release a scaled rendering of how its proposed high-rises would actually look.

The New York Times has warned that the “hotels could too easily become a wall, blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean. The hotels also squeeze the outdoor rides into a narrow strip of about 12 acres — an area that is simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.”

The mermaids are urging the City Planning Commission to expand the number of acres reserved for amusements and to move the proposed high-rises outside the heart of the amusement district.

The New York Post covered the rally:

Channel 12 was there, too.