Once again we are back on the topic of the hour, Coney Island. And no, not because several people lost their lives this weekend due to strong rip currents (our hearts truly go out to those families), but because the city (via
Thor Equities) feels that one way or another Joel Sitt is going to make a profit from his monopolized land grab in the neighborhood. The City and various interest groups recently re-released
zoning plans and renderings with "updates" that will surely win over the hearts of those in the lowest social strata who stand to be out priced by all of this.
The "new" strategy of the city is to juxtapose current pictures from the crappiest day last winter with warm and summery renderings of a clean and safe Las Vegas-esq South Brooklyn waterfront with hopes that people will be overly stimulated and promptly change their opinion of the project. As can be seen in both the new renderings, the luxury condos and mall play a much less prominent roll, since they are now blocked by the rollercoaster (see the last rendering from the Build it: Development Pipeline post)....clever.
Regardless of the presentation, the same key issues are at the crux of this argument and these were accentuated in today's article in the
Gotham Gazette. The undertone of the article seems to be, just give up and let it happen. Forget that as citizens you have a say in how your neighborhoods are designed and built, particularly in this snippet:
"
The real threat to the amusement area, in [Lynn Kelly chairperson of the CIDC] Kelly's view, comes from people dead-set against long-term change in Coney Island. She cited the anti-development attitudes that led opponents to cheer when pictures of vacant lots were displayed during a city planning presentation. This could be Coney Island's best chance, Kelly said, with the Bloomberg administration, Sitt and much of the community all lined up to support development. If the plan falls apart or Thor, Coney Island's largest landowner, gets impatient with the opposition, she said, the developer could sell its property or lobby the city to allow housing in the core area."
This sounds more like a threat than any sort of attempt to win over residents. When discussing the primary concerns of affordable housing and improving the overall infrastructure of the neighborhood the response was:
"According to Kelly, the development corportation has attempted to address that issue by including parks, beach improvements, a community center and affordable housing in the redevelopment project. Kapoor said redevelopment will bring overdue improvements to the neighborhood. "It will bring a new park," she says. "Right now the area mapped for the park is a parking lot for the Cyclones' stadium."
Obviously this debate is far from over, particularly since Thor claims that in order to make the project financially feasible they will have to gear their new stores and hotels toward upscale consumers, which overtly means that the grittiness of Coney Island will be lost for certain. In response to all the this a new community action group has formed
Coney Island United , and has an all-star line-up of advocates to pursue the battle. It appears that as Thor moves along through the permitting/re-zoning process there will be more than a few road blocks.
Get the Full Scoop:
NY Magazine Article Gotham Gazette ArticleRecent NYC Presentation
Ok, we may be starting to sound like a broken record, but this is history in the making: This Sunday at 10AM sharp the Municipal Art Society of New York is leading a walking tour of Coney Island to witness a neighborhood "on the brink of transformation" (as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported today). The tour will be led by Joe Svehlak (the man with the rowdy handle bars above). According to the MAS site Mr. Svehlak will be discussing a history of the neighborhood and will provide insight on the proposed development that has sparked controversy in Southern Brooklyn.
