Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago
^Wow. . . they're really trying to sanitize this place. . . sad to see some of these places getting the boot. . .
. . .
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Yeah, it is sad to see these businesses that have been around for so long get the boot. But at the same time, I could see this coming, and I think they probably did too, but just didn't think it would come as soon. As it is now, they have all of two weeks to get out, which in itself is probably a lot to take in, and I hope they
can find somewhere in the area to reopen.
I think now the scope of what the city actually intends for Coney Island is starting to sink in, and even this is only the beginning. It's not just dumping in a few rides here and there, then calling it a day. The fact is that Coney Island never should have been allowed to rot away. The improvements of last summer were just a hint of what it can become again. Unfortunately, saying hello to the future sometimes means saying goodbye to the past, and having all of these businesses leave all at once is a lot to take in for some people.
I think this editorial from the Brooklyn Eagle makes these points...
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categor...id=10&id=39214
Vendors: Not the Real Coney Story
by Dennis Holt
11-03-2010
Quote:
I have lost track of the number of “decisions” that have been made about creating a new Coney Island. There have been dozens of them with the most important yet to come. On Monday 11 more decisions were made public: the keel hauling of 9 of the vendors along the boardwalk. (If plans go through, will we have to call it the cementwalk?)
The coverage in Tuesday’s New York Times was reflective of the emotions that have been vented in the last couple of years about all that has gone on down there.
Most of the coverage about building things in Brooklyn has concerned all the new residential structures, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Atlantic Yards. But probably the most significant building project of all is the almost complete re-making of Coney Island that is on the drawing boards.
All the attention so far is on the amusement park area, which is what most visitors know about — not the surrounding areas. And that focus is proper because that’s what has actually been happening. And the news so far has been largely positive, except for the rude change involving eviction.
New rides and new events in the amusement area drew a lot of attention this summer, and the Coney Island planners must have been heaving sighs of relief. Failure with this element could have been fatal to other plans.
Other than the nine vendors who have been told they are no longer wanted, those upset by the evictions are the longtime residents. Departure of these stores is to them like old friends passing away.
But the photographs that appeared in the New York Times Tuesday do tell a story — graffiti-smeared, aging buildings that don’t look permanent cannot be part of the new Coney Island. These shops always represented what Coney Island had become, not what it should be.
(The 15-day get-out order to those merchants, however, was not called for; there is no reason to kick people when they are down.)
After next summer, with more amusement changes in the works, the second and most ambitious effort will probably begin — the construction of apartment buildings and hotels that will change Coney Island more than all the changes in the amusement area.
If this new plan is actually consummated, it is almost impossible to predict what the impacts will be on this peninsula. All those new people surrounding Surf Avenue will make it most challenging for people living in Sea Gate to get home.
In fact, of all the plans promoted by City Hall, the new Coney Island is the most ambitious and the most problematical.
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Some of the buinesses leaving...
esqdan
Tim Schreier
stevesobczuk
Gary Burke
Meanwhile, some of the last remaining old buildings begin to come down on Surf Ave...
Structures:NYC
mat_berlin
There is though, one thing that has and will stay constant in Coney...
Shane Bill