http://www.yournabe.com/articles/201...0_11_12_bk.txt
Coney Island is only getting better
By Valerio Ferrari
Valerio Ferrari is president of Central Amusement International.
November 9, 2010
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Last February, the city took a major step toward the revitalization of Coney Island when they designated Central Amusement International to develop and operate a number of properties in the historic amusement district, with an eye toward transforming the neighborhood into a thriving, year-round seaside destination. The first phase of this transformation was realized in May with the opening of the new Luna Park on the vacant former site of Astroland.
When Astroland shut its gates for the last time in September, 2008, people were understandably upset. But Central Amusement International stepped in, investing more than $15 million to build a new park, with 19 brand new rides by Zamperla, and a range of games, entertainment and food options. Named after a piece of Coney Island’s history, Luna Park is New York’s first new amusement park in decades, and helped Coney Island achieve its most successful summer in more than 40 years. In fact, in its inaugural season, Luna Park attracted more than 450,000 visitors who took more than 2-1/2 million rides.
But Luna Park was just the beginning of a process intended to fully restore Coney Island to the glory it enjoyed during its Golden Age. In 2011, Central Amusement International will unveil two additional components: a second amusement park called Scream Zone and a world-class Boardwalk. As I mentioned, the goal is ultimately a Coney Island capable of attracting visitors 365 days a year. It will be challenging, to be sure — but we believe it is possible. And a resurgent Boardwalk is essential to accomplishing this goal.
The multi-million dollar program will bring back the world-class mix of entertainment, dining and nightlife that was once a hallmark of the famed Boardwalk. It will feature some of Coney Island’s current tenants, as well as new tenants like a sit-down restaurant and sports bar — both of which will operate year-round. Like the new Luna Park, the Boardwalk will reflect the unique character and innovative spirit of Coney Island, bringing it into the future so that new generations of visitors can enjoy America’s Playground.
This continued revitalization of Coney Island is a model of effective partnership between the public and private sectors, resulting in new jobs and economic development for Brooklyn. In conjunction with Luna Park and next season’s thrilling addition, Scream Zone, our multi-million dollar investment in the Boardwalk will create a spectacular experience which will draw many visitors not only from Brooklyn and other parts of New York City, but also from throughout the world.
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http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasu...n-coney-island
Why Not Tear Down Coney Island?
Henry Stewart
Nov 10, 2010
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There are good reasons not to redevelop Coney Island, and chief among them is fighting off the monoculture. That’s become a problem nationwide—the corporatization of every storefront and strip mall, eradicating every population center’s regional character. This is what happened in Times Square, too: it wasn’t that Giuliani robbed the area of its seediness, but of its New Yorkness, what then we associated mostly with porno theaters. His crime was not to replace it with the anodyne but with the homogeneous, with a Disney store that wouldn’t seem out of place as the flagship of any Podunk shopping mall.
No one but those with a buck to make should want to see Coney Island become just another seaside shopping strip. But at the same time, is Coney Island as it stands really worth preserving, in and of itself?
Why should we fight to save a decrepit corner of 20th Century failure?
...too many people believe that Coney Island as it stands is Coney Island, that Coney Island could be no other way. And that point of view ignores the area’s long, illustrious history. George Tilyou—or any of the neighborhood’s visionary amusement operators—would have taken one look at the Boardwalk as it stands and thought bigger, thought more beautiful. They would have dreamed.
So why do we look at Coney Island and celebrate its empty lots? Its makeshift, second-rate amusements?
I am far from a shill for Zamperla, the Italian amusement operator who issued the eviction notices to the Boardwalk businesses; on the contrary, the company strikes me as greedy, unfeeling, unimaginative. I have no doubt that they will ruin Coney Island.
But just because whatever Zamperla replaces Ruby’s with won’t be better than Ruby’s doesn’t mean that Ruby’s is the best we could have. I don’t think that the issue boils down to a simple matter of mall-ification versus the status quo—I don’t think Coney Island hasn’t already been ruined. Just because we’ve never known any other Coney Island than the one that exists now, just because we’ve grown attached to the one last corner of authentic New York-as-it-once-was, doesn’t mean that we should fear any and all change. “We’re living in the past,” one 30-year-old onlooker at the Save Ruby’s Rally told me. “And it’s not even our past.”
Putting an Applebee’s where a family-operated bar and grill operated for 75 years won’t compensate for the lack of imagination (and investment) that has caused Coney to atrophy. But neither will clinging desperately, and blindly, to the ghost of a grand past we never got to see. Granted, there are old timers—many of those in the rally crowd—with a real and valid emotional connection to the neighborhood as it once was, and to its few surviving institutions. But the world does not belong to the dying. And neither should New York—it’s a city that, in a perfect world, would belong neither to the oligarchs nor to the nostalgics.
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http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/b...Xnx3HfyN4Y9nrI
Outcasts want b'walk umpire
By RICH CALDER
November 10, 2010
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The operators of the longtime Coney Island boardwalk businesses facing eviction next week will not go without a fight.
Eight of the nine booted beachfront mainstays — including Shoot the Freak and Ruby’s Bar and Grill — have retained Brooklyn lawyer Marc Aronson to file legal papers and try voiding notices to vacate by Nov. 15 issued by landlord Zamperla USA, which also operates Luna Park.
Anthony Berlingieri, owner of Shoot the Freak and sandy Beer Island, told The Post he and the other businesses also plan to take Zamperla to court and sue the company for misleading them into thinking they’d be back next summer.
He said the businesses spent thousands of dollars each coming up with business plans at Zamperla’s request to justify lease renewals "even though Zamperla already decided to kick them out."
Zamperla -- which is clearing out nine of the 12 boardwalk attractions they control for a cleaner, more sanitized amusement district -- declined to comment on the potential litigation but issued as statement saying "Coney Island’s future should be worthy of its glorious past.
"That’s why we are moving forward to restore the Boardwalk experience in a way that preserves and captures the excitement and quality of offerings of the past."
Aronson declined to discuss his legal strategy, except to say, "Trust me, there is no way these businesses will be leaving on the 15th."
The only evicted business that is not joining up with the others was a new arrival to the boardwalk this year, the Pio Pio Riko Peruvian food stand, according to Berlingieri.
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NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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