NEW YORK | Coney Island Redevelopment

[sparkling]

City to convert Coney Island boardwalk to concrete



Reuven Blau
Sunday, December 28, 2014

The city is steaming ahead with a plan to convert part of the iconic Riegelmann Boardwalk to concrete, enraging officials who have sought to sustain the wooden planks that compose the popular Coney Island attraction.

The city has obtained state funding to resume the work, which kicked off during the Bloomberg administration, a Parks Department spokesman told the Daily News.

A pair of local lawmakers said the project needs to be reassessed.

“We are extremely disappointed,” City Councilmen Chaim Deutsch and Mark Treyger said in a joint statement.

They have joined community activists and launched a petition, on change.org, imploring the city to stop construction.

Parks Department spokesman Sam Biederman defended the construction, arguing the new material is sturdier and cheaper.

“This project strengthens and extends the life of the boardwalk with recycled plastic lumber and concrete,” Biederman said.
“As a coastal city, it’s more important than ever for us to use resilient, sustainable materials,” he added.

Critics noted that the wooden portion of the 2.5-mile boardwalk, which runs from W. 37th St. in Sea Gate to Brighton 14th St., held up much better than concrete sections during Hurricane Sandy.

The conversion project resumed in November and the city expects to have it finished in time for the 2016 beach season, Biederman said.

Earlier in December, Deutsch and Treyger asked the city Landmarks Preservation Commission to name the 91-year-old boardwalk a historic site, a designation that would bar such dramatic changes.

The body is reviewing the petition, a process that is likely to take at least a year.

The pair has requested an expedited evaluation process, but it’s unclear whether that can be done.

Not all officials in Brooklyn are pushing for conservation.

The work is being funded in part by state Assemblymen Steve Cymbrowitz and Alec Brooke-Krasney, who helped the city obtain a $10 million New York State Assistance Grant, Biederman said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.2058707