BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The following is a press release issued last week by the offices of Senator Charles Schumer.

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand today announced over $1 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding for Superstorm Sandy-related repairs to street lighting along the Coney Island Boardwalk.

“Coney Island’s much-loved boardwalk was seriously damaged by Superstorm Sandy, including its lighting system,” said Schumer. “This federal funding will get the lights back on, just in time for summer, and make sure that New York City residents are not on the hook entirely for these expenses.”

“The iconic Coney Island boardwalk was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, with its street lighting completely destroyed,” Gillibrand said. “This necessary reimbursement is an important step as we continue to meet New York’s needs to recover and rebuild.”

FEMA will provide $1,220,599 in federal funding to the NYC Department of Transportation for the repairs of the street lighting system serving the Coney Island Boardwalk involving 122 ornamental light poles.

Activists were displeased when the Parks Department decided to replace the wooden boardwalk on Coney Island with a cement and plastic one. Now, six months after Superstorm Sandy battered our shores, the New York Post is reporting that residents and business owners are complaining that sand is accumulating on the new boardwalk.

The barrage of sand upon the historic promenade has been so terrible that the city has been forced to assign extra workers to keep shoveling it back on to the beach. Boardwalk preservationists are blaming the new cement base for all the extra sand.

“With cement, there’s nowhere for the sand to fall through. There’s no doubt the new surfaces are causing the sand to pile up like never before…This is what you get when the city decides to make changes without doing a proper environmental review,” Todd Dobrin, president of the Friends of the Boardwalk and a candidate for City Councilman Domenic Recchia’s seat in the 47th District, told the Post.

Residents, including Maureen Masterson, 32, were also angry. While trying to maneuver her two-year-old daughter’s stroller through obstructive piles of sand, the Bensonhurst mother expressed negativity over the situation.

“This is horrible. It’s like Sandy never left,” Masterson told the Post.

The encroaching sand isn’t just bad for people trying to walk on the boardwalk. As sand accumulates, it starts blowing in people’s faces, which the city has been vigorously trying to prevent by wetting the sand down.

Local business owner Dennis Vourderis, co-owner of Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, told the Post that the sand has never been worse. It is “even piling up in the amusement district — which still maintains a wooden boardwalk,” he said, blaming the extra sand on Sandy “pushing it closer to the boardwalk and making it ‘finer’ so it blows more freely.”

“This is the worst we’ve seen it,” said Vourderis, who recently put up netting outside Deno’s to block sand from damaging his rides’ motor systems. “We have to shovel all week just to be ready for the weekend.”

For its part, the Parks Department is blaming Mother Nature and isn’t accepting the idea that the new boardwalk has anything to do with all the extra sand.

“Sand will accumulate on a boardwalk without regard to the decking or the foundation,” the Post reported Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor as saying.

Source: emilydickinsonridesabmx via Flickr

Ruby’s Bar and Grill in Coney Island is currently undergoing a full renovation which, thanks to owner Michael Sarrel, will include the use of reclaimed wood from Coney’s world-famous Riegelmann Boardwalk. Continue Reading »

Source: Nejflo via Flickr

A National Geographic listing of the country’s top ten boardwalks has designated Coney Island’s own Riegelmann Boardwalk as our nation’s number two.

The list crowned Atlantic City, whose own 1870 wooden walkway predates Coney’s by over 50 years, as the reigning Baron of Boardwalks.

Other beaches on the list include Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Ocean City, Maryland; and Venice Beach, California – which came in at numbers 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

There was no word on whether an asterisk* would be added once the Coney Island Plastic/Concretewalk is complete.

The long-awaited hearing that will herald a decision by the NYC Design Commission on whether we’ll continue to have a bona fide boardwalk in Coney Island – as opposed to a concrete/plastic walk – is finally upon us.

The meeting will take place at the NYC Design Commission (253 Broadway, Fifth Floor in Manhattan) next Monday, March 12, at 12 p.m.

To tell you more, here’s an e-mail we received this morning from Rob Burtstein, Chairman of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance: Continue Reading »

At the end of the cult classic movie The Warriors, when the radio DJ, who had been broadcasting the “big alert”- ordering the city to chase the Coney Island toughs in revenge for the death of an assassinated gang leader, realizes that “the earlier reports were wrong… all wrong,” she responds to our pursued protagonists with a curt “sorry ’bout that.”

That could be the same type of apology grudgingly given by the New York Times once the issue of new Coney Island Boardwalk materials is finally settled.

Tricia Vita over at Amusing the Zillion thinks the Gray Lady jumped the gun by giving its readership the impression that the debate to replace the boardwalk’s wooden slats with plastic and concrete was pretty much a done deal, as part of an article she sees as unfairly slanted in favor of proponents for the aesthetically unpleasing plastic and concrete.

In reality, “the so-called compromise plan was in fact voted down by the Community Board last year,” according to ATZ.

Vita also pointed out the cancelling of two different hearing so far this year as evidence of the “Goliath” Parks Department sticking it to the workaday members of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance. She explains that working people who may have had to take off from work to attend the hearings may be less willing to attend future ones.

Check out ATZ for more – including a copy of the letter from the Alliance to the Public Design Commission, refuting the Parks Department’s claims.

And while you’re at it, please visit the Coney Island-Brighton Beach Boardwalk Alliance’s online petition, to make your voice heard!

The owner of Steve’s Grill House – the last holdout of eight mom and pop businesses that had fought eviction by amusement manufacturer Zamperla – has decided to sell his modular building rather than move it to a different location. Continue Reading »

Some of last year's attendees (Source: drecchia.com)

This year, former NY Ranger Nick Fotiu will be on hand (Source: rangers.nhl.com)

For the fifth consecutive year, the children of Southern Brooklyn will have the chance to enjoy free ice skating at the Abe Stark Rink (1902 West 19th Street) in Coney Island.

This year’s star skater, former New York Ranger Nick Fotiu, will be hitting the ice to hand out prizes, sign autographs, and offer his assistance to first-timers.

In 2010, young attendees were treated to an appearance by Olympic gold medalist Oksana Baiul.

The event’s sponsors say that a half-day of winter play not only helps to break up the monotony of a long winter break, but also offers students – and their parents – a fun way to put down the video game controllers for a chance to exercise their bodies as well as their social skills.

“The free ice skating event provides a safe and fun change of pace for many children who usually spend their breaks in front of the computer or the television,” Councilman Domenic Recchia told Bensonhurst Bean. “It not only gets them active but also piques their interest in ice hockey and figure skating. I’m always supportive of events that also foster a sense of community where parents and children make new friends and can get to know their neighbors.”

The action all takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, December 27, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Abe Stark Rink is located at 1902 West 19th Street and the Coney Island Boardwalk

Overlooking the boardwalk from the world-famous Wonderwheel (image by Grace O'Malley for Bensonhurst Bean)

New York 1 is reporting that Coney Island landlord Zamperla has asked both Ruby’s Bar and Paul’s Daughter to stay.

Both longtime boardwalk businesses had previously been facing eviction by the Vicenza, Italy-based amusement manufacturer.

From NY1:

Ruby’s and Paul’s Daughter, which have been operating on the boardwalk for decades, were supposed to vacate their space permanently by October 31. But now the landlord Zamperla has offered them a long-term lease to keep their bar and eateries.

It comes after sources say a deal with another restaurant operator fell through.

NY1 also indicates that Michele Merlo and Julio Gonzalez of Miami’s CONYCO LLC, who Zamperla had chosen to remake Coney Island with new businesses, will no longer be taking over on November 1. The cable news channel cited an unsuccessful attempt by the pair to open an ice cream shop on the boardwalk this past summer.

Zamperla is reportedly in talks with both Ruby’s and Paul’s Daughter, offering two of Coney Island’s oldest operators 8 year leases.