A 27-Story High-Rise Above Nathan’s Famous Is Hard to Swallow
As spectators and competitive eaters gather in Coney Island to watch the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest, a dark cloud hovers over this iconic eatery.
The City’s flawed rezoning plan for Coney Island would endanger Nathan’s Famous and other historic structures in the area.
The City’s plan shrinks Coney Island’s famed amusement area and inserts four soaring hotel towers — rising up to 27 stories — into the heart of the historic, low-rise amusement district. These high-rises would be placed along the south side of Surf Avenue, endangering many of Coney Island’s few remaining historic buildings, including Nathan’s Famous.
The City’s own environmental impact statement for its rezoning plan notes: “Nathan’s Famous… is located on a potential development site…. There are no procedures in place that would ensure pre-construction design review or preventative measures to minimize effects on Nathan’s Famous of construction and potential demolition or enlargement.”
Save Coney Island spokesman Juan Rivero said: “The City’s decision to endanger some of Coney Island’s most historic buildings is madness. The City needs to fix its plan and relocate these high-rises. The idea of replacing Nathan’s with a high-rise would be hard to swallow — even for a champion competitive eater.”
Coney Island’s Community Board 13, The New York Times editorial board and the Municipal Art Society all have urged the City to move the proposed high-rise hotels outside of the core amusement district.
The New York Times warned that the “hotels could too easily become a wall, blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean. The hotels also squeeze the outdoor rides into a narrow strip of about 12 acres — an area that is simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.”
For background see here and here.
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Important City Council Hearing on Coney Rezoning! Help Us Tell City Council to FIX the Plan or KILL the Plan!
Public Hearing at City Council
The Land-use subcommittee of the City Council will be holding a public hearing this week.
Wednesday, July 1, 10:00 AM
Council Chambers - City Hall (between Broadway and Park Row)
It is very important that we attend. The City Council is scheduled to vote by the end of July and this could be our last chance to testify before City Council and tell councilmembers to either fix or kill the City’s plan. The area devoted to open-air amusements must, at a minimum, extend from the Boardwalk to the Bowery and the high-rises must be removed from the south side of Surf Avenue. If the best the City can currently muster is a plan that would permanently destroy Coney Island’s potential as an amusement destination, then everyone would be better off if they scrapped it altogether.
YOU MUST GET THERE EARLY TO GET THROUGH SECURITY, FIND A PLACE IN THE HEARING ROOM, AND SIGN UP TO SPEAK! Once inside, look for one of our volunteers wearing “Save Coney Island” stickers. To offer testimony, you must sign up at the beginning of the hearing. You will typically be given no more than three minutes to express your view. We hope to see you all there. This could be our last public hearing; so let’s make our participation count.
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Marching Mermaids: Don’t Shrink Coney! Fix the Plan!
Throngs of marching mermaids sent the City a clear message at this year’s Mermaid Parade: Don’t shrink Coney Island! Fix your flawed rezoning plan!
A few days earlier, Save Coney Island had sent some Mermaids into Manhattan to deliver a simple message to the City Planning Commission: Fix the City’s flawed rezoning plan! But the City Planning Commission didn’t listen, and as a result the future of Coney Island’s famed amusement zone has been placed in grave danger.
So Save Coney Island enlisted the Mermaid masses at the Mermaid Parade. The Mermaids marched en masse with signs that demanded: “Don’t Shrink Coney! Fix the Plan!” They were cheered on by hundreds of onlookers holding the same signs — calling for the City to protect the mermaids’ native habitat.
“Coney Island’s Mermaids will not be seduced by the City’s siren song,” said Save Coney Island spokesperson Juan Rivero. “They know that radically shrinking the historic amusement district is a bad idea, and they know that building four high-rise towers — up to 27 stories tall — in the heart of the amusement area will ruin Coney Island’s open-air, seaside atmosphere.”
UPDATE: There are some great photos on Flickr here, here, here, here and here.
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City Planning Commission’s Vote Threatens Coney Island’s Future
Advocates for a vital Coney Island amusement district blasted the City Planning Commission’s decision today to approve — without meaningful revisions — a rezoning plan that would radically shrink the size of Coney Island’s famed amusement area and insert four soaring high-rises up to 27 stories tall into the heart of the amusement area.
“This plan spells disaster for Coney Island. In refusing to make urgently needed revisions to its Coney Island rezoning plan, the City threatens the very future of a world-renowned amusement destination,” said Juan Rivero, spokesman for Save Coney Island. “The City continues to defy calls from the community and amusement experts to fix its plan.”
The city’s current rezoning plan would destroy Coney Island’s unique character and undermine its historic amusement district: It limits the area reserved for the outdoor rides to a narrow 12-acre strip of land, down from some 60 acres currently zoned for amusements. The four proposed high-rises would ruin Coney Island’s open-air, seaside atmosphere and endanger Coney Island’s historic buildings. The plan also clears the way for chain retail and other generic commercial uses within the amusement district.
Save Coney Island is urging the City to expand the number of acres reserved for open-air amusements and to move the proposed high-rises outside the heart of the amusement district. In these recommendations, Save Coney Island is joined by many important community and city-wide voices.
The New York Times editorial board and the Municipal Art Society both have publicly warned that the area the plan devotes to outdoor amusements is insufficient and urged the City to move the proposed high-rise hotels outside of the core amusement district. Coney Island’s Community Board 13 also recommended that the high-rises be moved.
“Coney Island equals amusements, and we have to make the amusement area bigger, not smaller,” said Dianna Carlin (aka Lola Staar), proprietor of the Lola Staar Souvenir Boutique. “It’s time for the City Council to step in and demand urgently needed revisions to this plan. Unless the City fixes its plan, the birthplace of the American amusement industry and a world-renowned tourist attraction will be irreversibly diminished. Is that the legacy that the mayor wants to leave?”
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Mermaids Take Manhattan — Lobby to Save Coney Island
Mermaids took to the streets of Lower Manhattan today to deliver some important information to members of the City Planning Commission in advance of their vote later this week on a flawed City rezoning plan for Coney Island. The Coney Island-loving mermaids took a break from preparations for next weekend’s Mermaid Parade to urge the City Planning Commission to the rezoning plan, which would radically reduce the size of Coney Island’s amusement district.
“Coney Island equals amusements. It’s not brain surgery. We have to make the amusement area bigger,” said Miss Cyclone Angie Pontani, who led the contingent of mermaids. “If this plan goes through as it is, it’s going to be a tragic loss, and 20 years from now, people are just going to say, ‘What was the City thinking?’”
The mermaids dropped by the office of City Planning Commission chair Amanda Burden to deliver a brand-new rendering of the soaring hotel towers — rising up to 27 stories — that the City wants to place in the heart of Coney Island’s historic, low-rise amusement district. The image — produced by local activist group Save Coney Island — is the first approximate to-scale view made available to the public of the proposed high-rise towers. Shockingly, the City has yet to publicly release a scaled rendering of how its proposed high-rises would actually look.
The New York Times has warned that the “hotels could too easily become a wall, blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean. The hotels also squeeze the outdoor rides into a narrow strip of about 12 acres — an area that is simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.”
The mermaids are urging the City Planning Commission to expand the number of acres reserved for amusements and to move the proposed high-rises outside the heart of the amusement district.
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‘Don’t Shrink Coney!’ Rally: Video and Press
Don’t Shrink Coney! Rally a Success
The rally at City Hall was a resounding success. We had a great turnout and made our voices heard!!
Speakers included Dick Zigun, Richard Eagan, Miss Cyclone, and Juan Rivero.
Charlotte the mermaid, The Coney Island Rabbit, and Miss Cyclone!
Juan Rivero speaking at the rally
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RALLY: Don’t Shrink Coney Island! June 10th
When / Where:
* New York City Hall Steps (Btw. Broadway and Park Row)
* Wednesday June 10, 1 p.m.
* We will meet at 12:30 p.m. by the fountain in City Hall park so that we have time to go through security.
* Parade will follow demonstration.
The future of Coney Island is in danger!
The City’s current flawed rezoning plan would destroy Coney Island’s unique character and undermine its historic amusement district: It allows high-rise towers up to 27 stories tall in the heart of Coney Island’s amusement district. It limits the area reserved for the outdoor rides to a narrow, nine-acre strip of land. It endangers Coney Island’s historic buildings.
And time is running out! The Planning Commission will vote on the plan in just a couple of weeks!
We must urge Mayor Bloomberg, Council member Recchia, and the rest of City Council to fix this flawed plan:
* Expand the acreage for outdoor rides and amusements. Nine acres isn’t enough!
* Keep high-rises out of the heart of the amusement district.
* Protect small businesses, create amusement jobs, preserve Coney Island’s historic structures.
By fixing its plan, the City can revitalize Coney Island’s historic amusement district, preserving this local treasure as a playground for all New Yorkers, a world-class tourist destination and an economic engine for New York City.
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This Weekend: Petitioning By the Seashore!
Save Coney Island has a BIG weekend coming up. Some of you may already have volunteer shifts of your own scheduled, but we’d like to invite you all to join us in Coney Island on Saturday and Sunday. It will be a great opportunity to meet each other, do some additional petitioning, and pick up materials for shifts.
Saturday, June 6th, we’ll be meeting up to grab some pens and clipboards and hit the Boardwalk.
Sunday, June 7th, will find us back at it for some inspired signature-collecting!
If you’re interested in participating, just contact us: volunteers@saveconeyisland.net.
Can’t make it this weekend out to Coney Island, but want to petition elsewhere? Please contact us!! ALL of the petition materials can be found on this website in one handy kit under the “volunteer” tab, and we’ve also JUST posted some additional brochures chock full of fun.
See you there!
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Summer Reading
Two excellent articles about the Coney Island redevelopment plans were recently published. In the first, Neil deMause of the Voice takes on the “Coney By the Sea” fiasco. Next up is the meticulous Noticing New York, who digs deep into the thorny questions surrounding the planned amusement acreage. Happy reading!
CONEY FESTIVAL BY THE SEA GETS UNDERWAY, KINDA
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