It’s only July and already the so-called "Summer of Hope" is winding down on Coney Island.
Gowanus Lounge is reporting that the various rides and attractions touted by controversial developer Joe Sitt back in April are currently being dismantled, apparently headed to some other carnival site in Tennessee.
Gowanus Lounge has the text of Dick Zigun’s resignation letter from the Coney Island Development Corporation. The Mayor of Coney Island is rather peeved at the Bloomberg administration’s current plan for the amusement mecca. As he told my colleague Eliot Brown in May, "The new plan sucks."
Mr. Zigun elaborates in his letter: Read More
Proprietors of venerable Coney Island institution Ruby’s Bar & Grill hope to reopen Friday afternoon, following vigorous repairs to replace a collapsed floor in the men’s room that sent one patron to the hospital over the weekend.
Much maligned developer Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities, who owns the building, is chipping in on the Read More
The Health Department has shuttered venerable Ruby’s Bar & Grill on the Coney Island boardwalk following a bizarre incident on Saturday, which I reported in this week’s Observer.
A cop on the scene summed it up thusly: “One guy was taking a leak, the floor partially collapsed, and he fell 10 feet.”
Police Read More
Joe Sitt, the developer who owns much of the amusement district at Coney Island, today announced a new set of rides and other amusements to fill his vacant lots for the summer. On the list for the new “Dreamland”: bumper cars, a “Giant Gondola” and a petting zoo, among others.
Mr. Sitt’s efforts come Read More
Mayor Bloomberg and Joseph Sitt just can’t seem to get along.
Mr. Sitt, the major landowner in Coney Island, has been resisting the city’s quest to remake the Brooklyn enclave. He opposed the city’s earlier plan and now has reservations about a compromise that would allow him to develop much of his land just Read More
Joe Sitt’s new team, reported on Curbed and Gowanus Lounge, has got the Web speculating about his next move: Is he giving up, retrenching, or sweet-talking his way to a compromise on his Coney Island wonderland?
Consider this: His new public relations consultants, Knickerbocker SKD, worked on the transportation bond Read More
A panel of experts convened by the Municipal Art Society (MAS) will meet Wednesday night to discuss the forthcoming transformation of Coney Island.
Noticably missing from the debate: Thor Equities developer Joseph Sitt, whose controversial plan to soon raze and reconstruct the Brooklyn beach community's amusement district includes a proposed rezoning to allow high-rise Read More
Of the dwindling seaside attractions still standing at Coney Island this summer, “Shoot the Freak” is perhaps best suited to the Brooklyn beach community’s exciting new demilitarized-zone motif.
From a platform off the old rickety boardwalk, patrons fire paintball guns at a slow-moving but well-padded masochist mingling amid the weeds and debris of an Read More
When city planners rezoned much of downtown Brooklyn 17 months ago, it was meant to make the city’s third-largest business district even larger. Now it is looking more and more like a bedroom community.
It is not just the half-dozen condo projects sprouting up around the edge of downtown, transforming weed-strewn parking lots into glassy Read More
