Following a raucous three hour meeting that felt at times like a botany lecture and a carnival sideshow, replete with boos and cheers, the city’s Public Design Commission voted unanimously in favor or remaking a five-block-long section of the iconic Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island out of concrete and plastic rather than wood.
More than 50 community members turned out to decry the plan, with all but two of them opposing it for myriad reasons, from the historical to the aesthetic to the kinesthetic. After enduring hours of angry testimony, the commission considered a number of the community’s complaints, challenging the Parks Department to relocate the concrete swath set to run through the middle of the boardwalk, moving it away from the beach and closer to the land, as well as pressuring the department to include wood alternatives in other sections of what was deemed a pilot program for the eventual transformation of the entire 2.5 mile wooden way.
But in the end, the commissioners conditionally approved the plan 6-0, so long as these alternatives are explored by Parks. Read More
