(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28198273@N05/ / CC BY-ND 2.0)

1. Splitting Coney Island’s central district in two – a City portion and a Sitt portion – is good for you and me. One of the problems I see with Atlantic Yards – a Bloomberg “Legacy” project with no accomplishments to date – is that a corporate developer has oversight over both his boondogle and the affordable housing which was billed as a benefit to the City. Well, now that the economy has tanked, guess which part of his plan is on indefinite hold, and guess how much public assistance he has to forfeit. If Sitt had been left in charge of the whole of Coney Island, I have no doubt that the social benefit (in this case, a new, quality amusement park) would have been tossed by the wayside in favor of a never-ending run of rent-a-carnivals and fleas-by-the-sea. Now he can focus on combing his patch of sand for every last penny and wooden nickel, and the Bloomberg Administration can concentrate on actually following through on one of their Legacy projects.

2. The Bloomberg Administration’s record with Legacy projects is a bit on the dim side (Olympics, West Side Stadium, Tolls For Transit Take 1, etc), yet I’m oddly optimistic that they’re going to get the job done at Coney Island. Here’s something from the RFP fact sheet I found particularity telling – they’re not looking for a rent-a-carnival to bide time until the big guns move in. They want someone to move in by next summer, and continue to improve their amusement park with phased development. If they can get contractual guarantees – something they apparently failed to do with the affordable housing attached to the Atlantic Yards project – they’ll be in excellent shape to get their first win since the Million Trees.

3. The City is out to prove the Doesn’t Matter side of the Size debate. Count me among those, like the activist group Save Coney Island, who believe there should be more carnival/amusement park space than the 12.5 acres that the City has proposed. But this land sale has sealed it – they’re clearly letting Sitt run with his plans on his side of the demarcation line. If Sitt fails, there may be another chance to review this in the future, but the lines are set for the foreseeable future.

4. We’re going to get a better amusement park than the rent-a-carnivals that Sitt has brought in the past two summers. Some of the names I’ve seen take an interest in the City RFP – i.e. Zamperla, which runs the small carnival in Central Park – tell me they’re serious about breathing some life into Coney Island’s magic.

MEMORANDUM

From: Me

To: Operators of Central PA’s Knobels Amusement Park

I had a blast when I saw you in August. Wanna come to Coney Island? It’s only six subway stops away!

5. The City is dreaming big, but only time will tell if we get the U.S. version of Tivoli Gardens, or a scaled-down copy of Rye Playland. No offense to Rye Playland… but Coney Island has a better history than that, and deserves a better future.

6. Astroland is not coming back, and thank God. Carol Albert told the Brooklyn Paper that she still has almost all of Astroland’s rides and is ready to stage a comeback. Um, no thanks – I wasn’t a big fan of seeing Astroland shuttered without Something Better ready to go in its place, but since it’s already shuttered, let’s get to work on bringing in the Something Better.

7. The City still has some work to do on the land acquisition front. This property deal gives them much of the land they’ll need, but not all. And the price they paid for Joe Sitt’s property will set the market and make the remainder of its land acquisitions incredibly expensive. At least one of the land owners in the way has already squatted on his land since the 1980s, so he’s not under any genuine pressure to sell. A smaller obstacle will be the Wonder Wheel kiddie park – the city owns the land, but the operators of the Wonder Wheel have a multi-year lease. They’ll want and deserve to be part of the Coney Island future.

8. The Boardwalk shops are safe for next summer, but expect those buildings to become part of the new amusement park development. Some of the family-friendly mainstays like Ruby’s and Nathan’s will probably be invited to stay. It even looks like Lola Starr will be invited back (though her shop has found refuge in her roller rink that is thankfully far removed from all of this mayhem). Cha Cha’s, unfortunately, is probably too much of a dive bar to fit into the City’s plans.

9. Joe Sitt now has full blessing to build the biggest hotel and the brightest neon lights that he wants. But given his record of success in actually building nice things – see the Festival-By-The-Sea, see the Ablee Mall – I don’t expect anything better than another crappy mall Marty Markowicz can lampoon on his web site (see #21), and that’s if he builds anything at all.

10. Joe Sitt’s plans, if they take place, will still take some time to get off the ground – the tanking economy and commercial credit markets will see to that. So while waiting for his hotel ducks to line up, will he allow the current game operators on the Bowery to stay? Or will he force them out and demolish the land? I have no idea. Recent history suggests the latter, but my inner optimist hopes for the former.

11. If (and that’s a big ‘if’) Sitt keeps the existing carnival for now, his property could become a refuge for small-time operators that don’t fit into the City’s plans. That would be so ironic, it would be Alanis Morrisette-lyric worthy. But places like Cha Cha’s, which are fun, but too trashy for Mayor Oligarch’s New England sensibilities, deserve a home on the Rabbit’s Isle. If Sitt isn’t too hasty with his land, he could provide the perfect home for them.

12. Regardless of what Mike Bloomberg or Joe Sitt do or don’t, life goes on for much of Coney Island. The Cyclone roller coaster, the Wonder Wheel, and Lola Starr’s roller rink will all still be there. So will the Cyclones baseball team and the free Tuesday/Thursday concerts at Asser Levy Seaside Park. The Mermaid Parade and Siren Festival are coming back. The beach is still an amazing place to blow off an 80-degree summer day.

(Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

And only 228 days, 5 hours, and 30 minutes to the next Hot Dog Eating Contest at Nathan’s.

Related:

• Seven acres of fun: City inks $95.6M deal on Coney Island for new amusements, eyes May opening (NY Daily News)
• EDC Issues Coney Island Request for Proposals (Sheepshead Bites)

Tags: Astroland, Carol Albert, Joe Sitt, Lola Starr, Michael Bloomberg, Nathan's