Amusing The Zillion published an article with Tina Georgoulakos, the owner of Coney Island Boardwalk eatery Paul’s Daughter. Needless to say, she isn’t any happier than any of the other Boardwalk business owners facing eviction.
“I wanted so much to be a part of the New Coney Island but they didn’t even offer me a tiny little spot on the Boardwalk,” says Tina. “They didn’t even respond to me about my proposal, they didn’t even write my name on the eviction notice. And then to find out I’m being replaced by Sodexo, a company who paid out $100 million to settle lawsuits because of racism against their employees and fraud against New York schools. I feel like I’m in a bad B movie.”
Did you know that Councilman Domenic Recchia is an idiot?
The lack of support from City officials and some comments in the media have also been hurtful. In Monday’s NY Post, Councilman Domenic Recchia said, ‘I understand the sentiment that these businesses have been here a long time, but they also made a lot of money paying cheap rent all these years. If they really cared, I know firsthand that they had plenty of chances to buy these properties and fix them up, but they never did.”
Yes. Coney Island landlords over the years were renown for offering their tenants the opportunity to buy their buildings. Either that, or trying to flip their land to the next deep-pocketed sucker that came along. And no, I’m not just talking about Joe Sitt, not by a long shot. The Coney tradition of landgrabs is far bigger than any one man.
“I wish Recchia had called me. I imagine he’s going to be very angry when he finds out he was misinformed,” says Tina.
I doubt it. The City Council fawning over big-money real estate developers is pretty much a daily occurrence in this town, and they don’t express much in the way of shame over it. [Update: the wording here originally had a bit more splash to it, but I received a couple of complaints about it, and I have to admit, they did have a good point.]
“It hurts me to hear such untruths about my store Paul’s Daughter. There aren’t any violations against it. I’ve been handcuffed by one year leases for years and years. And I would have given anything to have been given the opportunity to purchase the property but it was never offered and by the way it sold for 32 million dollars to Sitt. I pay $100,000 for seven months. I guess some people don’t think that’s a lot. I proposed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to modernize my iconic store.”
Actually, having met Recchia once, he strikes me as the type who would get irritated by someone calling him out on supporting French and Italian mega-corporations over Brooklyn-based small business owners.
“I love NY….. I love Brooklyn and I love the view from my store even more. I wish someone could help me stay.”
You really, REALLY need to read ATZ’s full article. Please click here and read it.
