I used to like to play hooky in June on a warm weekday before school summer break. I would jump on a B express train bound for Brighton Beach.  I’d leave early morning and go against Manhattan bound train jammed with the working class dogs. I’d get off the train and lay in sand as the beach was not crammed with people…a nice summer breeze would make me feel fine blowing through the jasmine in my mind. But now there is no express going to or from Brighton Beach because of MTA construction which will run local until fall of 2011…two summers.

With the sad MTA history this project will probably be over budget and behind schedule! As I ride the slow train going past the construction workers I see one guy doing all the work and 4 or 5 guys just standing there watching. How many times have you been on a Brighton Beach local train and it breaks down, delayed for a stalled train, a police investigation, a sick passenger, or whatever BS excuse, etc and your almost manageable commute becomes a long terrible trying ordeal and there is no announcement or sounds like Charlie Brown’s grandmother or you ask an unknowledgeable MTA employee WTF is going on and the worker does not know because of the poor MTA communication?

The overpriced MTA is quick to do one thing…point the blame finger at someone else! Only if the trains moved that fast…I got a finger to point at them. “It’s Albany’s fault”….well true Albany politics sucks….they don’t care because they don’t ride the system but they are quick to waste our tax dollars…if you pay taxes. Their cruel and unusual punishment should be to ride the sucky subway during rush hours. That lawbreaking Mayor Bloombucks illegally overturned term limits and spent 100 million dollars for a third term. Money the MTA could have used but would have misused! One of his “campaign promises” was an express train for Brooklyn…yeah who believes false statement? Ya ya he occasionally rides the subway (though he really only does so when there’s a photo-op in it for him)…during non rush hours. Hey did all you tea partiers and teetotallers vote?

(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.

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So said the Brooklyn Parks Commissioner regarding the City’s latest bid request for an amusement park on Coney Island beach. (NY Daily News)

Parks Department officials began soliciting bids Wednesday for a Beach Adventure park on the sand near Steeplechase Pier that could also include giant inflatable slides, trampolines, climbing walls and trapeze swings.

The city proposed a similar beachfront amusement area in 2005 and 2007, but didn’t get any takers. Officials are hopeful they’ll have more luck this time.

In other Coney-related news, Borough President Marty Markowitz has passed judgement on the Bloomberg Administration’s rezoning and redevelopment plan for the amusement area. He was largely supportive of the City plan, though he suggested a few minor changes – the one I found most interesting was this:

• stipulating that there will not be “one overarching manager of the amusements,” like Six Flags.

In other words, the opposite of what Bloomberg said back in November 2007:

“Today, you can’t have a bunch of individual little things and have them survive, not when the public has entertainment alternatives,” said Bloomberg. “They can fly anyplace for next to nothing.”

The City Planning Commission reviews the plan next, followed by the City Council.