Neil deMause: The Website

It’s been just about forever since anyone built anything new in Coney Island (this doesn’t count), so little wonder everyone seemed so excited today to attend a press conference announcing actual new stuff this summer:

In what’s becoming a bit of a Coney Island tradition, City Hall officials shlepped out to Brooklyn in a slushstorm today to make the long-rumored announcement that the Italian firm Zamperla has been tapped to open a new amusement park in Coney to replace the dearly departed Astroland. Actually, two new amusement parks: Luna Park (named in part to honor the classic Coney park that burned down in 1946, in part because that’s what they’re all called in Italy) will open on the old Astroland site this summer, and the less-historically-monikered “Scream Zone” will follow in 2011.[read more]

Still more on Coney Island, this time an analysis of how we got here for Metro:

It’s happy time in Coney Island! Sure, Astroland is still a vacant lot, as are the former batting cages and go-cart rides, and even the few remaining attractions are shuttered for the long winter.

But Joe Sitt, the developer who bought up most of the beachfront — and turned it into those vacant lots — has finally sold out to the city, and there is much rejoicing… [read more]

New York City has put out the call for an amusement-park operator for its newly acquired Coney Island land:

Now that it has seven acres of Coney Island beachfront property in its mitts, the city isn’t wasting time gearing up for next summer. In addition to inviting Lola Staar to return, today the Economic Development Corporation posted on its website a 54-page Request for Proposals for an interim amusement park operator for its new funland… [read more]

The long-running saga of New York City’s battle with developer Joe Sitt over Coney Island is over, but the amusement district’s future remains unclear:

It was, Mayor Bloomberg said more than once, “a day people probably thought never would arrive.” After more than a year of negotiations and at least one false positive, the mayor and developer Joe Sitt took to the Blue Room podium today to announce that Sitt’s Thor Equities has agreed to sell 6.9 acres of its beachfront property to the city for incorporation in a new “amusement district.” Said the mayor in announcing the deal: “This really is a win-win-win for everybody.”… [read more]

Four years in the making, the Coney Island rezoning plan got its final approval from the city council today — and yet still it’s not over. I have the live play-by-play on the Village Voice site:

Against all odds, there’s actually working (sort of) WiFi in the city council chamber, so I’m going to attempt to liveblog today’s final vote on the city’s Coney Island rezoning plan. The council’s land use committee gave its preliminary blessing last week, so the last step needed for approval is a vote of the full council — which, barring a last-second freakout by Coney council rep Domenic Recchia, is expected to proceed as planned… [read more]

With the city council set to vote on the rezoning of Coney Island this week, I try to boil the issue down to 350 words:

On Wednesday, after a five-year battle that’s included everything from “giant rat” exhibits to protesters dressed as Norse gods carrying mermaid tails, the City Council will finally vote on a redevelopment plan for Coney Island. Since rezoning proposals don’t generally top most people’s summer reading lists, here are answers to some questions about the Battle of Coney… [read more]

The New York city council finally got around to holding a vote on the future of Coney Island, but in the end they mostly waved the city’s plan on through:

The way things are going, the never-ending Coney Island rezoning process is going to have more “final hearings” than Astroland had last days. Originally scheduled to meet last week to weigh in on the shape of Coney’s future, the city council’s land use committee instead repeatedly delayed its vote, even meeting on Monday and then immediately adjourning, like they were the state senate or something.

While the committee finally got together for a vote yesterday, those hoping for some sort of resolution were disappointed: The only major edits made to the city’s much-criticized compromise plan were to exclude Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park from the area to be taken over as city-owned parkland (meaning Coney’s last remaining major amusement park seems safe from eviction, at least for the next decade or so) and to bump up the number of union jobs and the amount of affordable housing to be built west of the Cyclones ballpark… [read more]

Four years and change in the making, the rezoning plan for Coney Island is finally about to be voted up or down, and you can’t tell all the competing factions without a scorecard:

The battle over Coney Island’s future is finally coming down to the wire: The city council is expected to vote on the city’s rezoning plan by the end of the month, finally deciding which of the competing visions of Coney Future is likely to materialize.

First, though, the council has one last chance to ask for revisions to the plan, something that’s expected to happen this week. (Earlier reports that the council had to act by today turned out to be mistaken, once council staffers re-checked the ULURP land-use rules.) And you know what that means: Everybody and their sister is lobbying for their own favored changes. A scorecard of some of the main players in a free-for-all that has more factions than an Italian election and the NL East race put together… [read more]

Back to Coney Island again this weekend, to see if the “Festival By The Sea” finally got off the ground:

After last weekend’s false start, Joe Sitt’s Festival By The Sea finally kicked off this weekend, giving Coney Island visitors a chance to see what $2.5 million buys.

And the answer is: Lots of balloons and “Welcome!” banners, but not so much in the way of festivities… [read more]

The opening of Joe Sitt’s “Festival By The Sea” in Coney Island was postponed this weekend, but there’s plenty of signs what will be in store (or not) on the developer’s land this summer:

Joe Sitt’s much-hyped Festival By The Sea, famed of story and subway ads, was supposed to have its grand opening this weekend, but it was called on account of rain. Or alleged rain: Total precipitation for Friday and Saturday was less than a tenth of an inch, so skeptics will be forgiven for wondering if the real reason was more along the lines of tent issues.

That said, enough was on hand to get a glimpse of what will be in store next weekend, when — barring drizzle — the Festival is now scheduled to get off the ground… [read more]