Astroland Rocket HOOPLA!

Image courtesy of charlie cravero (Flickr.com)

Already in the start of 2009 the Coney Island Hoopla continues its whirling saga. The most hurtful so far, besides the final death of Astroland a few months ago, is the removal of the Astroland Rocket that stood perched atop the Gregory & Paul's food stand for many years. Since cranes where available on the Astroland lot for the dismantling of their rides, they utilized it to remove the rocket and store it on their lot while the Alberts who own Astroland are in negotiations with another an undisclosed organization to keep the rocket somewhere else in Coney Island as hinted by Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project.

Also, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce met with their Real Estate & Development department (RED) and city officials to report on the progress of the URLURP, the uniform land use review procedure. CIDC prez, Lynn Kelly, Wonder Wheel Park owner, Dennis Vouderis, and Brooklyn City Planning office rep, Purnima Kapur, along with City Council member Domenic Recchia attended the meeting.

The boardwalk at Coney is finally getting some much needed repair in its most dilapidated areas, but with recycled plastic planks?

And as of yet no negotiations with boardwalk shopkeepers as Thor Equities splattered huge custom made "For Lease" signs over all their boardwalk stores on Christmas Eve. Shopkeepers are still calling their landlord and hoping to get answers to lease extensions despite what could end up as being huge rent hikes. Some are swearing to stay while others won't to be able to afford it. However, Lola Staar has been literally kicked out. Regardless, Dianna Carlin says she is working on getting her store to open up for the summer season in one of the Stillwell Avenue Station stores.

And finally, protesters started the year with a rally to save Coney Island that was so small it would make Muscle13 roll in laughter as he seems to indicate on his Coney Island website: ConeyRocks.

Coming up is the ImagineConey presentation where of all the ideas they have collected from everyone who's submitted to them are displayed. As a reminder, the deadline is January 15th.

We don't want lose Coney Island to every-where-else kind of development but have we come up with our own plan? No! We can't fight the city or the developers without a good plan ourselves. Sure we need dreamers like Lola Staar, but where are they? We need to be much greater in numbers. To be honest these rallys look ridiculous and laughable to the city and the developers. Rant and rave but do it with a plan.


Rocket HOOPLA!
Blasting Off From the Coney Island Boardwalk [City Room - NY Times]
Coney Island: Astroland Rocket Gone [Gerritsenbeah.net]


More HOOPLA!
GL Analysis: City Officials Fiddle While Coney Island Burns [Gowanus Lounge]
Coney island crossroads - ULURP to start up soon [YourNabe.com]
Blasting Off From the Coney Island Boardwalk [CitySkip]
Coney's Newest Attraction: Nastiness [NY Observer]
Coney Island R.I.P [TimeOut NY - Kids]
Coney Island Planning Moves Forward a Step [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
Coney Island: Last Hold Out To Fold To Developer [NowPublic]
Catching Up With Coney Island [Ken Hollings]
Sitt Seeks More Coney Land [The Brooklyn Paper]
Gowanus Lounge: The Disgraceful State of Coney Island [Only the Blog knows Brooklyn]
The End of Astroland - Coney Island [latestcoolthing]
Thor Equities Not Done Ruining Coney Island [Runnin's Scared - Village Voice]


Images:
Amazing Slideshow: Astroland Rocket from Inside Astroland [Gowanus Lounge]


Video:
Fun Vid: Coney Island Time Lapse [Gowanus Lounge]