Saturday, April 25, 2009

To Boycott Or Not To Boycott! That Is The Thor Question

In a whim of good strokes, is it fair to take a stand back and at least one moment to thank Thor Equities instead of bombarding them with negative rants? Sure, Thor Equities may have a plan in the long run to kill Coney Island..the Coney Island spirit that has lived on for so long. But at least for the time being Coney Island will not be a land of empty lots. Most Coney lovers seem poised and ready to boycott everything. But will they? I'm sure most of us will go through those grind shows and other sideshows this season. The city and the CIDC is also boycotting Thor Equities by apparently omitting anything Thor in their Coney Island Fun Guide. No mention of the 'Festival by the Sea' by Thor Equities. Of course, most Coney goers who just feed upon what you give them will descend on Coney Island and probably think, "Ah the future of Coney has arrived!". Other's may say..."Is this what all the hoopla was about...more of the same old?"

So, are you planning on boycotting Thor this season in protest?
Take the poll below and tell us.


20 comments:

ConeyRocks said...

"Thor Equities may have a plan in the long run to kill Coney Island..the Coney Island spirit that has lived on for so long."

Omar - Did you grow up in Coney Island? My wife did. Her father still lives there. We live a couple of miles away now.

Coney Island has basically been a deteriorating, poor, rundown winter ghost town our entire lives. And I am talking about your beloved amusement area. Get real Omar.

Times are about to change and get much much better. Give it until August and the Council vote.

Omar Robau said...

Muscle13:

During this whole time that you have lived in Coney Island, you still don't get it. The spirit of Coney Island is not the dead winter months. It's the thriving summers. Just look at the explosion of recorded material throughout its history. Where else has there been in NYC or can still be such a great outdoor place as Coney Island? Nowhere! Your philosophy just aims to make it like every0-where else. And that's wrong! Bad!

ConeyRocks said...

Omar - The spirit of Coney Island lives in the residents of Coney Island for generations, not the people who visit once a summer. Thats what the blogs don't get and thats exactly why you guys don't see whats about to happen to Coney. You guys didn't see it 6 years ago when the CIDC started and you didn't see it now. You are not the neighborhood. You are a blog. Change is a very very good thing.

Omar Robau said...

Muscle13:
We've talked about this before.
I don't know about other blogs. But this blog is more about the AMUSEMENT area of Coney not the neighborhood. I've lived in the area since 1984. And I was born in Brooklyn. I've seen it. The amusement area must be protected as amusments not residential. The area is small enough. Change is good. I never wanted it to be the same. Change as long as it changes to better amusements!

Omar Robau said...

By the way the change that is needed in the neighborhood of the rest of the island is not what Thor is interested. Perhaps more Taconic. Point your interest in that direction and tell Thor to build luxury residential buildings of 40 or more stories west of 30th on and off Surf Avenue. Why don't you do that?

ConeyRocks said...

Its ok Omar. You blog guys probably won't even comprehend won't already is happening now to Coney Island even after rezoning in August. There has been so much spinning in the media and the net it spins my head. I am certain there will be more.

Make no mistake about Coney is in for a tidal wave of change. You'll like some, you'll hate some. But it will be changing drastically and that is whats needed most - Change.

ConeyRocks said...

"By the way the change that is needed in the neighborhood of the rest of the island is not what Thor is interested."

The change that will be coming most prominently will be at the heart of Coney Island. It's future year round entertainment and economic center. Your amusement area. Without changing the core to year round, nothing changes in Coney.

Have a good night Omar. You guys keep fighting your fight. I hope you think you win in the end. I really do. It will make change easier.

Omar Robau said...

You wrote:
The change that will be coming most prominently will be at the heart of Coney Island. It's future year round entertainment and economic center. Your amusement area. Without changing the core to year round, nothing changes in Coney.

This statement we both agree but you're idea of it is different than my idea of it.

Omar Robau said...

You keep saying 'you blog guys'. It's not only the blog guys. Don't you read most of the posts of the CIUSA board?

ConeyRocks said...

Omar - There are about 3 people that post on the CIUSA under about 5 different names. If you don't believe me - show up at a Save Coney Island protest where I can count the participants on one hand. And I would bet not one of these protestors live in the area.

The CI USA board is part of the blogging community,unfortunately. Its a spin group. Its not the neighborhood. Sorry man but I gotta take my wife to see the Fast and the Furious. Have a Good Weekend.

Omar Robau said...
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Omar Robau said...

Muscle, there may be many who beleive like you but don't overlook everybody else. From Dick Zigun to Rapid T. Rapid, to the amusment dreamers to the shakers in Coney Island today. My views reflect theirs. And you know that!

ConeyRocks said...

LOL I can't leave. Ziggy is not the neighbohood either Omar. I know you guys think he is some kind of Coney God.

I think he is great at spinning to the press. I am much more concerned about the real Coney Island. The 50,000 people who live there included my father-in-law. Not the 5 people who go to Ziggy's protests. Can I leave now??? :)

Omar Robau said...
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Omar Robau said...

This is why we could never agree. You are trying to swallow up the glorious history of Coney Island into the rest of the residential neighborhood which was placed there by the likes of Robert Moses to begin with. Coney Island will never crumble under that kind of thinking again. At least that's what we're fighting against. The Moses and the Trumps mentality.

ConeyRocks said...

That real "rest of the residential neighborhood" will never thrive without the year round core developed.

Its as simple as that. And it will happen and sooner than everybody thinks Omar.

Omar Robau said...

So, how exactly do you think they will thrive with the year-round development?

ConeyRocks said...

Jobs Jobs Jobs and in your core year round entertainment zone. You guys are underestimating the change that will be coming to Coney Island. That zone is the key. Recchia knows it. Kruger knows it. So does Thor.

NY Daily News

‘Jobs and housing’ Seth Pinsky, president of New York City Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit agency that operates as the city’s real estate developer: “There are 50,000 people who live in Coney Island. Sixty percent live in public housing. It has two times the unemployment rate than the rest of the city and two times the commute time of other city residents. This rezoning plan will create 25,000 construction jobs, 6,000 permanent jobs and 4,500 housing units without any displacement. The real thing people need to be afraid of is doing nothing. Doing nothing has left us with large vacant pieces of land. By embracing development, good things will come.”

Capt_Nemo said...

I live in Coney Island. I have photo documented what Thor has brought to this amusement district, destruction.

Joe Bull Sitt is a land speculator. He speculated on Albee Square Mall and turned a thriving mall into a hole in the ground. It has been a hole in the ground for years now. If Mr. Bull Sitt never touched it, it still would be a thriving business center.

Joe Bull Sitt shut down more thriving businesses here in Coney Island: Astroland, Mini golf, 3 go kart tracks, batting cages, boat ride..... and the list goes on, yet he claims he is disturbed by the high unemployment rate, yet he adds to the unemployment rate.

You love development for developments sake. If you could turn useless bits of land like Prospect and Central Parks into condo communities, you would.

Capt_Nemo said...

I was at Nathans today and waited in line for almost an hour. Nathans is something unique that brings in tourists.

You think Applebees replacing Nathans would have the same effect? Do you think tourists from Manhattan will take a train ride for an hour when they can have the same food minutes from their hotel room? Of course not.

You cried when you said you have to drive all the way to Pennsylvania Ave area to eat at a Red Lobster. You want a Red Lobster closer to where you live, in Coney Island.

What you dont like to say is how many businesses closed in Sheepshead Bay, restaurants that closed so condos could be built in its place? You love the idea of condos so much, you didnt think about how long it would take you drive to another restaurant.

You want movie theaters and bowling alleys built in Coney Island. You dont want to say there is already a bowling alley minutes from Coney Island, Shell lanes. How many shuttered movie theaters are there around the city?? Too many to count, which blows your crazy ideas out of the water.

Outsiders who dont live here, who dont enjoy Coney Island have no business dictating our future in their narrow vision.