Sitt Feeling Good As Coney’s Mojo Man

With zeal and boastfulness on his many musings along the boardwalk, to visits with his friends and desires for Coney Island, Thor Equities’ Joe Sitt feels like the real thing. “You know? We’re the real thing? Anything else is a knockoff of this.” Joe Sitt told Larry McShane of the Associated Press.

Last week Mr. Sitt was seen paying a visit to the Coney Island History Project Exhibit, the day after its opening ceremony. He whipped out a Coney Island history booklet and proclaimed; “That’s going to be me! The next Thompson - the next Dundy!”

This week he told the AP; he sees a new idea for Coney with each stroll. He said it fills his head with new ideas.

As the Associated Press reported:

On a weekday morning, Sitt, in a dark blue pinstriped suit, lighter blue shirt and striped tie, appears incongruous with the local environment, strolling up Stillwell Avenue toward the beach. But it soon becomes clear that he’s equally at home on the boardwalk as in the boardroom.

"Yeah, OK, it’s a little bit grimy, etcetera,” says Sitt, his voice rising with an enthusiasm belying his surroundings. “But it’s got so much potential, calling out for someone to do something. I want to bring it back."

Sitt conjures something even more breathtaking, more bombastic, more Brooklyn: A year-round resort unlike anything previously seen in his native borough.

Back on the boardwalk, Sitt discusses Coney Island’s worldwide cachet. His office has recently fielded calls from Italy, England, Singapore and Israel about the project. Sitt pauses as he spots four people meandering along the boardwalk, one snapping pictures of everything in sight.

“C’mon”, he says confidently,. “They’ve got to be from out of the country”.

They are, Stuttgart, Germany, to be precise. “In the movies, we saw it,” one woman replies when Sitt asks how they knew about Coney Island. They chat amiably before Sitt says goodbye in their native tongue. “Auf wiedersehen.”

Mr. Sitt having been able to decipher foreigners may be one thing but if it was due to their picture taking – it makes it seem that Joey Coney as he’s been called, is not completely aware that tourists and even local New Yorkers have always had a passion for Coney’s alluring aesthetics and still are constantly taking pictures of everything in sight.

A few other curiosities in the interview are; Sitt’s idea on the need to replace the rows of ‘decrepit’ metal garbage cans lining the boardwalk. Either this interview was done a few weeks ago or Mr. Sitt finds the recently decorated garbage cans another honky-tonk eyesore. Another question raised is; who is ‘everybody else’ which he claims is trying to create a Coney Island? The only place recently teaming with a diversity of wishes and ideas for a New Coney is on the Coney Island USA bulletin board. And finally,– the article states that construction equipment is already on site – and a water park, retail outlets, residential property, and a hotel possibly shaped like a roller coaster are under construction.

What may be a minor misprint or a major misinterpretation is just another example of the major media spewing out recycled information bytes, and further blurring the big picture behind the big picture.

In the end If Thor Equities and Joe Sitt’s genuine enthusiasm for amusements is as big and bombastic with the kind of year round resort never-before seen in Brooklyn - then they better make way for a huge amusement district. An amusement area to be worthy of year-round resort status with luxury accommodations needs to be the whole amusement town from the Cyclone to Childs Restaurant. The existing parcels of C7 zoned areas west of Keyspan stadium and areas around Stillwell Avenue which are being slated for residential and retail components would kill any kind amusements destination of resort caliber.