Historic Coney Island Buildings to be Demolished
Sat, 09/25/2010 - 2:46pm
In 2002 at Coney Island I photographed what I thought was a cool old sign and continued to photograph it over the next 8 years until this time it was gone. When I finally decided to research it, I found out the sign is on the side of the Bank of Coney Island building, which is one of four historic buildings slated for demolition by Thor Equities, the company that has bought up tons of property in Coney Island in order to build big hotels and stuff. I would find the demolition of the Bank building a tragedy, particularly after seeing photos of the interior at Amusing the Zillion and Huffington Post. However if you read the following web sites, you will see that the other sites slated for destruction also have very meaningful histories and would represent great losses if demolished. It seems hard to see how to stop this at this point, but you never know.....I'm going to a September 30 talk at CUNY about the future plans for Coney Island.
I put my photos on my blog at: http://herbscher.com/blog/?p=240
Other stories that more fully explain the situation are at:
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/todays-news/four-coney-i...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-carr/abandoned-coney-island_b_554366....
September 30 event at CUNY:
http://www.saveconeyisland.net/?p=1410
http://amusingthezillion.com/2010/09/23/demolition-in-progress-coney-isl...
http://amusingthezillion.com/2009/10/09/a-rare-peek-inside-endangered-ol...
Image:
Sat, 10/02/2010 - 2:58pm
#2
just to be the devil's advocate...
Coney Island is actually a pretty economically depressed neighborhood. While the amusement parks and aquarium and the boardwalk area seem totally fun and bustling during the summer months, it should be noted that Coney Island as a whole is not like that. It is actually a community of mostly low income housing, gang violence, street hustling and very little prospect of year-round employment. Coney Island has been this way for as long as I can remember. So, while I agree that I will miss some of the old architecture, building a nice hotel will provide much needed construction and service job opportunities for the community.
Just my pro-labor thoughts.
Sun, 10/03/2010 - 1:55am
#3
About that
Hey Neil,
I think even the staunchest of preservationists would agree that Coney Island needs upgrading and development. The question is really how to do it. I think that you can create new buildings while also preserving the old. A lot of this at the moment is in the hands of Joe Stitt, the investor who bought up tons of Coney property and doesn't really seem to have much interest in preserving anything as far as I can tell. The City has put together a plan for Coney Island redevelopment but that doesn't prevent Stitt from destroying buildings on his property if he wants to.
There are lots of areas of grey in all this and room for different ideas and approaches. But my own feeling is that cities are much more interesting and livable when they maintain connections to the past. Coney Island, while seedy in some respects, also still sort of lets you travel back in time to experience New York of an earlier era. People over generations have continued to come to Coney Island for the beach and amusements and fried food and whatever, and I think it would be a shame for it to lose its character totally to bland high-rise hotels.
I know that where I grew up--in Miami--the South Beach district is a huge economic engine for the area precisely because people enjoy the dense concentration of old Art Deco architecture. Same for the French Quarter in New Orleans. On the other hand, for example, the main part of Times Square feels soulless where huge glass towers replaced interesting old buildings. One of the most devastating losses of a historic building was the old Penn Station, which you may know was destroyed in order to create the miserable Madison Square Garden/Penn Station complex.
So, while stimulating the economy is important, I also think quality of life is important and would argue that sensitive planning can achieve both.
My two cents. That and another $4.98 will get you a ticket on the Wonder Wheel.
Check out: www.saveconeyisland.net
Here's a picture of the old Luna Park and one of Penn Station.
I don't have much to say about this turn of events, but I did want to comment that the series of pictures you put in that blog entry are pretty astonishing.
--Info on three-worded acts like Elastic No-No Band, Joe Crow Ryan, and Thomas Patrick Maguire at http://www.weemaykmusic.com --