The Municipal Art Society held its session to talk about its recommendations for redeveloping Coney Island, which we summarized on Curbed yesterday, and to showcase some of the ideas and renderings that members of the public had submitted. We were unable to attend the meeting due to a previously scheduled personal commitment, but one attendee described the meeting as “a smokescreen” that avoided the most pressing Coney Island issues. Do check out the slideshow. It’s riveting in its own odd way. The rezoning process is poised to take a big step forward next week as well. What is troubling, as we stated at length yesterday and on several other occasions are realistic plans to keep Coney Island a viable place until the current economic and financial crisis resolves itself over the next five years or more. Until then, grand visions are meaningless and egotistical self-congratulatory exercises. The point is how to keep Coney Island from becoming a huge school bus parking lot with large parcels of land controlled by a vindictive landlord practicing a Vietnam-like “we had to destroy it in order to save it” strategy.
Slideshow: Public Visions for Coney Island
January 15th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Tags: coney island
1 response so far ↓
1 michael // Jan 15, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I have a bid of a different perspective on last nights meeting. As a new transplant to Brooklyn (from the west coast) I know next to nothing aboout the obviously complex issues surrounding the demise and redevelopment of Conney Island. That having been said, the thing that I took away from the event was this: What ever Conney Island was is gone. That is just the physical reality on the ground. Tragic, but reality. The area will be developed. Unless the people in the community organize themselves and take charge of the process that redevelopment will be taken over by people who only have short term profit as a motive and the community will suffer. Conney Island will go the way of the Fulton fish market.
The people from M.A.S. put together a talk to outline the viability of a new entertainment zone, but went out of their way to say that they (M.A.S.) were not going to be doing the work. It must come from the community. My personal feeling was that they were presenting a number of ideas as a way to create excitement and discussion. Not to say,”Here is your plan. Do this”. What I heard was, If you (the community at Conney Island) want to save this place you have to do, there are resources that we can offer but we (M.A.S.) will not do this for you.