Many people have been arguing that no matter what the outcome of the city’s rezoning effort for Coney Island and whether efforts to dislodge developer Joe Sitt from the heart of the amusement district are successful, that the city lacks an interim plan to keep Coney Island from turning into a desolate wasteland of Thor Equities demolition and that new visions for redevelopment are needed. In that vein, The Municipal Art Society is holding a very interesting and, potentially, very important session this morning at Brooklyn Borough Hall that is starting right about now. They’re calling it an effort to “develop new ideas for vision for Coney Island” and a way to “identify designs, uses and events for long-term and interim development period.” The MAS says it will be “working with a team of world-class architects, amusement designers and economists” and that the effort is titled “Imagine Coney.” Here’s a bit from the press release they sent out:

The new initiative will feature a global Web-based call for ideas, and a charrette (an intense design workshop) featuring international amusement and design experts from Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, Broadway theater in New York City, and former Disney executives.

MAS hopes that by leveraging global ideas and creativity it can help identify the novel uses that will spark new life in Coney Island and build on the remarkable strides Mayor Bloomberg has made toward a revitalized Coney Island. The charrette team will draw from creative and entrepreneurial ideas submitted during public workshops and on a Web-based call for ideas that will be open to all. The team will participate in a briefing session on Coney Island on Monday, October 27 from 9 am – 12 pm with Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the Coney Island Development Corporation, the Department of City Planning, Coney Island USA, the Astella Development Corporation, the New York Aquarium, Creative Time, and other groups and local stakeholders. The team will return on November 13 and 14 for the charrette, and the results will be publicly presented on November 17.

We notice that Thor Equities is not on the list. There’s a press conference scheduled at Noon.