Having had a previous meeting very publicly disrupted and abruptly canceled because of several hundred people bused in at the expense of State Senator Carl Kruger’s campaign committee, the Coney Island Development Corp. has scheduled three different meetings in January. This either means that there will be ample room for further bused in groups of paid protestors or that it will cost organizers a lot more money to disrupt the meetings. At the same time, it seems that Coney Island’s most enigmatic player, Horace Bullard, who owns the big, vacant property next to KeySpan Park, may be selling. He tells the New York Post that he wants to be a “team player” and is in discussions with the Bloomberg administration to sell his land to the city. If the report is true, public acquisition of the Bullard land would be a significant development.
As for the public meetings, they’re actually public information sessions intended to provide the public with details about the Bloomberg administration’s plans for Coney Island. They are not part of the land use decision making process. In any case, the meetings will be taking place after New Years:
Monday, January 7, 2008 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
The Monday and Tuesday evening sessions will take place at Lincoln High School Auditorium., which is located at 2800 Ocean Parkway. The Tuesday afternoon meeting will happen at the Coney Island Hospital Auditorium, which was the location of the ill-fated meeting that was canceled. All three sessions will have the same format, presentations and information. There will be an opportunity for comments and questions from the public. According to the CIDC, “In order to accommodate as many people as possible, speakers will be asked to limit their comments to 3 minutes each. Individuals wishing to speak will be asked to sign-up at a registration table at the entrance to the auditorium.” The sessions are formally called Public Information Sessions on the Coney Island Zoning Framework.
On other fronts, we believe that a number of complaints have been filed with the State Board of Elections asking it to investigate whether Sen. Kruger’s use of campaign funds to send protesters to the November 19 meeting violated state election laws.
