Community Concerns About Marty's Coney Concert Space
The Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Paper are both reporting that plans for a $64 million outdoor covered concert arena in Coney Island, long a pet project of Borough President Marty Markowitz, is encountering opposition from locals who object to its location in a residential area and those who feel that the money would be…
The Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Paper are both reporting that plans for a $64 million outdoor covered concert arena in Coney Island, long a pet project of Borough President Marty Markowitz, is encountering opposition from locals who object to its location in a residential area and those who feel that the money would be better spent on schools and library; the arena as planned (small rendering) would have 5,000 covered seats and room for another 3,000 people on the lawn and be located on the site of the current Asser Levy Park (shown at top). Marty wants Brooklyn to be able to compete with the likes of Jones Beach, Asbury Park and the PNC Center in Newark in New Jersey for national acts. This is going to destroy the only open space in the neighborhood, said Ida Sanoff, a former member of Community Board 13. Au contraire, says Marty: The Coney Island Center will be a much-needed community resource, and will bring to Coney Island the kind of state-of-the-art performance facility Brooklyn deserves. The anti-amphitheatre crowd is coalescing around a non-profit group called NYC Park Advocates. Community Board 13 will consider the matter at some point in the next two months.
$64 Million Question: New Seaside Park Amphitheater [Brooklyn Eagle]
Coney Residents: Asser Levy Us Alone! [Brooklyn Paper]
Coney Is ‘Jonesing’ for Concerts [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by Kathryn Kirk for Brooklyn Paper; rendering from Grimshaw Associates.
Open Space of sand and Boardwalk is not the same thing as open space of grassland. You cannot play soccer in the sand. You cannot walk your dog or picnic on the ground the same way.
In terms of actual land it is the only open space in the neighborhood. I’m sorry to burst your bubbles.
Fat-Marty should build a hot dog factory at the site with this money and call it “Marty’s Place”, then he could hang out there and chat with constituents while he engaged in his favorite past-time.
We could not spend one red cent and let it rot some more instead of turning this into the destination it should be. Someone wants to turn a crummy bandshell into a state of the art facility good enough for a philharmonic and you complain. What a bunch of whankers we got here.
Knickerbocker.. I totally saw that band.
They were called, “Fuck you yankee blue jeans” or something like that. Their big hit was “Bezerker”
I went to Coney last summer for one final trip, and there was some Russian sounding metal band performing at the current stage.
There were more people on stage than in the crowd and the noise could be heard all the way to Nathans.
Oh, and why can’t acts play at the stadium? Bands used to play Shea and Yankee stadium all the time.
The real question is who is this 64M helping besides Marty’s buddies in the construction industry?
There is a gigantic beach ACROSS THE STREET, there is plenty of open space.
Bunch of retards live in Brooklyn, seriously.
Anyone who knows marty knows it all about appearances, not substance. Yes, lets spend 64 million on a concert banshell- what abysmal stupidity. Does he read newspapers these days?
this is a joke. i have lived in the area for over 20 years and we do not need a place like this in this location. there is plenty of land to the west on the south side of surf ave that can be used for concerts. they should spend a fraction of the 64 mil and improve the park for kids. maybe a soccer field or baseball and swings. i am pro development when its done right but this is wrong. also there is no parking in this area as is you have to wait for a long time to get a parking spot and in the summer when people want to park at the aquarium its a nightmare.
$64 million for a bandshell? seriously?