Joe Sitt is No Dream Operator
Joe Sitt, founder of Thor Equities (and, by extension, owner of large swaths of this city), shut down Coney Island’s Dreamland on Friday due to the operator’s failure to pay rent, reports The Brooklyn Paper. Last year, Joe Sitt had shut down Astroland, the amusement park in operation since 1962, only one year after purchasing…
Joe Sitt, founder of Thor Equities (and, by extension, owner of large swaths of this city), shut down Coney Island’s Dreamland on Friday due to the operator’s failure to pay rent, reports The Brooklyn Paper. Last year, Joe Sitt had shut down Astroland, the amusement park in operation since 1962, only one year after purchasing the land. He opened Dreamland to succeed Astroland, but now seems to be attempting to earn a master’s degree in shutting down amusement parks. Brooklyn Councilman Dominic Recchia, a former ally of Sitt, told the Daily News: “This is a heartless person who only cares about money.”
Joe Sitt Shuts Down His Own Park [Brooklyn Paper]
Coney Island’s Dreamland Shut Down [NY Daily News]
Thor Bringing ‘Dreamland’ to Coney [Brownstoner]
Photo by Anthony Catalano
Surprised at Recchia- he was one of Sitt’s big supporters. Sitt made a lot of promises. Now its obvious the Coney Island will lose its character and become just another expensive luxury disneyfied destination for the rich. So much for the “poor man’s Riviera”. Let’s hope his developments are better planned and more successful than his “flea market” and temporary amusement parks have been, but it doesn’t auger well.
He has every right.
I don’t think the waves got that big from the hurricane, but the *rip tide* became murderous (no exaggeration)
radiant, I went Sunday specifically to see the ‘big waves’ and was kinda bummed out at the lack of them. Water was rough and waves bigger than usual, but nothing spectacular.
I took the kids to Coney Island this weekend – it was sad, awful, and depressing.
The dearth of amusements and crappy economy coupled with the facts that it was a humid 90 degrees and the beaches were closed on account of hurricane Bill made for a less than memorable day.
Has it ever been worse than this?
While I’m no fan of Joe Sitt, assuming his claims are correct, isn’t it a bit unrealistic to think that he’s going to let someone operate without paying rent? Everyone was griping about how he kicked out Astroland who had been there forever, but no one seemed to focus on the fact that the owners of Astroland had sold out to him in the first place. If you look at this from a historical, or cultural point of view, the real villians are the owners of Astroland who sold in the first place, and the city for letting it happen, knowing that development was in the cards.