Coney Island Community Garden Bulldozed For Marty Markowitz's Amphitheater

Under cover of darkness a beloved community garden in Coney Island was bulldozed beginning at 5am Saturday morning to make way for  Marty Markowitz's $ 53 million dollar amphitheater.   The developer – iStar  –  destroyed 16 years of a community gardening effort.

The Parks Department transferred its jurisdiction of the community garden to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) in late August 2013.  

A press conference is being held tomorrow at 11:00 at the site.

Former Garden. 

Brooklyn

A developer bulldozed a beloved community garden in Coney Island on Saturday to make way for an amphitheater — uprooting 20 chickens on a decades-old plot that survived Hurricane Sandy.

Construction workers entered the Boardwalk Garden under the cover of darkness and chucked tools and wheelbarrows, along with farm fowl and a colony of feral cats, activists say.

The chickens were placed in pet carriers on the sidewalk and the felines were left fending for themselves.

“They destroyed life!” fumed tearful volunteer Elena Voitsenko, 60, a Russian immigrant who told The Post she’ll take in the birds until they find a new home.

“‎I came to America to escape from the communist regime,” she added. “This is more than the communist regime! They came at 4 in the morning.”

Workers razed the sprawling, 70,000-square-foot garden on West 22nd Street about a week after the City Council approved plans to convert the empty Childs Restaurant and its adjacent land into a 5,000-seat venue.

The $53 million project was trumpeted by outgoing Borough President Marty Markowitz, who tried previously to build a controversial amphitheater in Asser Levy Park in 2009.

Under the new plan, the city will buy the Childs building from iStar Financial and turn it into a restaurant and concert venue. The adjacent garden is slated to become a seating area.

The community board voted against the project in September, and locals have railed against turning the historic property into a noisy venue.

“The community does not want this amphitheater built on this land . . . but the city went ahead with this anyway,” said Yury Openzik, ‎34. “I’m heartbroken, not only for myself, but for the elderly people that were gardening here every day.”

Throughout Saturday, volunteers recovered their belongings after workers knocked down plots for tomatoes, cabbage, zucchinis and other vegetables.

Residents say they’ve run the garden since the 1980s.

The city Economic Development Corp., which is spearheading the project, referred questions to the borough president. Markowitz’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Bulldozed garden. 

Read More:

City bulldozes community garden in dead of night

New York Post -  By Aaron Feis and Kate Briquelet December 29, 2013

ACTION ALERT: BOARDWALK GARDEN IS BEING BULLDOZED

New York City Community Garden Coalition - December  28, 2013 -  By AZIZ DEHKAN

Residents Outraged By Bulldozing Of Brooklyn Community Garden
WCBS - December 28, 2013

Clash Over Plans for a Brooklyn Park

Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

Free summer concerts are offered at the band shell at Seaside Park, also known as Asser Levy Park, on the edge of Coney Island.

The way Marty Markowitz sees it, the rundown nine-acre park where Coney Island and Brighton Beach meet is ripe for a sparkling transformation, according to the New York Times.

Mr. Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, envisions Asser Levy Park, also known as Seaside Park, as the gateway to a spruced-up amusement complex evoking Coney Island’s splashy past. An enormous new outdoor amphitheater would have room for 8,000 people and draw top entertainers, he said — maybe even favorites of his like Carole King or Neil Diamond.

“It’ll be absolutely gorgeous,” Mr. Markowitz said, and “a really great attraction for the future of Coney Island.”

City officials hope to have the amphitheater, the largest in a city park, ready for the 2013 outdoor concert season.

But for many neighbors, the project is about as subtle as a spaceship. They say they like Asser Levy Park just as it is — a quiet oasis with a modest band shell — not as a place, they say, that would draw more traffic, disrupt services at two synagogues and, perhaps most critically, diminish their only decent patch of open space.

“His dream is our nightmare,” said Al Turk, president of Temple Beth Abraham, on Sea Breeze Avenue, opposite the park. “They’re destroying a park to turn it over to a concrete amphitheater. This thing is right on top of us.”

Read More:

Clash Over Plans for a Brooklyn Park

New York Times - February 10, 2010 - By Mireya Navarro

New amphitheater could leave neighbors with concrete slab

Bay News January 19, 2010 - By Joe Maniscalco

Remedy for Asser Levy "dustbowl" - concrete

Bay News - January 12, 2010 -  By Joe Maniscalco

Amphitheater critics anticipate hearing

Bay News - January 4, 2010 -  By Joe Maniscalco 

Free Speech Flap in Asser Levy Park. DPR Deems Five People "Organized Assembly." Parks Department Gave Out "False Information" NYPD Speculates

Left: Residents were prevented from distributing fliers on two separate occasions in Asser Levy/Seaside Park in Brooklyn.

On July 16, five Brighton Beach residents were prevented by the NYPD from handing out flyers and collecting signatures in opposition to Marty Markowitz's $64 million plan to build a 8,000 seat tax paxer funded amphitheater in the middle of a residential park and community. The residents were told by the NYPD they had to go outside of Seaside Park in Brooklyn. This was the second time opponents of the plan were prevented from distributing fliers inside the park.

When contacted by Bay's New's Joe Maniscalco who witnessed the incident, Parks Department flak Phil Abramson said, “Generally, people can hand out leaflets [inside the park]. In this case, it was deemed an organized assembly which does require a permit.” 1st Amendment flap at seaside Summer Concert Series.

Mr. Abramson apparently declined to say exactly who "deemed" five people in a 7 acre park an organized assembly - Alessandro Olivieri, Adrian Benepe, Corp. Council, Marty Markowitz?

After the incident NYC Park Advocates (NYCPA) contacted the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) who arranged a meeting the following week between NYPD's legal department and a representative from the community and NYCPA. The NYPD lawyer reaffirmed what was very clear - such activity was protected under the First Amendment and perfectly legal.

"You have absolutely every right to do that," the lawyer said before apologizing. "Most likely what happened was that we were given false information by the parks department."

It would be helpful if the Bloomberg admimisration held the parks department accountable the instructed to gave out accurate information to the press, and not to mention in this particular case to the police department. We hope this isn't the beginning of Phil Abramson's road to mimicking predecessor Jama Adam's behavior in the veracity department. We hope.

Just because the mayor does not demand accountability from the parks department doesn't mean the public feels the same way.

A thank you to the NYCLU and the NYPD's legal department for helping to solve this matter.


Read More:

1st Amendment flap at seaside Summer Concert Series
Yournabe.com - July 22, 2009