Video Could Be Key In Trial Of Crip Charged In Deadly 2011 Brighton Beach Boardwalk Shootings

On June 9th, five people were shot on the Park Department's Brighton Beach Boardwalk including 16-year old East Harlem girl, Tysha Jones who was tragically killed. Iloune Driver, a 21-year-old Crip from East New York, Brooklyn, shown here being arrested, was charged and is on trial for second-degree murder for the shooting  that killed the innocent teenager and wounded four others.  (Photo: Todd Maisel/New York Daily News) 

Over the twelve weeks leading up to that incident there had been twelve shootings, including five deaths, and more than a dozen stabbings and muggings and numerous sexual assaults in parks. And since  January there had been more than 150 arrests on park land including 98 in Union Square Park alone and the Summer had yet to begin.

"Frankly, I think it's a shame for people to sort of gin it up and try to panic people into believing that parks are not safe," then Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe embarrassingly stated as the public once again called for more protection in parks. 

 "They're safer than they've ever been," he said.

Brooklyn

A few seconds of video evidence may determine the courtroom fate of a gangbanger accused of spraying bullets over a jam-packed boardwalk in Brooklyn two years ago, killing an innocent teenage girl and wounding four others, according to the New York Daily News.

Iloune Driver, 21, whose trial for second-degree murder began Tuesday, fired at a rival in Brighton Beach on a sunny day in June 2011, fatally striking a bystander, Tysha Jones, 16, who was hanging out with friends, a prosecutor said.

Chaos ensued at the Brighton Beach Boardwalk when a fight erupted into a shooting.

(Photo: Patrick Q. Barr for NY Daily News)

 “All she was doing was going to the beach,” prosecutor Janet Gleeson said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

“But those were the last moments of her life.” 

No weapons or ballistic evidence tie Driver — an avowed Crip who has the words “True Blue” tattooed across his chest — to the crime.   

Tysha Jones, 16, an innocent bystander, was killed in the  Brighton Beach Boardwalk shooting on June 9, 2011.  (Photo: Michael Schwartz/New York Daily News)  

Gleeson said two witnesses identified Driver as the gunman. She said shots were fired as a group of Crips taunted a rival crew of Bloods.

“That’s what it was all about — gang stupidity,” Gleeson said. 

But defense lawyer Mario Romano argued that video of the shooting’s immediate aftermath refutes the witnesses’ statements that Driver was on the sand when he fired; the video, the lawyer said, shows Driver on the boardwalk a few seconds after the crowd begins to scramble for cover.

Romano said Driver was “running away from the mayhem, like everybody else.” 

Driver was apprehended by police as he entered the subway. He wasn’t initially charged, but named others as the assailants, Gleeson said. A witness called a police department tip line a few days later and identified him as the shooter.     

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Boardwalk Slight - Coney-Brighton Beach Residents Demand If Rockaway Can Have Wood Why Can't We

"Research, what research. We didn't have time to do research; we had to spend the money!" - Parks Department Chief Engineer John Natoloi - November 2010

Boardwalk War: The city is using wood exclusively to repair a ten block section Rockaway Rockaway Beach boardwalk - after refusing to use wood solely to rebuild the Coney Island Boardwalk. In March the Mayoral appointed Public Design Commission unanimously approved the Parks Department's plan to use concrete on the historic Coney-Brighton Boardwalk instead of wood in what critics called a "sham" hearing. (Photo: Elizabeth Graham)

In November 2010, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance President Rob Burstein attended a walk-through meeting on the boardwalk with politicians including Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Parks officials to go over the numerous "pilot projects" recently done which used recycled plastic lumber or concrete instead of wood.

Mr. Burstein asked Parks Department Chief Engineer John Natoloi what research had been done that suggested that concrete was the best, or even an appropriate material to spend $15 million dollars on the boardwalk.

"Research? What research? We didn't have time to do research; we had to spend the money!"

he famously replied.

"With respect to the diligence and quality of the Parks Department's efforts to appropriately care for our Boardwalk, this statement speaks for itself," said Mr. Burstein.

Brooklyn

A city decision to repair an outer-borough boardwalk with wood has opponents of the Coney Island Boardwalk’s upcoming concrete makeover accusing the Parks Department of turning back on its word, according to the Bay News.

Agency officials have said repeatedly that repairing city boardwalks with wood was no longer a viable option — sparking the move to replace the iconic Coney Island Boardwalk with concrete and plastic lumber.

But the city began repairing a 10-block stretch of the longer, but far less exciting, Rockaway boardwalk with lumber last week — a move that has Coney Boardwalk advocates spitting nails.

“It’s an unbelievable slap in the face to our communities,” said Rob Burstein, the president of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance. “It shows that it’s possible to have a wooden boardwalk.”

Parks Department Chief Engineer John Natol seen here with Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski inspecting the repairs being made to the boardwalk last week near Beach 101st St. in Rockaway Beach. (Photo: Anthony Delmundo/for the New York Daily News)

Friends of the Boardwalk founder Todd Dobrin was also outraged.

“I’m furious,” said Dobrin, who has been fighting the city’s plans to take away the Boardwalk’s cherished planks. “Every boardwalk should be treated equally.”

But city officials say they’re not flip-flopping.

“Under a full reconstruction of the Rockaway boardwalk, we would consider using concrete,” said Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor, who said repairs on the Rockaway boardwalk, which drew 3.6 million visitors last year, will replace planks Hurricane Irene turned into kindling last year.

A one-mile section of the 5.5-mile walk has already been paved over with concrete, Lalor noted.

Councilman Eric Ulrich (R–Queens) doled out $1.6 million in taxpayer dollars to help repair the Rockaway boardwalk.

That news wasn’t lost on critics who slammed Councilman Domenic Recchia (D–Coney Island) for supporting the city’s plan to replace the Boardwalk between Coney Island Avenue and Brighton 15th Street with concrete and recycled plastic lumber.

“We need elected officials to support the Boardwalk here the way that they did in Queens,” Burstein said.

Recchia declined to comment on this story.

In 2010, the Parks Department proposed replacing the entire Boardwalk with concrete and plastic lumber — except for a four-block section in the historic amusement district between W. 15th and W. 10th streets — as part of its $30-million renovation of the aging 2.7-mile span, which opened in 1923.

The agency tested the materials on two sections of the walkway in 2011, claiming that concrete was sturdier and cheaper than using real wood.

But preservationists balked at the suggestion, claiming the plan would ruin the look and feel of the historic Boardwalk and turn the rest of the strip into a sidewalk.

The Public Design Commission gave the Parks Department the OK to tear out the Boardwalk in Brighton Beach — and install a 12-foot-wide concrete lane for emergency vehicles and a 19-foot-wide lane built out of recycled plastic boards for pedestrians — after agency officials testified that wood was no longer a viable option.

Yet residents say the current repair project in Queens proves otherwise.

“I can’t understand their reasoning,” said Brighton Beach resident Arlene Brenner. “It’s ridiculous.”

Separate and unequal: Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance President Rob Burstein is furious that the city is repairing the Queens boardwalk with wood but paving over large sections of Brooklyn’s seaside walkway with concrete in yet another "pilot" program. (Photo: Elizabeth Graham)

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Concrete Coney Island Boardwalk Plan Approved Over Strong Community Objections In "Sham" Hearing

There is nothing more frusterating than watching a process that is outside of your control.

It was standing room only at the Public Design Commission hearing on the reconstruction of the Coney Island boardwalk. Critics of the controversial plan said they wanted to be heard as well as listened to but that was not to be. The Mayoral appointed commission as expected voted unanimously to approve the Parks Department's plan to use concrete on the historic boardwalk instead of wood. Forty-five members of the public testified against the Parks Department plan and vs. three in favor. At one point it appeared one of the commissioners - Byron Kim - was making some headway, but in the end he too was ignored.

(Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

In a nearly four- hour, and at times contensious meeting, the City's Public Design Commission unanimously approved the Parks Department's controversial plan to use concrete on the historic boardwalk in Coney Island. The plan was approved over the objections of the near unanimous members of the public who attended the proceedings.

Due to the city's refusal to allocate adequate funding to maintain the iconic Coney Island boardwalk the city is proposed installing a 12 foot wide concrete sidewalk down the middle flanked on each side by plastic composite planks. The test area will run from Coney Island Avenue to Brighton 15th Street.

The issue has received a considerable amount of attention.

Critics including Brooklyn residents, environmentalists, and preservation advocates filled the room to capacity.

To divert attention away from the lack of maintenance funding issue the Parks Department is contending the reason for the switch to plastic is to accommodate emergency vehicles, a use, critics point out the wooden boardwalk has accommodated for close to a century.

Landscape architect Alex Hart, assistant deputy chief of design for the NYC Parks Dept., presented the proposal to six commissioners while dozens of Brooklyn residents, environmentalists, preservations, and advocates looked on, filling the room to capasity.

He and other Park officials stated they have had trouble finding a reliable supply and acceptable quality of more environmentally friendly hardwood.

Alex Hart, assistant deputy chief of design for the Parks Dept., presents the agency's controversial proposal to the Public Design Commission on reconstruction of Coney Island's boardwalk.

"We would greatly prefer to use wood on this surface but there is nothing out there right now that will work for us," said Hart.

The city also claims that concrete is the most cost-effective solution.

Operating under the Parks Department's standard 'we have the capital funds but we have to spend it immediately before we lose it' policy the agency lobbies local elected officials, community boards and agencies for support in order to receive the necessary approvals.

City Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr. Chair of the City Council Finance Committee did his part. He testified in favor of the plan repeatedly saying it "has to move forward."

"It doesn't make people happy," he said of his support to loud hisses and boos from the crowd.

He acknowledged the condition of the boardwalk was due to not having adequate expense funding. The expense money, "couldn't be there, " he said. Mr. Recha, who represents the Coney Island district did not say why the money could not be there or mention how much money he allocates annually for boardwalk maintenance. He did state however he'd rather see funds be spent on other services.

He testified (erroneously) that if the boardwalk was wood it would cost one million dollars a year to maintain. (A figure he also cited to the NY Times a few week earlier.) After his testimony he was informed that the million dollar figure he cited was actually the amount in funding the parks department receives for boardwalks at three locations not just Coney Island. When asked for a comment on the misstated figure afterwards he said to shut off the tape recorder and he ran away.

After the nearly hour long presentation critics got their turn. Loud boos rang out when it was announced the public would only get two minutes to speak.

At one point Jackie Snyder, Executive Director of the Commission told a staff member to call DCAS security. A uniformed officer stayed throughout the remainder of the hearing keeping an eye on the crowd. (When the meeting was over the officer aggressively cleared out the hallway where community members were doing interviews.)

Speaker after speaker testified against the plan, pleading with the commission to reject it. They also implored the Parks Department to perform due diligence and explore alternatives.

The numerous contradictions were also noteworthy:

Critics repeatedly poked holes in the agency's claims. They pointed out the hundreds of cracks already found in the newly installed concrete, and that concrete collects sand and water and ices up during the Winter which creates unsafe conditions. They also testified that the concrete is blinding and boiling hot in the Summer. The public also questioned the financial sense of the Parks Department continuing to build projects through trial and error at the taxpayers expense and using capital funds - borrowed money - instead of simply maintaining the wooden boards.

"City officials have insisted on the need for a concrete section because they say the recycled-plastic lumber could become too slippery when wet to accommodate emergency vehicles. But throughout the hearing, speakers from the public castigated concrete, some holding up pictures that showed experimental concrete sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk that were cracked, chipped or covered in ice," wrote the New York Times.

Friends of the Boardwalk's Todd Dobrin displayed a ten foot wide panel with numerous photographs showing the boardwalk in various states of decay including the Parks Department's previous work on their Coney Island/Brighten Beach "pilot" construction projects recently which were approved by the Commission.

"It creates an esthetic and maintenance nightmare, " said Rob Burstein, president of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance of the proposed Parks plan.

Tim Keating, of Rainforest Relief has been trying to get the city to stop using rainforest wood for fifteen years and discounted much of what Park officials stated. He suggested using black locust wood for the boardwalk slabs over recycled plastic supports.

"This could be used to maintain an open air boardwalk without concrete slabs that would allow sand and rain and snow to fall through," he testified.

"The concrete is blinding in summer. And hot," said Coney Island/Brighten Beach resident Arlene Brenner.

"Concrete in place of wooden planks does not make a boardwalk it make a sidewalk which is a very different new York environment," a woman testified. A sentiment shared by many.

All told 45 members of the public testified against the Parks Department plan, including representatives from many groups.

Three testified in favor of the plan: the chair of CB 13 - Eddie Mark, the administration's go-to-guy when they need public support for issues the community is against, (The CB overwhelming voted against the plan (21- 7). Fresh Meadows Queens resident Gene Ridder, and Parks Department partner New Yorkers For Parks. The group, now headed by a former HUD official, was repeatedly singled out and criticized by various members of the public during the hearing.

After hours of public testimony the Commission then began asking questions of the parks department.

In what some thought was a ray of hope a few members began questioning aspects of the plan, but that hope quickly dissipated. They suggested that Parks remove two feet of concrete - from 12 feet to 10. And in another misguided thread commissioners challenged the Parks Department to relocate the concrete swath now set to run through the middle of the boardwalk away from the beach closer to the land.

Commission member James Polshek called the design “silly, ” adding that it reduces the beauty of the boardwalk by cutting a cement path through its center. He proposed moving the cement section to the edge of the boardwalk along street side so the area “continues to resemble a boardwalk.”

But it was commissioner Byron Kim who raised the only real points that addressed the public's concerns. He repeatedly challenged the validity of the Parks Department's claims that they could find no other alternative woods that meet the quantity or quality they agency requires.

Two separate suppliers gave testimony they could supply sustainable wood,

one coming all the way from West Virginia.

The Parks Department could provide no specific information on the depth of its research into this area or for many of its other claims, nor did commissioners ask them to.

Mr. Kim also suggested that since this was a pilot program why doesn't the Parks Department test different woods.

In a back and forth between commissioner Kim and the Parks Department the agency admitted that the concrete recently installed had created public safety issues including icing up during the Winter.

In a somewhat surreal moment, Signe Nelsen, the acting president of the Commission said in the future the Parks Department should consider planting their own trees grow their lumber.

Ms. Nelsen also praised the Parks Department for what she described as a quick response in addressing the agency discontinuing using rain forest wood. A comment Tim Keating of Rainforest Relief took particular offense at.

"It took the Parks Department fifteen years after we first notified them to finally decide to renovate the boardwalk without using tropical wood," he said.

In the end, as expected the Mayoral appointed commission ignored the nearly unanimous public testimony against the plan. They also ignored the lone commissioner who suggested testing alternative woods.

Instead of tabling the plan and requiring the Parks Department to perform due diligence, the commission fell in line with the administration and approved it with several non-binding stipulations. They asked the Parks Department to look into the feasibility of moving the concrete section to the land side of the boardwalk, removing two feet of concrete, and exploring alternative wood.

The not binding recommendations means that the Parks Department can proceed without incorporating any of the suggestions.

Critics were not pleased.

“They changed their story every time, ” Todd Dobrin said of the Park Department.

“First they said it was for the emergency vehicle, and we showed they could go on the wood. Then it was about slippage, and we said, ‘What about the snow and ice, which can’t drain off the concrete?’ Then they come up with cost. We said, ‘What about paying to remove all the ice and snow and to maintain the concrete?’ Then they said they couldn’t find the supplies, so we brought in three different suppliers.”

"It's disheartening to be subjected to the whims and decisions of the Parks Department and the Design Commission, " Rob Burstein, president of the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance said after the vote. "There is no serious exploration of the material provided."

"What good is the Design Commission when a nearly unanimous public testified against the plan and they approve it anyways," said Natural Resources Protective Association Chairperson and Brighten Beach resident Ida Sanoff. "It's a disgrace."

"It was a sham," said Tim Keating of Rainforest Relief of the meeting. "It was predetermined and in places seemed rehearsed. There was nothing that was said that could have prevented the outcome.

The saddest part for me is how poorly the boardwalk is being engineered. New York City missed a golden opportunity to create a truly sustainable boardwalk and a model that could be emulated in towns and cities across the country. In no way have they accomplished that."

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"Sadly though, the Parks Department continues to espouse half truths and absolute misinformation when they believe it suits their purposes and they won't be called on it, as was once again on display at this hearing today, " -

Rob Burstein.

Critics blasted the Parks Department design at the Public Design Commission hearing today.

Rain Forest Relief's Tim Keating pointed out that the US Army recently built two tank bridges and a locomotive bridge using recycled plastic (recycled structural composite). Parks Department representatives claim however that concrete is the most appropriate material for the Coney Island Boardwalk.

(Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.

"It was, once again, extremely frustrating to have to stand, silent, and listen to misinformation, obfuscation and avoidance without the ability to respond," said Mr. Keating.

"It would appear that this is not going to pass" - Public Design Commission official.

For decades the City has refused to allocate adequate funds to maintain the historic boardwalk. Each year multiple lawsuits are filed against the city for injuries as a result. The City is using borrowed capital funds to deal with a lack of maintenance funds which has resulted in the use of concrete.

Brooklyn

By Geoffrey Croft

The Public Design Commission refused to even vote today on the Parks Department controversial plan to use concrete in the historic boardwalk in Coney Island. Instead the Commission sent the Parks Department back to explain a host of issues.

Sections of Coney Boardwalk made out of concrete (left) and wood (right) last December.

(Photo:

Debbie Egan-Chin/NY Daily News)

"Why do we need the concrete at all," asked a commissioner, a sentiment shared by more than one design official.

Parks representatives claimed that no alternative materials other than concrete could support vehicle usage on the boardwalk - despite the fact that wood has done so more than 70 years.

The commissioners were not buying it today.

"If its (plastic) good enough for the United States Army, I don't understand," one Design Commissioner, James Polshek responded, referring to tank and locomotive bridges the government has recently built using that material.

"I've heard in internal discussions the police need it (the concrete) because vehicles can't stop fast enough on the artificial wood. That's nonsensical...that's not a reason. That should be thrown out."

Parks officials Nancy Prince, landscape architect, chief engineer John Natoli, and Brooklyn Commissioner Kevin Jefferies present their case.

Officials stand in front of a collage of images depicting poorly performing concrete recently installed on the boardwalk.

Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Kevin Jefferies said maintenance needs including collecting garbage cans was the reason vehicles needed access to the boardwalk.

"And they can't be serviced on artificial wood," commissioner Polshek asked in one back-and-forth.

"No they can't," said Jefferies.

"Why not," the commissioner asked.

"Because our experience have shown that its destructive to the wood. "

"As a commissioner, with all due respect to our public - to the people who support the government - I personally would have to see absolutely, categorical, graphic, proof of it with engineers names attached and the photographs," he said to applause.

Todd Dobrin, president of Friends of The Boardwalk refuted Mr. Jefferies assertion by pointing out that the city is using wood exclusively in the most heavily trafficked area of the boardwalk. Mr. Dobrin brought numerous chunks of cracked concrete taken from boardwalk sections recently installed. He also presented the commission with a book of photos depicting dark stains and thousands of cracks.

A broken-off piece of concrete from a section of the boardwalk. A larger pice was taken a few days later. Although installed just a year ago concrete from the Coney Island Boardwalk has once again raised public safety, design, environmental as well as cost concerns. In addition to the concrete chunks found, thousands of cracks have also appeared.

Parks Department spokeswoman Vickie Karp said a few weeks ago that the existing concrete boardwalk sections had “minor hairline cracks" that "pose no safety issues.”

Parks officials including Commissioner Jefferies - former head of Park Enforcement - and

chief engineer John Natoli

attempted to down play how wide-spread the poor conditions were.

"This section represents a less than a tenth of a 1 percent failure rate," said Mr. Natoli pointing to the

collage

on the wall. "We rushed this section. We wanted to have this open for the season," said Natoli.

The Parks Department's

chief engineer

did not mention the thousands of hairline cracks that have already emerged or the amount already spent on trying to fix the issue.

More than a dozen people showed up to oppose the City's plan. Critics blasted the parks Department plan for numerous reasons.

No one on the commission publicly supported the use of concrete at today's hearing either.

"Clearly, the concrete on top doesn't look as good," said commissioner Byron Kim. "I really have to vote against any concrete."

"It would appear that this is not going to pass, " Signe Nielsen, Vice President of the commission said before listing a multitude of issues they wanted addressed.

After the hearing critics were pleased.

"As the result of the Design Commission's insightful questions to official's of the Parks Department regarding their proposal to use massive amounts of concrete to replace the Coney Island Boardwalk- many of which we have raised repeatedly in the past as well as today - and the Commissions' expressions of discomfort with the paucity of information that Parks was able to provide, and their decision to not vote for approval at this time, I feel modestly hopeful that the Parks Department will be held more accountable for their claims and wasteful expenditures of taxpayer dollars than in the past," said Rob Burstein.

"And perhaps," he continued, "they can even begin to seriously consider the many viable alternative woods and materials that can be used to enhance rather than destroy the Boardwalk. Sadly though, the Parks Department continues to espouse half truths and absolute misinformation when they believe it suits their purposes and they won't be called on it, as was once again on display at this hearing today. Fortunately, as the result of our being present and the Commission's displeasure with inadequate or evasive responses, this strategy did not serve them on this day."

"I am thrilled that the members of the Design Commission were able to see some of the holes in the rhetoric presented by Parks personnel regarding the "need" to use concrete for the understructure and part of the decking of the Reigelman Boardwalk, " said Tim Keating, Director of Rainforest Relief who has been advocating for the use of durable, structural recycled plastic lumber (RPL) on the Boardwalk since 1995.

"It was, once again, extremely frustrating to have to stand, silent, and listen to misinformation, obfuscation and avoidance without the ability to respond," he continued.

"We have had numerous meetings with Parks Department Commissioners, engineers, designers, specifiers and others since then. Just as Parks is currently saying that domestic hardwoods "do not work for us", they insisted from 1995 to 2005 that RPL wasn't working for them. Then sold (literally) on tropical hardwoods as the only answer for the Boardwalk, they ignored our suggestions and those from engineers working for the companies producing structural RPLs for over a decade. In fact, they ignored us to such a great extent that, even when 'complying' with us when it came to ending the use of tropical hardwoods for the platforms of playground playsets, they still couldn't get it right and used a wood-plastic composite lumber, something we specifically suggested they *not* use. They are now having to replace *those* and are finally using true RPL."

The Parks Department's press office did not respond to a request for comment but told other media that they are "evaluating" the commissioner's comments.

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