Atlantic Yards Opponents Bring Up the "Coney Island Arena Solution" Again

Atlantic Yards opponents are again suggesting a "Coney Island arena solution" as an alternative to the huge Forest City Ratner project at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. In the latest salvo from Develop-Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Daniel Goldstein says, "Coney Island is a viable location for an arena in Brooklyn that requires a serious and hard look. It was built for crowds and can use the 'off season' shot in the arm that a professional basketball arena could bring."

The New York Games blog recently suggested the Coney Island option and offered a history of the project, noting developer Bruce Ratner's original preference for a Coney Island site in 1997. Read a few sentences into the blog, of course, and you will also be reminded that the plan was never to build a stand-alone arena. The Coney Island arena, like the Atlantic Yards one, was a Trojan Horse for a much bigger development project. We can only assume that Thor Equities, the current major player in Coney Island redevelopment, would not send Ratner huge bouquets of roses if he wanted to switch locations at this point. On the other hand, Frank Gehry has proposed seaside towers in Brighton, England that are very similar to Miss Brooklyn, so who knows? A couple of tweaks to the Brighton Maiden and Miss Brooklyn, and Frank O. would be ready to go.

The Daily News' iTeam Blog also picked up the Coney Island thread from the New York Games blog. And, Atlantic Yards opponent Norman Oder also offers a long argument in his Atlantic Yards Report in favor of giving to Coney Island what many residents of Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene and Boerum Hill don't want.

The Coney Island arena backers point out that Brooklyn Boro President Marty Markowitz, who supports Atlantic Yards, once favored a seaside arena site. (The property that had once been indentified is adjacent to Keyspan Park, where the depressing Stark sports center currently sits along with some still available vacant property.

The full details are available at the DDDB website.