Coney Island Looking Like Sitt for Memorial Day

We spent part of yesterday afternoon in Coney Island enjoying the nice weather, and couldn't resist noticing that the blight along Stillwell Avenue and W. 12 Street is looking splendid just in time for the official kickoff of the summer season this weekend. What's especially curious is that developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities aren't even bothering to paint the hideous, depressing fence they've erected or to cover over any of the tagging that's already happened. (Curiously, a couple of panels have been painted and others have been left tagged. Did they run out of paint?) We watched dozens of people stop and stare at the semi-cleared parcels of land where the Go-Cart Tracks and Batting Cages were and also noted that there there are less businesses operating than last year in Sitt-owned properties.

The Sitt-created blight--which could be corrected by installing temporary amusements--is one thing. But, it is truly a curious thing that as the summer season begins a developer pitching a $2 billion project hasn't even bothered to prettify the problem or to address the potential public safety hazard that he has created. If we were prone to making extreme statements, we'd call what Mr. Sitt has already done to Coney Island an act of civic contempt that could result in unsavory things as the summer crowds come to the Thor Equities Corridors of Blight. In fact, if we were the types to ascribe underhanded motives to developers, we would suggest that Mr. Sitt has been callous and calculated in creating emptiness and deadness in the heart of Coney Island long before any redevelopment will happen. We might say, in fact, that he is committing a kind of premeditated neighborhood homicide.

But, we won't say any of those things, because we know the man that calls himself "Joey Coney Island" wouldn't do any of those things. Instead, we'll simply say, what a sad and terrible shame.