Coney Island boardwalk pushed for landmark status by Brooklyn politician
BY REUVEN BLAU
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, February 5, 2016, 2:00 AM
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BEBETO MATTHEWS/APConey Island's 2.5-mile long boardwalk sees millions of people each year walk on its planks.
A Brooklyn lawmaker is pressing the city to landmark Coney Island’s iconic boardwalk in an effort to stop parts of it from being converted into concrete and fake wood.
City Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn) has introduced a resolution urging the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate the historic 2.5-mile Riegelmann Boardwalk a historic site that cannot be drastically altered.
“The boardwalk is one of our community's most precious assets," he said. "This beloved local treasure deserves official status so that its defining structural and aesthetic characteristics are preserved and protected."
All told, 49 other Council Members support the resolution. The resolution is merely a vote of support and does not force the city to act.
CRAIG WARGA/BLOOMBERGThe Parks Department has experimented with converting parts of the Coney Island boardwalk to concrete and fake wood, which would save a lot in upkeep.
There are three scenic landmarks in Brooklyn: Prospect Park, Eastern Parkway and Ocean Parkway.
But the Landmarks Commission does not appear inclined to add a fourth, despite mounting pressure
Treyger has long urged the city to landmark the boardwalk, to no avail.
WILLIAM ALATRISTE//NEW YORK CITY COUNCILCity Councilman Mark Treyger calls the boardwalk one of Brooklyn's "most precious assets."
Over the past several years, the city Parks Department has quietly launched a series of so-called trials to convert portions of the planked pathway, which dates to 1923, into concrete and fake wood.
Park officials maintain the substitute material is sturdier and much cheaper. It costs about $90 per square-foot, compared to approximately $130 for real wood.
“Coney Island’s historic Boardwalk is endangered, and if nothing is done, it will soon be transformed into an ugly concrete sidewalk,” said Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project. “The Boardwalk needs recognition, care, and respect in order to preserve and protect it.”
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