There's nothing like a day at the beach: the cheery gaggles of children, the race to finish your ice cream before it melts off the cone, the smell of burning flesh as your feet cook against the searing concrete boardwalk. Yes, life is good now that Community Board 13 approved a 12-foot strip of concrete down the middle of the boardwalk. The Daily News reports that the vote was 5-1, and "came after a raucous meeting where opponents brandished signs and 'Boardwalk Not Sidewalk' T-shirts." Will the Wood People ever get along with Shel Silverstein fans?

"We shrunk it down pretty much as far as we think we can shrink it," the Brooklyn Parks chief of staff said, referring to the need for city vehicles to travel on the boardwalk and leaving 19 feet of imitation wood on either side. That concession still isn't doin' it for "Brighton Beach activist" Ida Sanoff, who complained that the concrete slabs "make you dizzy when you look at them." No problem Ida! If you stare into the hypnotic glare that emanates from them during direct sunlight, you'll forget all about the dizziness.

CB 13 member Alan Podhaizer acknowledged the problems with concrete, but "right now the Boardwalk is a disaster…Something has to be done now." As the construction begins and won't be finished until 2013, we still have some time to heed the words of The Drifters. Although it's kinda hard to see through concrete...