Residents were upset this week when Parks Department officials announced that the wooden planks of the Coney Island Boardwalk would likely be replaced with concrete. Brooklyn Borough President and stoop drinker Marty Markowitz wrote a letter to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe to try to dissuade them of changing the historic boardwalk: "We should not hastily turn our legendary Coney Island Boardwalk into just another concrete sidewalk. The last thing we want to do is take away one of the main reasons people come to Coney Island!"
Parks officials unveiled their $7.4 million plan to rebuild a five-block stretch of the Boardwalk in concrete at the Community Board 13 meeting this week, but indicated that they would recommend to the city that they redo most of Reigelman Boardwalk that way. It was met by irate disapproval from residents such as Ida Sanoff: "It is a boardwalk! It is not a sidewalk! It looks like crap...You're looking for the cheap way out and the easy way out. Not acceptable!"
Parks Department spokeswoman Vickie Karp said the concrete would meet environmental standards set by Mayor Bloomberg, who ordered the Parks Department to reduce its use of wood in 2008. She added that certain parts of the boardwalk would retain the wood: "Coney Island Boardwalk will use wood in historic areas such as the front of the amusement park, and some of the most beautiful designs in concrete in other sections." But Markowitz thinks there should be other alternatives: "You can find other sustainable hardwoods out there besides tropical hardwoods. Cement doesn't do it."
