‘A problem decades in the making’
Council passes legislation banning large vehicles from city boardwalks
COURIER LIFE, APR. 30-MAY 6, 2021 3
BY JESSICA PARKS
Vehicles are now
banned from Coney Island’s
Riegelmann Boardwalk, after
a local pol’s bill got the green
light in the City Council on
April 22 — preserving the
crumbling monument from
further damage brought on by
the heavy four-wheelers.
“The historic Riegelmann
Boardwalk in Coney Island
is not the Belt Parkway,” said
Councilmember Mark Treyger.
“It is an iconic American
place of leisure and recreation
— it was not designed as a
roadway for utility vehicles.”
While most vehicles are already
prohibited from traversing
the 98-year-old boardwalk,
police offi cers often patrol the
2.7-mile span and the city’s
Parks Department conducts
routine inspections, repairs
and garbage removal using either
lightweight carts known
as gators or larger, bulkier
vans and trucks the span is
not meant to withstand.
“Typically seven months
out of the year, they are using
their very heavy vehicles on the
boardwalk back and forth,” said
Coney Island resident Orlando
Mendez. “I am trying to fi gure
out what they are doing because
they don’t seem to be doing anything
other than riding back
and forth during the offseason.”
Locals charge that the vehicles’
use of the boardwalk
has led not only to damage,
but also to injury. The boardwalk’s
often dislodged wooden
planks have had costly consequences,
such as when a
Brighton Beach man sued the
city after his leg fell through a
wooden board and when former
Councilmember David
Greenfi eld injured his leg in
the same fashion.
“Anybody who has any real
knowledge of the boardwalk
knows that all of the signifi -
cant damage has been caused
by heavy vehicles being driven
over the boardwalk at high
speeds,” said Rob Burstein,
president of the Coney-Brighton
Boardwalk Alliance. “All
of the major damage is done by
heavy vehicles rumbling over
the boardwalk popping up
nails and causing loose boards
and all kinds of other damage
which cause essentially the destruction
of wide swaths of the
boardwalk and tremendous
safety issues and diminished
the enjoyment of people’s use
of the boardwalk.”
While the high-traffi c
amusement area is relatively
well-maintained, Burstein
pointed to areas of the walkway
which are in decrepit condition
— including a stretch
between W. 23rd and W.27th
street, near a Parks Department
facility. That stretch,
Burstein said, serves as a
main entry point for agency
vehicles, and is deteriorating
to the point where plywood
boards were put over the
wooden planks.
“That is where all of the
heavy trucks and vehicles
from the Parks Department
typically enter and exit the
boardwalk, that area for many
years has plywood thrown
over it,” Burstein said.
A long time coming
In response to his constituents’
years-long advocacy for a
boardwalk-wide ban on cars,
Treyger introduced legislation
in February 2020 which
would set a weight limit for vehicles.
The bill passed in the
Council’s Parks Committee
on April 21, and was passed by
the full Council the next day.
For locals — more than
100 of whom are members of a
group called “Concerned Residents
for a Safer Boardwalk” —
the resolution is well overdue.
“This is a problem decades
in the making, it’s been going on
for a long time,” Burstein said.
Treyger’s bill would require
authorized city employees
to utilize vehicles under
2,400 pounds for activities on
all city boardwalks — limiting
city agencies to the lightweight
gators — unless larger
vehicles are absolutely necessary
for construction, maintenance
or public safety.
NYPD patrolling the Riegelmann Boardwalk on Memorial Day weekend
last year. File photo by Todd Maisel
Continued on page 18