Parks offi cials revealed their plans to place retractable bollards along every pedestrian entrance to Coney Island’s Riegelmann Boardwalk, preventing cars from driving onto the walkway.
Parks Department Fortress of frolic
Coney Island boardwalk to get $3.2 million in anti-terror defenses
Cops are looking for this man in
connection with a brutal attack
on Nov. 3. NYPD
COURIER LIFE, NOVEMBER 8-14, 2019 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
The city is spending $32
million to install barriers
along the Coney Island
boardwalk to protect the
People’s Playground from a
terrorist attack!
“The goal of the project
is to limit the vulnerabilities
to vehicular terrorism,”
said Parks Department rep
Abigail Chatfield.
The project — which is a
coordinated effort between
Park honchos and the Police
Department’s Counterterrorism
Division — calls for
the installation of bollards
and gates along the boardwalk’s
entrances in an effort
to prevent terrorists
rolling through with their
four-wheeled killing machines.
Councilmen Mark Treyger
and Chaim Deutsch proposed
the security enhancements
following a terrorist
attack along the West Side
Highway in Manhattan on
Halloween 2017, when a
truck driver ran over eight
pedestrians beside the roadway
along the Hudson River
Greenway.
“As we’ve sadly seen —
both in our own city and on
an international level — vehicles
are increasingly being
used in high-pedestriantraffic
areas as weapons to
attack the public,” Councilman
Mark Treyger (D—Coney
Island) said at the time.
And if a terrorist did
strike, it wouldn’t be the
first time Coney Island had
been targeted by wackos —
police cuffed three self-proclaimed
jihadists in 2015 ,
after the stooges declared
their allegiance to ISIS and
plotted to bomb an unspecified
target in the neighborhood.
The 150-pound black
metal bollards will be just
over three-feet high and
spaced four-feet apart along
the outer edge of the boardwalk,
while vehicle entrances
will feature five-foot
high swing gates — which
will be wide enough to allow
for wheelchair access, according
to authorities.
The new protective measures
won’t be constructed
until 2021, and officials are
still finalizing their exact
locations as they study
the effects they would have
on emergency vehicles
and boardwalk-based merchants.
Many residents have long
pushed for the anti-car measures
— albeit, to deter police
officers and Parks Department
officials from
damaging the boardwalk’s
planks with city vehicles.
“The damage being done
by the heavy vehicles in
use on our scenic landmark
by the Park’s Department
and NYPD is clearly and
abundantly evident when
you walk on the wooden
Riegelmann Boardwalk,”
Orlando Mendez wrote in a
Facebook group dedicated to
improving the boardwalk.
The local Community
Board’s Parks Committee
voted in favor of the scheme’s
preliminary designs, but final
designs won’t be completed
until Spring 2020, according
to department reps.
BY JOE HITI
Police are hunting for the
two gun-wielding fi ends who
threw a man down a fl ight a
steps on Sunday.
The victim told police
that he was arguing with
the goons inside an Eighth
Avenue apartment building
near 58th Street at around
3 pm, when bruisers began
punching the victim in the
face, before pushing him
down a fl ight of stairs.
One of the punks then
smashed the victim’s phone
on the ground, while the
other brandished a gun and
threatened to shoot the victim,
according to police.
The victim sustained minor
cuts and bruises, but refused
medical attention at
the scene, cops said.
There have been no arrests
made and the investigation
remains ongoing.
Anyone who provides police
with information leading
to an arrest can expect up to
a $2,500 reward through the
NYPD’s Crime Stoppers program.
The public can phone
their tips to (800) 577-8477, log
into the Crime Stoppers website
at www.nypd crime stoppers.
com, tweet @NYPDTips,
or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES)
then enter TIP577. All calls are
strictly confi dential.
Gunmen on the loose
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