BY ROSE ADAMS
Coney Island Councilman
Mark Treyger introduced a
bill that would protect the
neighborhood’s iconic wooden
boardwalk from one of its chief
perils — large vehicles.
“It’s long, long overdue,”
said Rob Burstein, the president
of the Coney Island-Brighton
Beach Boardwalk Alliance,
which fi ghts to preserve
the three-mile boardwalk.
“Almost all of the damage that
happens on the boardwalk is
vehicular damage.”
The bill, which Treyger introduced
into City Council on
Feb. 11, would bar all vehicles
over 2,800 pounds from driving
on the boardwalk — meaning
that city agencies would
have to employ lightweight
carts known as gators for repairs,
inspections, and garbage
removal.
The Parks Department
already uses these carts for
small fi xes, but employs vans
for plumbing repairs and
large basket loaders for garbage
pickup. Transit offi cials
currently use bucket trucks
— which often weigh more
than 12,000 pounds — to repair
broken lightbulbs along
the boardwalk, and policemen
drive patrol cars up and down
the walkway, according to the
Parks Department.
Locals say that they most
often see Parks Department
vans and trucks on the boardwalk
that weigh between 5,400
pounds and 10,000 pounds —
and are heavy enough to break
through the wooden boards,
locals say.
“The damage that these vehicles
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COURIER L 16 IFE, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2020
cause to the boardwalk
are cracked/broken boards,
collapsing of the under structure
supporting beams, popping
up and bending over the
nails and screws,” wrote local
maven Orlando Mendez in an
email. “This is something we
never saw growing up in the
community.”
The stretch of the boardwalk
between W. 23rd and W.
30th streets — located near
the boardwalk’s main vehicular
entrance — has incurred
the most damage, Burstein
added.
“It’s because that’s where
all the vehicles that traverse
the boardwalk enter,” he said.
One patch of boardwalk is so
damaged that it’s been covered
with plywood for the last
few years, he claimed.
Non-city vehicles are already
banned from the boardwalk
under Parks Department
rules, but Burstein said he’s
seen cars and motorcycles zipping
around in broad daylight.
Councilman Treyger said he
hopes the new bill will clarify
that the boardwalk is Parks
Department property and offlimits
to drivers.
“The historic Riegelmann
Boardwalk in Coney Island is
not the Belt Parkway. It is an
iconic American place of leisure
and recreation – it was
not designed as a roadway for
CAR BAN: A new bill would bar city vehicles over 2,800 pounds — the size
of a light, four-door sedan — from the Coney Island boardwalk.
Photo by Orlando Mendez
utility vehicles,” he said.
The bill allows emergency
vehicles to drive on the boardwalk,
but Burstein argued
that the exemption wasn’t
necessary, since emergency
vehicles tend to stop short of
the boardwalk while fi rst responders
run to the scene.
“When there’s a need for
EMS they don’t drive on the
boardwalk,” he said.
Overall, boardwalk advocates
say they’re thrilled with
the bill, but wish the Parks Department
could have switched
to lighter vehicles after activist
groups complained rather
than waiting for legislation to
pass.
“I grew up in Coney Island
and founded the group over
10 years ago,” Burstein said.
“And the Parks Department
has been — to put it kindly —
less than accommodating.”
Boardwalk, not drive
New bill would restrict size of vehicles allowed
on damaged Coney Island boardwalk
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