BY ROSE ADAMS
There are no carpenters assigned
to maintain the Coney
Island Boardwalk year-round,
despite the frequent damage
that the heavily-traffi cked
landmark sustains, a Parks
Department offi cial revealed
at a Monday hearing.
“Outside the peak season,
no carpenters are specifi cally
dedicated to Coney Island,
but we’re doing repairs whenever
they’re necessary,” said
Mark Focht, the deputy commissioner
of maintenance for
the Parks Department at an
April 12 City Council hearing.
“During our peak season …
around now through the season,
we dictate two carpenters
to maintain the boardwalk.”
The revelation comes as
area Councilmember Mark
Treyger is calling to ramp
up repairs on the 98-yearold
Riegelmann Boardwalk,
whose wooden boards are often
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dislodged and broken by
large vehicles driving along it,
according to locals.
“Almost all of the damage
that happens on the boardwalk
is vehicular damage,”
Rob Burstein, the president
of the Coney Island-Brighton
Beach Boardwalk Alliance,
told Brooklyn Paper in 2019.
Though the public is barred
from driving on the landmark,
NYPD cars often patrol the
boardwalk, and the Parks Department
drives around regularly
for inspections, repairs,
and garbage removal. Park
honchos tend to use lightweight
carts, known as gators,
for its activities, but some of its
repairs require large trucks
that can weigh more than
12,000 pounds — wreaking
havoc on the delicate boards,
said one local maven.
“The damage that these vehicles
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 Orlando Mendez
in an email to Brooklyn Paper
in 2019. “This is something
we never saw growing up in the
community.”
The damage isn’t only an
eyesore; it can also lead to injuries.
Last year, a Brighton
Beach man sued the city after
his leg fell through a wooden
plank, and former Councilmember
David Greenfi eld
injured his leg because of a
broken board, Treyger said.
Locals have long called for a
ban on vehicles and increased
maintenance of the 2.7-mile
pedestrian boardwalk, repeatedly
bringing up the issue in
community board meetings
and forming a Facebook group
called “Concerned Residents
There are no carpenters assigned to inspect and repair the Coney Island
boardwalk year-round, the Parks Department said. Orlando Mendez
for a Safer Boardwalk.”
In February 2020, Treyger
answered those calls when
he introduced legislation that
would bar all vehicles over
2,800 pounds from driving onto
the boardwalk. If passed, the
law would force Parks and the
NYPD to use only lightweight
gators. Ambulances and other
vehicles responding to emergencies
are exempt from the rule.
Treyger said that he also
hopes law could also reinforce
the existing ban on vehicles,
which often drive around
without punishment. Hardly
any unauthorized vehicles receive
tickets, said one Parks
Department offi cial at the
April 12 Council hearing regarding
Treyger’s bill.
“In the past three years, we
have issued two summonses,
and both of them were at Coney
Island,” said Edwin Rodriguez,
the assistant commissioner
for Parks Enforcement
Control, the Parks Department
run peace offi cers that
patrol the city’s parks. Rather
than issue summonses, offi
cers tend to ask drivers to
IN DISREPAIR
Historic Coney Island boardwalk has no
year-round repairman, Parks Dept. reveals
Continued on page 18
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