No Need To Panic

MTA officials complain that the “panic bar,” already misused by stroller pushers, have become a pain in the ass:

“People are using them indiscriminately, to get out quicker,” Andrew Albert, a rider representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, said yesterday. “I’m just really concerned if there is a real emergency, as it was with the car alarms that go off, you are going to hear this bell going off and you’re not going to pay any attention to it.”

Shrill alarms at subway station exits have become common since June, when the MTA started installing the panic bars on all service gates next to regular and floor-to-ceiling turnstiles. People have used the gates, which are meant only for emergencies, as a regular exit.

In addition to the stroller dilemma, apparently a new problem has emerged:

“They haven’t run any kind of public education campaign. It’s not fair to criticize riders,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign. “They don’t know anything about the gates.”

But transit officials disagreed, saying riders are warned that they can be ticketed for opening the gates.

“Summonses have apparently been issued to individuals holding the gates open and selling rides,” said New York City Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges.

Exact details about the number of summonses given were unavailable yesterday.

His Idea Of “Something Spectacular” Is Exactly What We Fear

Be sure to take a last thrilling ride in the Astrotower before it’s too late:

It’s the last ride for Astroland as New Yorkers know it.

A big-bucks developer bought up the gritty Brooklyn amusement park yesterday in its bid to turn Coney Island into a sparkling new $1.5 billion year-round resort.

The 2007 summer season will be Astroland’s last under the plan, which would leave the historic landmark Cyclone roller coaster intact.

Astroland owner Carol Hill Albert sold the 3-acre Astroland site to developer Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities for an unspecified amount.

. . .

Albert said she hopes to relocate some of the rides like the Tilt-A-Whirl and Tea Cups elsewhere along the Boardwalk.

Even if Albert is able to relocate rides like the Pirate Ship, Top Spin and the Scrambler, one of the most popular, the Astrotower, will have to leave Coney Island for good.

“That I can’t move,” said Albert, who noted it would cost as much as $400,000 to move the 200-foot, World’s Fair era attraction. “You can put it on eBay for me.”

Thor spokesman Lee Silberstein said the famed Cyclone roller coaster, which sits on city land, would not change hands and would continue to be operated by Albert.

The rest of Astroland would be cleared for new rides and an indoor entertainment complex, but Silberstein declined to reveal specific plans.

Thor also envisions luxury condos, and turning Stillwell Ave. into a tree-lined pedestrian mall filled with cafes and shops.

“We’re thinking totally outside of the box,” said Silberstein. “We’re thinking something spectacular that would be really great for New York City.”

Location Scout: Coney Island.

Between Simpler Transfer Or Fancy Roof, I Want The Roof!

The architecturally ambitious street-level structure at the proposed Fulton Street Transit Center is reduced to a mere “fancy roof” by MTA board members upset at the lack of funds for — I guess — more useful features:

The long-delayed and overbudget Fulton Transit Center is slated to have a 20-foot-tall glass dome, envisioned as a beacon to travelers and symbol of post-9/11 renewal.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority doesn’t have the funds for an underground passageway that would provide faster, and simpler, transfers among several subway lines, an official said at an MTA committee meeting.

“I won’t support a project like this that’s going to discombobulate tens of thousands of daily riders every single day because you want a fancy roof,” veteran board member Barry Feinstein said in a rare burst of anger.

The Fulton Transit Center will replace the confusing and antiquated Fulton St./Broadway Nassau complex where trains on nine lines — the A, C, J, M, Z, 2, 3, 4 and 5 — now stop.

. . .

The passageway that critics say is missing from current plans is a north-south underground “connector” passageway between the R/W Cortlandt St. station and the E train terminal at the northern edge of the Trade Center site.

Without it, riders looking to take the Broadway or the E lines would have two options: Go up to the streets and brave the elements, or take a more circuitous underground route through the PATH station.

Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA’s Capital Construction Co., said his engineers would search for solutions, but he said money is tight.

The Julian Tops Off . . . Before Night Falls

Julian Schnabel — part Donald Trump, part Robert Moses:

The artist and filmmaker’s new 11-story tower addition to his existing three-story building on W. 11th St. between Washington and West Sts. rises to 167 feet in height. But it never should have been allowed to be that tall, according to Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

At the beginning of the year, G.V.S.H.P. and neighbors protested that as the city was preparing to downzone the West Village — enforcing lower height caps on new construction — Schnabel’s workers were doing illegal construction after hours and on weekends to get the project vested — or sufficiently underway to gain approval before the deadline. Neighbors called 311 to complain about the alleged illegal work, but didn’t get a timely response, according to Berman. Ultimately, the Department of Buildings allowed Schnabel’s project to proceed.

“It’s horrible. It’s all of your worst nightmares come true,” said Berman of the new tower. “It’s really a monument to this guy’s ego. The city ruled it was vested even though dozens of neighbors, independent of each other, submitted signed affidavits [of illegal work]. You could name this the Department of Buildings Tower — because of their negligence, that thing was built,” Berman fumed.

I Guess 1980s Excess Is Coming Back After All

Donald infiltration: complete. Form of: Soho condo-hotel. Just rolls off the tongue, that:

The city will approve construction permits for a condo hotel skyscraper that megadeveloper Donald Trump wants to build in western SoHo, the Daily News has learned.

Community groups who oppose his plans for the 45-story Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium got the word late Wednesday from elected officials, said Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Trump said yesterday that he hadn’t got the official okay from the Department of Buildings, which issues the construction permits. But he was upbeat anyway.

“It will be like all my other buildings,” he told The News. “Once they get built, everybody loves them.”

Trump is already doing excavation and site prep — for which he does have city permits — at his property at 246 Spring St., which had been a parking lot.

He’s planning a luxurious glass tower with 411 units designed by high-profile architect David Rockwell. Most floors will have superb views because it will be the tallest building between 23rd St. and lower Manhattan. There will also be a rooftop pool with cabanas.