EDC Danes To Leverage Its Control Over Coney Island

Would you prefer Joe Sitt or Tivoli Gardens? I mean, Coney Island and Copenhagen are close to each other in the dictionary, but that’s about it:

Robert Lieber, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., flew to Copenhagen last week with other top agency officials to meet with representatives from Tivoli Gardens.

The meeting, he said, was both about Tivoli’s preliminary interest in Coney Island and to learn from the success of the 164-year-old amusement park on how best to transform Coney’s amusement district into a year-round attraction.

He said a Tivoli branch in Coney Island could work without giving up the area’s famous freakiness, adding Tivoli officials promised a future visit.

“We aren’t trying to create Disneyland in Coney Island, but we’re trying to create a demand-oriented model that maintains the neighborhood’s character and economic interests,” Lieber said.

Tivoli, which has more than 20 rides and famous gardens, features the world’s tallest carousel and a 93-year-old wooden roller coaster, called the Rutsjebanen, that is slightly older than Coney Island’s Cyclone.

. . .

With the city planning to rezone Coney Island’s amusement district this year to help future development, Lieber said he’s still not satisfied with developer Joe Sitt’s proposal to build a $1.5 billion hotel-entertainment complex in the heart of the amusement district.

Lieber pointed out that Tivoli is successful year-round without the onsite condos, time-shares or hotels that Sitt has pushed for, despite Denmark’s cold winters and the park’s many outdoor rides and attractions.

“They’ve learned to think outside the box and continuously reinvent themselves,” said Lieber. “They’ve made Halloween a weeklong event and have a two-week event centered around Christmas.”

With Sitt controlling 10 acres of prime boardwalk real estate, both he and City Hall will have to reach a compromise or risk Coney Island remaining stagnant.

The city could theoretically try taking Sitt’s land through eminent domain, but Lieber said he’s “not ready to go there” when asked about condemnation.

(Using eminent domain against a developer . . . now that would be a hoot!)

Location Scout: Coney Island Amusement Core.

As Which World Turns?

Bemused Midwood residents still don’t understand what happens “As The World Turns”:

The show has been filmed in New York for its entire 51-year history, and it’s safe to say that its souped-up world of sex and chicanery rarely resembles life on the sidewalks outside. But seven years ago the producers moved their studio from Midtown to Midwood, and with a healthy dose of real estate irony, the relocation coincided with a sharp growth in the local Orthodox Jewish community. As Midwood’s Orthodox population soared to perhaps three-quarters of the neighborhood, the gap between sidewalk and soap opera became a gulf.

Now, when Oakdale’s powerful, scheming blondes and sensitive, square-jawed men step out of the warehouse at Avenue M and East 14th Street, they encounter women wearing very long skirts and men with very long beards.

In Oakdale, your daily life might include falling into a coma, learning that you have an evil twin, or developing amnesia. Your romantic relationships would be more fleeting and unstable than the average high schooler’s. Above all, you would be in constant danger of getting kidnapped — Lily Snyder, for instance, has been kidnapped no fewer than eight times.

Outside the studio, by contrast, all premarital contact between the sexes, even handshakes, is forbidden, and many residents do not allow television into their homes.

Inside the studio, a woman might be hanging from a bell tower by her fingernails, while in the streets outside, the most dramatic scene is the group of elderly people holding court in the kosher Dunkin’ Donuts.

“We’re strangers in a strange land,” said Christopher Goutman, the show’s executive producer. “There aren’t even any bars around here.”

The studio, which was built in the late 1920s, still features Esther Williams’s old pool and more recently provided the setting for “The Cosby Show.” But the good citizens of Midwood are oblivious to the past and present dramas unfolding within the high fortress walls, and even close neighbors are unclear about the building’s function.

The owner of the Korean deli around the corner was sure that some type of cartoon was being filmed there, and the restaurateur across the street insisted that the warehouse contained “the news.” When informed of the building’s true purpose, most were still in the dark.

“Soap opera?” asked a pale 19-year-old who would identify himself only as Tzviyanky. “Those are the shows where everybody’s cheating on each other, right?”

There’s Ecotourism In Costa Rica, Disaster Tourism In New Orleans, Sex Tourism In Southeast Asia . . .*

. . . and now in Brooklyn the latest in travel trends — Gentrification Tourism:

The Brooklyn Paper got a first peek inside Brooklyn’s first boutique hotel — Hotel Le Bleu — and discovered a very modern, tasteful, 48-room, glass-and-steel complex.

But looking out the window onto Fourth Avenue certainly brings you back to the real world. Sandwiched between a taxi depot and a Staples office supply store, it’s not a stretch to wonder if this is really the stuff that four-star hotels are made of.

“We want to be ahead of the curve on everything that’s happening in Brooklyn — particularly [on Fourth Avenue],” General Manager Robert Gaeta said. “There are a lot of exciting things happening in this area. It’s reminiscent of DUMBO or Williamsburg.”

The hotel, which is at Fifth street, will open for business on Aug. 1, though its chic in-house restaurant and rooftop bar won’t be ready until later this year. At that point, Le Bleu — which is owned by Globiwest International, a California-based hotel chain — hopes to draw local traffic to the Gowanus Canal area.

“This could be Venice in the United States,” Gaeta said.

Financially, it already is: Le Bleu rooms will go for the Venice-like price of $300–$400 a night, but, Gaeta quickly pointed out, the tariff includes luxury amenities like concierge service, plasma-screen televisions and botanical bath products in the glass-walled showers.

*And how could we forget graffiti tourism?

Where Some Borough Presidents Are Fond Of Press Conferences, Others Simply Like To Shop

Ooh, Nordstrom . . . so fancy:

The borough president who helped bring Trader Joe’s to Atlantic Avenue has set his sights on a new upscale target — a Nordstrom department store.

“Now that [Trader Joe’s] is done, we can go to the next one,” Borough President Markowitz told The Brooklyn Paper several days after leading a jubilant parade from Borough Hall to the Court Street bank building where the gourmet grocer is setting up its first Kings County store.

“Nordstrom would be awesome in Brooklyn. Now we have Trader Joe’s, Ikea, Whole Foods and all the other great retailers. That would complete it,” Markowitz said, still exuberant from his Joe’s victory lap.

The beep said he spent several years working to get the California-based purveyor of wasabi hummus and chicken dumplings to the corner of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue before last week’s announcement.

“My mother-and father-in-law, Joan and Jules Snow, would go to the Nassau County store and come back with chips and spreads that they couldn’t wait to bring out and show me,” he said. “I found out about Trader Joe’s and I started pitching,” he said.

. . .

Nordstrom does not have a New York City location. Most of the company’s stores — with their live pianists and marbled-floored restroom “lounges” — are in upscale shopping malls in the suburbs.

But Michael Boyd, a Nordstrom spokesman, said the company appreciated the borough president’s invitation.

“It’s very flattering,” he said. “We certainly appreciate the attention and are always happy to discuss new locations.”

Ah, but what locations? Retail experts said that finding a location for the high-end, mall chain could be tough in economically diverse, tightly packed Downtown Brooklyn.

“A Nordstrom would need the correct neighbors and something like a million square feet of retail space,” said Joseph Aquino, executive vice president for retail leasing and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Aquino said that Fulton Mall, once a mecca for white-gloved department stores and still home to Macy’s, was not quite fancy enough for Nordstrom.

“The retailers there are not the right neighbors,” he said.

(That makes me want to hear the Beep and Charles Barron debate. Darned term limits!)

Don’t Limit My Leaving Brooklyn Signs To Just One Group Of People!

Maybe he’ll change the “Oy Vey You’re Leaving Brooklyn” and “Fuhgeddaboudit” signs to include some snappy Sonny Carson quotes once he becomes Borough President:

The race for the presidency of Brooklyn is off to an early start with City Council Member Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, officially announcing his candidacy yesterday by promising to represent all Brooklyn residents, but “take care of black folk.”

Mr. Barron said he is unapologetic about his plan to address the needs of black residents in Brooklyn. Speaking in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall surrounded by supporters, he said Brooklyn needs more affordable housing and jobs, as well as someone to stand up to developers trying to use eminent domain to secure land. He also called for an end to mayoral control of the city’s schools.

He argued that his platform would benefit white residents as well, because “when I take care of black folk, that’s going to impact you,” he said.

Mr. Barron, currently embroiled in a fight with Speaker Christine Quinn over the firing of his chief of staff, Viola Plummer, is famous at City Hall for utilizing racial rhetoric in his political battles.

. . .

While announcing his candidacy yesterday, he responded — without prompting — to critics who say he focuses too much on race.

“You ain’t heard enough yet,” he said. “Because I’m going to keep talking about it.”

The Reverend Al Sharpton spoke at the rally, saying he will work churches, subway stops, streets, and housing projects to ensure Mr. Barron is the first black president of Brooklyn. He also praised the candidate for defending Plummer.