Thrilling Rides On The Astrotower Saved For Future Generations?

Whether it’s relocated elsewhere on the boardwalk or shipped down south, the threatened Astrotower likely will be saved somehow:

Carol Hill Albert, who sold Astroland Park to Thor Equities last week, said she wants to donate the 275-foot-high “space tower” to the city so it could be moved to another part of the Coney Island boardwalk.

But if the city doesn’t accept her offer, she said, she has a buyer who wants to move it to an undisclosed amusement park somewhere down South.

“It’s a real icon for Coney Island that’s just as visible as the Parachute Jump, and it would be a real shame if it left the area,” she said.

The city’s Economic Development Corp. confirmed it received Albert’s offer and is considering it.

“The city taking ownership of the Astrotower is an interesting idea that warrants exploration, but we would first need to better understand the associated costs,” said Joshua Sirefman, interim president of the EDC and the chairman of its Coney Island Development Corp.

Albert said she’d be willing to share relocation costs with the city.

Meanwhile, some Coney Island residents are considering pushing for landmark status for the Astrotower to ensure it stays.

Built in 1963, the ride is a rotating, glass-enclosed compartment that takes passengers to the top of the tower. It serves as a moving observatory, offering magnificent views of the ocean and city.

Pimp, Pimp, Pimp, Pimp Your Ass Off

One possibility for “something spectacular” at Coney Island emerges:

SpongeBob SquarePants could soon frolic along Coney Island’s boardwalk.

Cable-TV giant Nickelodeon has expressed interest in being part of developer Thor Equities’ $2 billion plan to turn the famed summer amusement area’s rundown strip into a glitzy year-round playground and public attraction, sources said.

Nickelodeon’s parent company, Viacom, is talking with Thor about the possibility of the kids network operating a theme hotel on part of the 3.1-acre Astroland amusement-park property the developer purchased last week.

. . .

Thor spokesman Lee Silberstein said companies are interested in Coney Island “now that there is a serious proposal for the area’s revival.”

Nickelodeon Senior VP Howard Smith said, “We think a Nickelodeon-themed family resort hotel would be hugely popular with New Yorkers.”

Bay Ridge Likes Its Fish* Exotic, Not Its Women

You say “erotic” and he says “exotic”:

The sign said “exotic dancers.” The only visual was a silhouette of what appeared to be a scantily clad young woman, beckoning passersby into the new Club Shadows.

No wonder, then, that Bay Ridge residents thought they were about to get a strip club. No wonder, then, that panic ensued, that the community board office was flooded with calls from people who didn’t want to see a “gentleman’s club” open in their backyard, and that the community board raced to check the zoning on the site, as well as all other relevant data.

But, it was never his intention to open a strip joint, said the club manager, Joseph Domovsky, who told this newspaper that, after learning about the community response, he had tried to eradicate the problematic phrase from the sign announcing the impending opening of the club on November 30.

“Exotic is not the same as erotic,” he asserted, in a phone interview with this newspaper, contending that what would be opening at 9013 Fourth Avenue would be no more and no less than, “An upscale bar for adults 21 and over. We will be bringing in DJs and performance artists. We are going to run a high-fashion, upscale club.”

*Or its meats.

Times Were Bad, So Bad, That We Took To Stealing Garbage Cans

You can almost understand stealing a bronze statue or even, you know, like a police car, but a trash can? That’s just desperate:

Members of Garage 6, located at 127 2nd Avenue, were telling police about a recent break-in at their garage when they, as an aside, told them that over the last month and a half, 45 waste bins have been removed from area shopping strips.

Waste bins have disappeared off of 4th Avenue, 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue, they told cops.

With the bins costing $120 apiece, the city has shelled out over $5,000 in the last month just to have the bins replaced.

The “Whoever Smelt It, Dealt It” Rule Of Gentrification

Young urban professionals moving back to Manhattan from Brooklyn can rest assured that the Brooklyn Papers will make them look real stupid in the process:

As Melanie Greenberg unpacked boxes in her new 500-square-foot Lower East Side apartment, her next-door neighbor was, for no apparent reason, on the fire escape singing mournful ballads.

And that was the good news.

Greenberg, a 27-year-old freelance writer, was back in the city where she felt home — just two years after she had moved to Williamsburg to save money.

But within months of that move, the traditionally Italian neighborhood she loved started changing. And Greenberg didn’t like the changes.

“Big high-rise buildings started going up and slowly but surely the hipsters started spilling into my part of the neighborhood,” said Greenberg, who is now single.

“I decided I wanted to go back to Manhattan — specifically to Alphabet City — where there is a real feeling of community and more diversity than probably just about any other neighborhood of the city.”

Greenberg is not alone. The type of hipsters who once moshed from Manhattan into Williamsburg, Cobble Hill and Park Slope like crowds at a Beck concert are now singing a different tune: “We’ll re-take Manhattan.”