{"id":3026,"date":"2007-12-28T06:52:45","date_gmt":"2007-12-28T14:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/12\/silly_when_the_polar_bears_already_use_coney_island_year_round.html"},"modified":"2008-01-24T10:30:16","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T15:30:16","slug":"silly_when_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/12\/silly_when_the.html","title":{"rendered":"Silly When The Polar Bears Already Use Coney Island Year Round . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Does Thor even need to keep buying off everyone? Apparently<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The annual New Year’s swim at Coney Island used to be only about jumping into the frigid ocean — but now, the Polar Bear Club is finding itself in uncomfortably hot water for accepting a donation from Thor Equities, the mega-bucks developer that wants to create a Vegas-style amusement and residential district along the Boardwalk.<\/p>\n

The 104-year-old club was pilloried on a Coney Island Internet message board last week for letting the developer sponsor the famed New Year’s Day swim.<\/p>\n

“Thor has proven nothing but being an opportunist when it suits them, and they are using [the Polar Bear Club] just like they tried to attach their name to the Mermaid Parade,” one poster ranted. “It’s transparent, and I’m sorry, but I’ve lost respect for the Polar Bear Club.”<\/p>\n

Many people might be surprised by the partnership forged between Thor and the club, because last year, the Mermaid Parade — Coney Island’s other great tradition — became a politically charged event that featured Polar Bears growling in the anti-Thor procession.<\/p>\n

But now, club President Lou Scarcella said he’s made peace with Thor Equities because the company has jettisoned the idea of having condos inside Coney’s historic amusement area.<\/p>\n

“We are definitely not sellouts,” Scarcella told The Brooklyn Paper. “If Thor wants to help, I say fantastic.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does Thor even need to keep buying off everyone? Apparently: The annual New Year’s swim at Coney Island used to be only about jumping into the frigid ocean — but now, the Polar Bear Club is finding itself in uncomfortably hot water for accepting a donation from Thor Equities, the mega-bucks developer that wants to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-follow_the_money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}