Treyger Invites Residents to Testify to Landmark Boardwalk

Council Member Mark Treyger (47th District) is inviting residents of Southern Brooklyn, and all New Yorkers, to City Hall on May 4th to show their support for his resolution calling for Coney Island’s Riegelmann Boardwalk to be designated an official landmark.

The City Council’s Land Use Committee will be hearing testimony on Treyger’s resolution, and the Council Member is inviting anyone who believes that the Boardwalk should receive landmark status to attend the public hearing and offer testimony in front of the committee.

Treyger originally introduced the resolution to the City Council on February 5, 2016. The resolution received the support of all but one of the City’s Council Members, as well as Public Advocate Letitia James, with a total of 49 co-sponsors signing on. The resolution was assigned to the Land Use Committee, and will be one of several pieces of legislation discussed at the Committee’s May 4th 11 a.m. hearing in the Council Committee Room at City Hall.

Treyger is also encouraging people to take to social media to support landmarking the Boardwalk, calling on people to post their favorite Boardwalk memories and photographs using the hashtag #LandmarkTheBoardwalk.

A landmark designation for the Boardwalk would bestow upon it official recognition as Southern Brooklyn’s historic site, but would also a layer of protection and an opportunity for residents to weigh in on the future of the Boardwalk. Currently, the City needs no approval to make changes to the Boardwalk, and sections of the Boardwalk have already been replaced with concrete, drastically altering its character.

Treyger, with the help of community activist and Coney Island historian Charles Denson, originally filed an application with the LPC to landmark the Boardwalk on December 2nd, 2014. Treyger, Denson, and neighboring Council Member Chaim Deutsch met with Landmarks Preservation Commission officials last year urging them to consider the historical context under which the Boardwalk was built.

“Not only is the Boardwalk one of Southern Brooklyn’s most significant destinations; it is a New York icon, too,” said Council Member Treyger. “New Yorkers and visitors from across the globe have been making memories along the Boardwalk’s 2.7 miles of wooden planks for nearly a century, and we must ensure that people can continue to create more memories on those same wooden planks going forward.

“The landmarking process in this city needs to be an equitable process, because the history and tradition of all of our city’s neighborhoods must be preserved. Too much has been lost already. The Boardwalk is a quintessential part of Southern Brooklyn’s history, and I am encouraging all residents of Southern Brooklyn, as well as any New Yorker that remembers walking down the Boardwalk, feeling the cool ocean breeze embracing them, to join me on May 4th at City Hall. Let your voice be heard! Testify at this hearing and make sure the city administration and the Landmarks Preservation Commission know how much the Boardwalk means to you and to our city