Mayor Eric Adams: I started my law enforcement career out here, a transit cop. I was out here hanging out with The Warriors, those who are long time Coney Island folks know what that means. And so, before we get started to talk about why we're here, I want to talk about the weather. We've been lucky thus far, but forecast, we are expecting snow anytime from Saturday night into Sunday. Snow is most likely after midnight Saturday, with the heaviest snow in the early morning hours.
The current forecast is for up to two to three inches across the city. Once the snow ends Sunday morning, colder air and wind will move in and it will feel sharply colder throughout the afternoon. This can lead to slick roads, slippery sidewalks and surfaces.
So, we're asking people if you can stay inside, please do so. City crews will be out as always, pre-treating roads, monitoring conditions, and responding to weather emergencies as they come up. And for your safety, again, allow the crews to do their job and sign up for Notify NYC at nyc.gov/notify for the latest emergency alerts. Deputy mayor, you're going to be working hard this weekend, right?
So, now why [are we] here. Coney Island is an unbelievable place. I always like looking at older pictures. This has been the world's playground for a long time. And it's also a place [with] extremely passionate New Yorkers from Coney Island concerned about what happens here, and they have not received the level of investments that they deserve. I talked about this as borough president of Brooklyn, and we made a commitment that we were going to be part of the revitalization of Coney Island.
It's home to the iconic Deno’s Wonder Wheel, Luna Park, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Stand, and the Brooklyn Cyclone. So many attractions are here. And it's also home to thousands of hardworking New Yorkers who work hard every day to leave behind something better for their families. But far too many residents still feel that the deck is stacked against them, and the city has not been their best partner. That ends today.
We know that it is imperative that the residents are not priced out of this beautiful shorefront community, and that they want to make sure that it's more than just a seasonal attraction for entertainment. Life here shouldn't be a roller coaster. It should be a steady, stable lifestyle for all families. And that is why this administration is committing $1 billion to rejuvenate America's playground and build a better Coney Island.
And we want to just really thank all the electors and generals, but specifically Alex Brook-Krasny. Alex, who has been a real champion and talked about this over and over again, would not let me rest. He says, “Eric, we have to do something before the end of your term to really show and fortify what we want in Coney Island,” and in our Best Budget Ever, we did just that.
We're going to make this waterfront community the best place to live, to play, and to raise a family. As I announced in our State of the City address earlier this year, with this investment, we are going to deliver 1,500 new mixed income homes to the waterfront, 25 percent of which will be affordable, and restore the over 100-year boardwalk to its former glory.
This boardwalk, when you walked, when you rode, when you jogged, you had to navigate the screws and just the condition of the boardwalk. It was terrible when I was a cop in 1984. And so, it's time to turn the page of 90, 100, 10, 20, wow, damn, it was that long ago? Wow, wow, where does time go?
And so, we're going to restore this boardwalk, and so it remains a place for all New Yorkers to have access to seaside and beach, and we're going to create new street sewers and make public realm improvements. You talk about this all the time, Andrew Kimball, about our waterfront, EDC. This city is going to be a different place based on what you have done in EDC and revitalizing our waterfronts.
And we are going to renovate the Abe Stark Sports Center, so the beloved ice rink and recreation center can continue to bring joy to New Yorkers and tourists a lot. Commissioner, I'm sure you're happy to hear that. Marty, he's the happiest employee I've ever met in parks, man. This guy, he loves his job. I remember riding the subway as a transit police officer doing 8 P's, we call it, 8 at night to 4 a.m., and then it was almost mandatory overtime to 6 a.m. Those long tours protecting New Yorkers. And so, this neighborhood has a special place in my heart, my time in District 34.
This isn't just a neighborhood full of world-class attractions and restaurants, it's a place where children and families want to share their dreams, and they deserve a fair share. And with an affordable home, a boardwalk worthy of its history, and safe streets, we are finally giving the New Yorkers in the Coney Island area exactly what they deserve.
This investment is how we reimagine our city, our communities, and revitalize our business districts, and it means more room to walk, to bike, to enjoy retail and restaurants safely, and it means more room for opportunity for people to live here. So today's announcement reminds New Yorkers that big things happen day after day in this administration, and I think we have 20-something days left, and we have more to do.
We will be working up until the last day, and it's part of our broader plan to build more affordable housing across our city. The records are clear. We build more affordable housing than any mayor in the history of the city. Our City of Yes initiative of 433,000, what we've zoned this city for is more housing than 12 years of my good friends, Mayor Bloomberg and eight years of de Blasio. In four years, we planned this city to build more housing than 20 years of my predecessors combined. That is a legacy we can live on.
And since day one, we have made building housing a priority. It is the bedrock of the American Dream and a chance to prosper here in the greatest city on the globe. And so, we're looking forward, not only to our rezoning plan that is going to show us 50,000 new homes from our five neighborhood plans in the Bronx, Midtown, Manhattan, Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Jamaica, and Long Island City in Queens. This is a proud moment for this administration.
And so, today's announcement is a transformative next step in building the neighborhoods of tomorrow today. And I'm happy to introduce our great commissioner, New York City Parks Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa.
Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, Department of Parks and Recreation: Thank you so very much, Mayor Adams, and thank you so very much for caring so much about the city that you've given so much of yourself and the commitments that you've made to this wonderful city. So, I wanted to say thank you again on behalf of all of us in the communities throughout the City of New York.
And good morning, everyone. Good morning, Coney Island. Good morning. It is so great to be here and to celebrate this incredible investment in our city's future. With climate change, causing sea levels to rise and leading to more extreme weather events, we are taking bold action to protect the iconic Riegelmann Boardwalk for generations and generations to come.
We are doing it in partnership with the community in Coney Island, an amazing community, as you know it to be. We have completed a detailed, technical survey to determine how this waterfront will change over the next hundred years. Thanks to our amazing team of experts, we know what the boardwalk needs for its future. And now, it is time to work with the community and the partners across government to make this full reconstruction a reality.
This is a critical investment in our city's resiliency to climate change. It is an investment in this area that is so worthy of its attention. Not only are we reconstructing this boardwalk, not only did we expand our lifeguard ranks under the leadership of Mayor Adams to keep our millions of beachgoers safe throughout Coney Island, we are also performing a full renovation – as was mentioned before by the mayor – of the Abe Stark Sports Center, giving Coney Island visitors a safe place to practice ice skating. That is a $42 million project that will improve the skating rink and better connect with the community.
We are making investments in Abe Stark and the boardwalk because great public spaces are not just a luxury. They are essential for the city that is livable, resilient, and welcoming for all. And as we know, Coney Island is iconic, as was mentioned by the mayor, as a world-class place to come and visit.
I am proud of the work throughout the past four years that this administration has done to be able to give the best to our parks and our public spaces in this world. I want to thank Mayor Adams again. Thank him so very much and his administration. It has been wonderful working with everyone in his administration, to be able to advance all the things and all the projects that we do in New York City parks. And now, I would love to be able to introduce the President and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation, our very own Andrew Kimball.
Andrew Kimball, President and CEO, NYC Economic Development Corporation: Thank you so much, commissioner. It's really a pleasure to be with you here today. And really, from Coney Island to Orchard Beach, EDC and parks are getting it done together, because it's the right thing to do for the city, because great parks and public realm mean economic development.
And Mr. Mayor, working for you the last four years has been really an honor of my lifetime and what we have gotten done together really has been historic. I think you sold yourself a little bit short on Coney Island, because you've been advocating for this work here for 20 years. And that's one of the great things about working at EDC, while we've been particularly prolific, I think, in the last four years, we get to think in decades and generations, not in four-year cycles.
And driving in here, it's just so powerful to see all of the progress, from the amusements to all the housing, to the housing right next door, to the recent announcements we've made with RYBAK and now this incredibly impactful billion-dollar commitment for Riegelmann Boardwalk, a storied landmark, not just for Coney Island and Brooklyn, but for all of New York City.
Every one of these pieces comes as part of a whole. And when you rebuild this boardwalk, not only you serve the millions of people who come here every year, the neighborhood, you create something that's resilient. But you're going to make it that much more attractive for the thousands of new residents who are going to move here, for improvements to our ballpark, and for all of the small businesses in the area that will benefit.
So, thanks to this historic investment, we'll be delivering a reconstructive boardwalk from the bottom up, incorporating key resiliency measures to protect against future storms while also upgrading key access points and parks buildings. Today's announcement really goes hand-in-hand in a series of investments just in recent years that EDC, parks, HPD, and the City are making for Coney Island.
Often forgotten outside the summer months, today's announcement builds on our ongoing efforts to bring much-needed new affordable homes, new streets, upgraded infrastructure, along with new open space. As the mayor mentioned just a few weeks ago, EDC selected RYBAK development to lead the next phase of Coney Island West, which will convert an 80,000-square-foot lot, used right across the street from where we're standing now, into 500 units of mixed-income housing, 25 percent of which will be affordable.
In addition to the housing, we'll also be adding 30,000 square feet of ground floor retail right alongside the boardwalk. And just on the other side of that building, as the commissioner mentioned, we'll be renovating and building much-needed upgrades at Abe Stark Sports Center. Our team has been working diligently to select a design-build team, and we expect to announce the next steps on this exciting project in the coming weeks.
I want to give a special shout-out to the EDC team, who will not only be managing the construction of that project, but also be leading the design and reconstruction of the boardwalk alongside our partners at the Parks Department.
In early 2026, we'll be issuing an RFP for design and construction of the boardwalk. As the mayor and parks commissioner mentioned, this is a very challenging project and something we want to make sure we're doing closely alongside the community. We need to prepare this boardwalk for the next 100 years, transforming it into a more resilient landmark to serve generations to come.
And I'll wrap up with this. In the last few years, I've come out to Coney Island regularly and been so amazed at the progress, the amount of activity that's being made at the various different projects across the neighborhood. That shows a commitment from the city to deliver on its promises. Going back to the 2,000 rezoning here, every step of the way we have made progress, and this is a massive step forward.
And this kind of step would not have been possible without the vision of a mayor who understands how the ecosystem of economic development and housing and parks all fits together to create the kind of thriving city we want to see.
It wouldn't happen without great local elected officials. Thank you assemblymember, council member, borough president, former council members, Chambers of Commerce leaders. All of us coming together to make this done and to make this work. And it's really my pleasure to introduce now, really our key on-the-ground partner dealing with the local businesses here, really moving Coney Island forward hand-in-hand with us, the head of the Coney Island Alliance, Dan Murphy. Thank you.
Dan Murphy, Executive Director, Coney Island Alliance: Thank you mayor, thank you president. So Coney Island is the people's playground, it is the mecca of amusement parks around the world. People from around the world come here and a trip to the boardwalk is like the Hajj for them. So, we are deeply appreciative. I'm just here to thank the city for doing this, for investing and helping our businesses, our residents, our not-for-profits who have been working for years to build a more resilient Coney Island. And so I'm just here to thank the city [and] the mayor. I just want to shout out the three people, if I could, who Coney Island has a special relationship with.
The first is one of our alliance members, Dennis Vourderis is here, Deno's Wonder Wheel. If you count his grandchildren, Matthew and Dennis, that's four generations. They've been here since 1970. His dad made a big investment buying the Wonder Wheel in the early 80s when a lot of people counted Coney Island out. Now we're in. Thank you Dennis for your continued work. Two more guys I want to point out, Marty Maher, who started off as a park ranger on the Coney Island boardwalk, as I believe. All those years ago, this is his victory as well.
And it's been mentioned before, but I have to mention this, a young rookie cop, a transit cop who started on Surf Avenue in Stillwell. He's now the mayor of the City of New York. And he has given– he has made the biggest investment of all. He's never forgotten Coney Island here. He's been here year after year, month after month. I got a call this summer, there was a dirty little corner on Stillwell Avenue. We got it cleaned up quickly. Thank you, Your Honor. That's how invested he is on a daily basis in Coney Island. So this is proper. He's come full circle from your days as a cop to the mayor of New York [City]. I appreciate it. So thank you guys. And thank you, Coney Island, for being here today.
Mayor Adams: Thank you, brother. And I want to turn it over to our assemblyman, you know, a great partner, not only when we served together in Albany, but now in the Mayor's Office. And so Assemblyman Alex Berkosny.
Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny: Thank you. Good morning, good people. Well, it's a great day for Coney Island, incredible day. And Mayor Eric, history, of course, will tell who's been the best mayor in New York [City]. To me, that's my favorite one. And we've been friends for two decades, we've been working together. And of course, we've been talking about [the] boardwalk for many, many years. We also have been having some philosophical conversations. And talking about that, we're celebrating you today.
I hope we're all going to be celebrating you at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. People will always remember. But based on my experience, who was the first elected official to deliver $10 million to the [repairs], and I believe based on the experience of Ari Kagan, the former city councilman who delivered $114 million, I got to tell you that people will always remember. About our future colleagues, I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter.
The main thing that people will remember, the boardwalk, will be here forever. And the people who've been working [on] this boardwalk, they would definitely know whom they're grateful to in order for them just to walk normally, properly, without any issues. So we're just very grateful to you, and we're so, so grateful that you've done it today.
And I can't tell you how proud I am, because it's been a great journey. You know, we're from the same class of legislature, then you became a borough president, and now mayor, and you definitely, definitely have been a people's mayor. And that's how you're going to be remembered in history. Thank you very much.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. We’ll take a few questions.
Questions: Mr. Mayor, can you please walk us through the potential timeline of these restoration work, and when we can expect to finally see a ribbon cutting?
Kimball: So in early next year, we'll be going out in the marketplace to find a construction manager partner. We will then be moving into the design process. It is a very big project, making sure that we get the phasing of it correct so that we're not causing too much disruption to beachgoers and to local businesses is going to be absolutely vital.
There's going to be a major community engagement effort around that to make sure that the phasing works and can be executed smoothly. And we expect within 18 months or so after that, and design, that we'll be in the position of moving towards construction. But I don't want to give any specific timeline on construction start until we have engaged in that design and community process on the phasing.
Question: And has any decision been made about the materials that will be used for the boardwalk?
Kimball: No final decision has been made. We'll obviously be in very close coordination with the Parks Department. You know, we have a real focus not just on resiliency, but also in terms of environmentally sustainable products. So we'll be reviewing a wide range of those, and again, want to have input from the community as well.
Question: I have more questions. If you can specify maybe some of the specific storm resiliency measures that are being considered for the boardwalk.
Kimball: Yeah, I mean, obviously a lot of that is driven by our experience with Storm Sandy, a very tough experience for so many seaside communities like Coney Island. So that will be top of our thinking in terms of how we plan for resiliency in the future. Obviously there are measurements, and you look at the 100-year floodplain, the 500-year floodplain.
All of that will be factored into the height of the boardwalk, the final height, the type of materials used, [and] its ability to withstand, you know, those future storms. So all of those will be factored in, and will play out in our design and community engagement process.
Question: I just want to know, will this be impacted at all by the incoming administration of Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, or can it be impacted at all by him?
Mayor Adams: Just as Mayor de Blasio inherited projects that were underway by Mayor Bloomberg, I did the same when I came into office. There are some projects that individuals can look at and determine they want to do something different, which we welcome, that's part of the process. Then there are those that the process has already moved forward. And so part of our transition documents and information, this is very much part of it.
And the mayor is going to make a determination on those things, he has discretion. [Whether] he will keep those things [or] he doesn't, he's going to follow through. You continue to hand off, as I think [Assemblyman] Brook-Krasny stated, Ari Kagan was the council person, he handed her off to the next council person, who handed her off to the next.
This is a continued handoff, we're just building on what was there. So he'll make that determination on if he wants to reshape some stuff, or if he wants to do things differently, that's totally up to him, and we respect that decision.
Mayor Adams: You got a lot going on over there.
Question: I'm from Coney Island, this means a lot. If you can elaborate maybe a little bit more on some of the upgrades that might be seen at the Abe Stark Sports Center, because it is one of the only facilities of this kind in the city, or this part of Brooklyn rather, and it is kind of antiquated.
Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa: So absolutely, we work with the concessionaire that may be there already, and we're talking about upgrading the ice skating rink itself, and the boards in the ice skating rink, and the facility and the infrastructure of the facility itself.
So we have to make sure that it's resilient and that we'll continue to be able to serve the public. So yes, there's quite a number of things with the $42 million that we'll be able to do.
Kimball: I just want to add one quick thing to what the commissioner said. You know, integrating that facility into the boardwalk, into the housing that will be right next to it, having an incredibly attractive design that becomes a beacon in this whole new community, all of that will be components of our work there as well.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Have a happy and safe holiday.
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