July 17, 2009

New York City Council Members

250 Broadway
New York, NY 10007

CC: Christine Quinn

Melinda Katz

Dear City Council Member,

I write today to express deep concerns regarding the City’s plan to redevelop
Coney Island. While the plan will create new jobs and thousands of new
housing units, it currently fails to guarantee the good jobs and affordable
housing the Coney Island community needs. The window of opportunity for
the City Council to make these important changes is closing fast. Before this
project is approved by the Land Use Committee and the entire body of the
City Council, we ask you to modify the plan to guarantee the following:

Good jobs. While neighborhood unemployment rates surpass those in the rest
of Brooklyn and the City as a whole, Coney Island residents need more than
just an influx of new jobs. They need good jobs that will provide the wages and
benefits their families need to make ends meet. Without specific requirements
for good jobs in the City’s plan, the new development is in jeopardy of being
built by and filled with dead-end, minimum wage jobs that further deteriorate
the local economy and do not create the kind of economic stimulus Coney
Island—and New York—needs.

Affordable housing. Coney Island has historically been a community where

working New Yorkers could afford to raise their families, but the
neighborhood is rapidly losing its affordable housing. The City’s plan to
redevelop Coney Island will create 900 “affordable” housing units in 10-15
years, but in 2007 alone, the neighborhood lost 3,000 units of affordable
housing. Average incomes in Coney Island are less than half of the city-wide
median income used to determine housing affordability in the City’s plan.
Unless the city pushes for deeper levels of affordability and good jobs, the
average Coney Island family would have to double its salary in order to afford
one of the new “affordable” units. The City must significantly raise its meager
allotment for affordable housing at Coney Island and designate half of all new
residential units toward housing that local working families can afford.

Public amenities. Several public amenities are necessary for the community
that lives in Coney Island year-round. A new school in the area will help
address overcrowding problems and a full-service supermarket is necessary to
support the neighborhood’s needs for healthy, affordable food. In addition,
improved public transportation will improve access for both year-round
residents and seasonal visitors.
Strengthened amusements. Through years of disinvestment, the active amusement area at Coney
Island has been shrinking and must be strengthened to become a destination for all New Yorkers
and tourists once more. To strengthen the “people’s playground,” the City must preserve more
space for outdoor amusements and the small businesses and vendors who have kept Coney Island
alive, invest in historic icons, develop an interim plan for amusements before construction is
completed, and reinvest the revenue from City-owned land back into the community.

Now more than ever, Coney Island residents are in desperate need of good jobs, affordable housing,
and a revitalized neighborhood. But the City must ensure that the benefits of development are
shared with community residents, and that massive projects transform not just our urban landscape,
but peoples’ lives by increasing opportunity. We feel that the City’s plan, if not amended, will price
out current residents of Coney Island and leave others to continue struggling with poverty and a lack
of opportunity. We urge members of the City Council to make these critical changes to the Coney
Island redevelopment plan while there’s still time to ensure a Coney Island for All. I urge you to
delay voting on this important measure until these issues are addressed.

Sincerely,

Pat Boone, President, New York ACORN

Mike Fishman, President, 32BJ Service Employees International Union
Stuart Appelbaum, President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Peter Ward, President, New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council
Bruce W. Both, President, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500
Carrie Brunk, Executive Director, New York Jobs with Justice

Coney Island for All is a coalition of civic groups, labor unions, Coney Island residents and workers that represents
250,000 New Yorkers