DICK ZIGUN

Gowanus Lounge has the text of Dick Zigun's resignation letter from the Coney Island Development Corporation. The Mayor of Coney Island is rather peeved at the Bloomberg administration's current plan for the amusement mecca. As he told my colleague Eliot Brown in May, "The new plan sucks."

Mr. Zigun elaborates in his letter:  read more »

Mermaids, hula-hooping transvestites, scantily-dressed burlesque dancers, tattooed carnies, and a host of other Coney Island characters took their act over the bridge last night to raise money for Coney Island U.S.A., a 29-year-old, nonprofit arts program that supports the amusement park’s mainstream underbelly.

If Memorial Day was not approaching, the good-naturedly lascivious scene inside the Angel Orensanz Foundation’s headquarters—ironically a former Lower East Side synagogue—could have easily been mistaken for a Halloween party.

Busty, bikini-clad, not-quite-spring-chicken, burlesque dancers and mermaids mingled as costumed swing dancers twirled their way across the dance floor to the music of Lady Luck and the Suicide Kings.  read more »

The Bloomberg administration is getting squeezed from all sides with its Coney Island plan, as its most recent proposal is taking fire from both advocates of the historic amusement hub and the area’s major landholder, Joseph Sitt.

Key advocates who once rallied behind the Bloomberg administration are now coming out strongly against the city’s proposal, expressing dismay that it would further shrink down the amusement district, putting retail and some hotels where city-owned land for amusements was once planned.

“The new plan sucks,” said Dick Zigun, the director of the nonprofit Coney Island USA who is often called the unofficial mayor of Coney Island. “They initially came together and came up with a plan that everybody got on board for … This is so watered down it is unacceptable.”  read more »

Thor Equities boss Joe Sitt just keeps caving to the carny lobby -- extending leases along the boardwalk, possibly preserving Astroland for another summer -- all the while his ambitious Coney Island renaissance scheme remains on the backburner.

Can't a developer catch a break?

This week's Brooklyn Paper keeps piling on, with more Sitt-ripping comments from Yale-educated freak-show operator Dick Zigun:

The so-called mayor of Coney Island, Dick Zigun, last week sent a formal denouncement of the developer to city decision-makers. In the letter, Zigun, the founder of the Coney Island Museum and the popular Mermaid Parade, called Sitt a “bully.”

Zigun has his own gripe with Sitt, accusing him of backing out of [a] deal to sell Zigun a historic Surf Avenue building for a new home for the Coney Island Museum.

“I am totally outraged,” Zigun said about his dealings with Sitt. “He told me and the city for a year and a half that he would work to preserve the character of Coney Island and save this building, and now he is not.”

What, Thor Equities not follow through on its stated goals? Somebody better inform the folks at Albee Square.