Failed Riis Park Beach Bazaar receives foul welcome to Rockaway Beach boardwalk.

  

NY Post

 The new operators of a Rockaway Beach snack bar found an unwelcome surprise when they unlocked the property last week and found it vandalized with rotting fish in the walls, noxious “food bombs” in the ducts and concrete in the drains.

Rockaway Beach Bazaar took over the lease on the Beach 97th Street concession on the boardwalk this year after outbidding the prior occupant, Rockaway Beach Club.

“It stings that somebody is going to come in and reap the benefits of all our hard work,” Rockaway Beach Club’s Andrew Field griped to Gothamist in January when the Parks Department, which owns the property, announced its decision to change vendor groups.

Police are now investigating the May 13 criminal mischief incident that caused $10,000 of damage and threatens the shack’s planned opening over Memorial Day weekend.

 A copy of a 15-page document obtained by The Post details the destruction in photos — fish carcasses found atop old air ducts that created a “pungent stench” throughout the premises, as well as mayonnaise jars filled with condensed milk and raw fish.

These “food bombs” were supposed to stay hidden inside air ducts until the extreme heat of the summer — when they would pressurize and pop, releasing a noxious odor, according to the document that was provided to the NYPD and Parks Department by the new operators.

Summer is coming. 

 

NYC Parks awards 15-year contract to failed Riis Park Beach Bazaar to run concessions on Rockaway Beach boardwalk

 

Queens Eagle

 A decision to award a 15-year Rockaway Beach Boardwalk concession contract to a new company could result in the eviction of a handful of beloved boardwalk businesses, say worried beachgoers and eatery owners.

The New York City Parks Department has contracted with Rockaway Beach Bazaar LLC, a company formed by the owners of Brooklyn Bazaar and nearby Riis Park Beach Bazaar, to renovate, operate and maintain three beachfront cafes, one shop and 20 additional units for the next decade and a half. The properties include the popular bars and restaurants Rippers, Low Tide and Caracas.

The LLC outbid Rockaway Beach Club, a coalition of local business owners that won the contract to operate concessions at Beach 106th, Beach 97th and Beach 86th Street in 2011. The Rockaway Times first reported on the contract.

The longtime tenants and many of their customers say they worry the new operator will evict the eateries or raise rents.

“The Rockaway Beach club has been the umbrella of love, hard work and fostered the CULTURE of the Rockaway we all know today,” the Rockaway Beach shop Zingara Vintage wrote on Instagram Friday. 

The store is located on Beach 91st Street, about two blocks from the boardwalk, and opens occasional pop-up shops outside Rippers. “It’s because of them that so many of us have had the times of our lives on the Rockaway Boardwalk,” Zingara said.

Zingara’s post also described a concern among many boardwalk businesses: even those offered leases to remain in their beachfront buildings may lose control of bar sales, a crucial moneymaker.

“This would crush their business,” Zingara said. “And what about the dozen or so other small businesses that operate in the concessions ? Where will they go?”

The businesses in place have weathered COVID-19 and helped restore the boardwalk in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, said Rockaway resident Sarina Parachini, whose husband owns Rippers, located near Beach 86th Street. 

“These are all Rockaway businesses owned by people from the Rockaways,” Parachini said. “We just got through COVID. We were on the boardwalk for Sandy, we rebuilt after Sandy in a huge way.”

Impunity City 

 

To quote a scene from the surreal suspense series Twin Peaks; “It’s happening again.”

As I documented here for a few years now this LLC, which has had almost as many name changes as Eric Prince’s war mercenary corporation Blackwater to adapt to the times and also to cover for their past failures from their own bottom line decisions, got tasked by NYC Parks and National Parks Service to “revitalize” Riis Park with their annual summer event of upscale foodie and leisure lifestyle culture consumerism. And as I observed and reported, while it did much to rejunivate the boardwalk with new concessions which included the restoration of the Riis Park Bathhouse, there was absolutely no improvements to infrastructure or even basic environmental maintenance like a sufficient amount of garbage cans or even intermittent collection of trash which piled up like sand dunes at the end of the night.

 

And after all that prospective allure the concept of the Riis Bazaar LLC conveyed, many areas and public amenities remained in ruins during their time here.

 The only revitalization that occurred in Riis Park only happened where the Bazaar’s concessions were set up and it was never more pronounced than this year of the pandemic.

  

Riis Park Beach Bazaar is getting cancelled

Rockaway Times

 

Riis Park Beach Bazaar (RPBB) immediately helped revitalize Riis Park when it secured a lease to run the concessions at the park that offered little to visitors for decades. That was five years ago. Since then, the group has offered a wide variety or food vendors, beach rental equipment, live entertainment and even year round indoor dining (in pre-Covid times). Many locals have found employment with the company as well.

And now the lease is up. The five-year lease is due to expire November 1, just a couple of months from now. The lease does not have a renewal clause and NPS says the “park plans to release a competitive solicitation in early Fall 2020, to lease facilities at Riis for similar purposes.”

Chalk up another bust for this hipster culture entrepreneurial collective. Thanks for the memories

Riis Park only improved the beach for the bazaar and boardwalk and not for the picnic area

 

Impunity City


Well another summer has departed and the belated autumn solstice has arrived today after the climate change influenced unusual warmth of last October, so this would be the right time to document and review this years spring and summer season spent at Riis Park. And it’s not good at all and it has not ended well, as the dramatic changes that came forth with certain and way overdue (and selective) renovations took place

 As the days of May got later, there actually was a itty bitty slither of hope for the people’s beach. The Riis Park Bathhouse renovation attracted more concessions and restaurant fare, as well as new food stands on the end of the boardwalk by the abandoned hospital and both were supplied with live laptop DJ’s. More food trucks were added to where the heart of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar Riis Park Beach Bazaar takes place, probably for people who do not care for the upscale foodie concept fare being sold in the restaurant inside and the stand by the pitch-and-putt course. There was also the return of the ludicrous high end slum camping concept Camp Rockaway in the dirty chigger infested backyard of the bathhouse. Volleyball courts were also added right in the next yard too for adventurous players and camp guests to play on the hard concrete. It was quite a sight to behold this year on every weekend, as people gathered to enjoy the summer breeze, sharing the company of diverse races and cultures, and extravagantly overpriced fast food, beer and cocktails. Vibrancy in action I believe it’s called.

 

 


But something was missing from all the free market vibrancy going on the boardwalk. Somehow all the restorations and renovations and all the upscale prices that went into providing a venue for the bazaar did not transfer to a very essential part of beach and parkland that was already a big attraction. In fact it was the only vibrant destination spot before the natural disaster of a category one hurricane and the unwelcome appearance of gentrifiers hit the people’s beach (yes, I’m aware of the irony that gentrifiers are people too) and that is the picnic and grilling area.

Before that bitch Sandy came, it was arguably the best and most spacious grilling area in the city. Despite how small it looks, it had ample space and plenty of tables and grills for anyone that showed up anytime. It also had a lot of wind swept trees from the powerful Atlantic Ocean winds that gave the picnic area a cool presence and a visual wonder of nature.

 

 



But where are the goddamn tables? This is a federally tax payer subsidized picnic area.