City rents out condemned beach club to Hollywood

From NY1:

For nearly 100 years, a lucky few rented the 41 cottages that line the water. But last September, the Parks Department, which owns the land, forced the residents off the 45-acre site so it could make way for a public park.

There are few details about the upcoming park, except that it will be built in stages.

The agency has sealed the site to the public, and insists it is readying the space, though former residents are not so sure.

"I think it's a little hypocritical," said former Cedar Grove resident John Murphy. "They said they're going to open it up to the public, and obviously they're not doing that. But private concerns can actually use it, and I think that's very wrong."

The state is still considering whether to give the area historic designation, which would force the city to preserve some of it.

Parks to proceed with demolition of Cedar Grove

Lame Parks Dept rendering of Cedar Grove's future

From the NY Post:

This is a real-estate story that bears not a lick of sanity. Because after midnight Sept. 30, city honchos -- made to look foolish by a renegade posse of mainly elderly homesteaders laying claim to a bucolic stretch of beach --are fighting back.

They're destroying Cedar Grove Beach Club, an immaculate summer village plunked in the distant borough a century ago. Once, little Cedar Groves dotted the city from Brooklyn to The Bronx, offering respite to overheated city dwellers. Now, it's the last of its kind.

But, given the chance by the state to landmark the historic site, which costs taxpayers nothing to run, officials chose to bulldoze it. Now residents fear, with good reason, that their beloved beach will wind up an abandoned, city-controlled condom and needle depository, like so many others.

Why so stubborn?

A century ago, land on Staten Island was cheap and no one cared about the boroughs. Cedar Grove began with tents. Cottages followed. By the 1940s, more than 200 houses dotted the 307-acre parcel, plus a community center and even a summer camp. Six generations played here from June to October, trudging back to other parts of the city come winter.

But in 1962, the houses were seized via eminent domain for a Robert Moses-planned highway. When the road never materialized, Islanders were offered a deal: Rent the property from the city, or get lost. This arrangement worked well for 48 years.
The city has put aside $1.9 million to fix up Cedar Grove -- money, ironically, from the rent paid by Grovians. It's not enough, officials admit, to get through even one summer.

Face it. Government just can't run things more efficiently than private citizens. In 2002, Mayor Bloomberg sold 11 East Village townhouses -- worth millions -- for $1 apiece to squatters living in them illegally. I propose the city make the same offer at Cedar Grove.

Better yet, build a mosque on the property. That will make it untouchable.

From the Village Voice:

Parks announces that it will be opposing all efforts (namely, that of local public officials, historians, and the members of the beach club) to give the beach club a designation on the national registry.

How are they going to pay for all this loveliness? As we reported, the Parks Department says it is going to use $1.8 million collected from fees from the residents. Phase III, which appears to include the greenway construction as well as "picnic grounds" and "pedestrian pathways," Parks admits, is still "unfunded."

From SI Live:

There is no funding in place for the remaining work, a cause for concern among elected officials who for weeks have been pressing Parks on its ability to finance such a project while other beaches and parks languish across the borough and as the city continues to tighten its belt.

Parks' budget was slashed by 11 percent this year -- and Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week ordered his commissioners to trim $800 million from the current $63 billion city budget and an additional $1.2 billion next year to avoid layoffs.

"It's a typical rope-a-dope by the Parks Department," said Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), whose district houses Cedar Grove. "They're going to get in there with their $1.8 million, knock the bungalows down and then walk away and we will never see the real plan implemented."

Yup. You can count on that. It's also interesting that Parks has been telling other communities they have to have all the funding in place for a new park project before they can proceed, yet here they are making an exception.

Bloomberg offers false hope to Cedar Grove Beach Club

From SI Live:

In a last-ditch effort to get Mayor Michael Bloomberg to squash a plan by the city Parks Department to take over Cedar Grove Beach, about 50 residents of the New Dorp beachfront bungalows trekked yesterday to City Hall to beg Hizzoner not to raze their summer homes. Doing so, they said, would destroy history, community and a one-of-a-kind slice of Staten Island.

"I'll take a look at it; I have no idea," said the mayor, who came strolling up the steps of City Hall just moments after the rally ended -- stopping briefly to hear residents' concerns.

Before moving on, he slipped away from his security detail to put a warm arm around Cedar Grove resident Eileen Lee and plant a kiss on her cheek.

Mrs. Lee -- holding a sign reading "Parks Must Reconsider" -- turned crimson with the attention, reminiscent of the blushing bride she must have been in 1952, when she had her bridal shower in the Cedar Grove community.

"I know he will help; he said he would," she gushed. "We're going to be here for another 20 years."

From the NY Observer:

The Real Estate Desk checked with administration spokesman Jason Post to see if this was a real possibility. Post shot back a curt email: "No." Three minutes later he followed up:

To be clear, that is "no" to reconsider.

Also I wouldn't use the word "takeover"—their lease is up, they were given 2010 as "one last season" at their club and signed an agreement agreeing to vacate this year.

And so, after nearly a century, Cedar Grove is finally all washed up.

City to use eminent domain to evict beach club

"Good morning,

My name is Joshua Jakob, and I am from New Dorp Beach, in Staten Island.

Cedar Grove Beach Club has been a member of my community for 99 years, but Parks wants to evict everyone off of the land they took via eminent domain for a highway that will never be built. They tore down over 200 homes in the 1960's and then left the land vacant and overgrown so that car thieves and drug addicts could have a place to hide, while allowing the beach to be covered in trash and the broken concrete remains of the buildings they tore down. I am trying to help the members save their beach and save my beach. Please help in any way you can. They have to leave on September 30th.

Save Cedar Grove Beach Club

Facebook page

Joshua Jakob"

I think before the end of his term, Bloomberg will have used eminent domain on all of the middle class. He wants us out in a bad way. The rest of the sordid story is here.