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PR war in Coney

By Gersh Kuntzman
The Brooklyn Paper

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The city has brought in new troops in its ongoing public relations war against a would-be Coney Island developer, hiring a high-powered former state assemblywoman for a new PR blitz a month before the fight is set to begin in earnest.

The Economic Development Corporation has hired former Brooklyn Heights Assemblywoman Joni Yoswein to promote its “Coney Island Strategic Plan,” a two-year-old blueprint for the beleaguered area that does not include Thor Equities’ $1.5-billion plan to transform the struggling amusement zone into an all-year theme park, entertainment, hotel and retail Xanadu.

In recent months, the debate over the future of Coney Island has been increasingly heated, with Thor’s outside publicist, the Marino Organization, and city officials (usually “unnamed”), doling out leaks to newspapers in hopes of generating leverage against the other side.

But a spokeswoman for the EDC denied that Yoswein’s firm had been hired to counter the might of the Marino Organization.

“She is being brought on to help implement the strategic plan for Coney Island,” said the spokeswoman, Janel Patterson, adding that Yoswein’s hiring was timed to coincide with a September push by Thor for its plan.

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“We don’t agree with a high-density residential hotel in the amusement zone,” she said.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper

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