Our Interweb story this week about Joe Sitt closing his own Coney Island amusement park in a rent dispute (“Lockout! Joe Sitt shuts down his own Coney amusement park,” Aug. 21) really got people talking. Here’s what they had to say:
“So sad what has become of a great New York City treasure. Joe Sitt sucks!”
Rocker 44 from Brooklyn
“He does not suck. Times change. He paid good money for the property and deserves to collect rent. If the rent is not paid, the tenant gets evicted.”
Phil from Bay Ridge
“It is illegal to lock someone out the way Sitt did. Sitt would have to go to court to prove that he is owed money and must get the court’s permission to serve eviction papers on the tenant. You can’t cut locks, you can’t keep people from their property, and you can’t remove someone’s property without a court order. By the way, this is the second time Sitt did this to his tenants in Coney Island.”
Joe from Coney Island
“I’m not sure, Joe, but commercial property has different eviction rules. Sitt may be in the right.”
Pacholo from Red Hook
“No, you still need court approval. For example, I saw a court notice about the former gas station at the corner of West Eighth and Sheepshead Bay Road, across from Luna Park. There was a judges order saying because they owed X amount of rent, the owner of the land is taking possession on this date.
“You can’t hire thugs, cut and change locks. It’s the law. The only question now is, will Sitt get away with it? When he did it to the businesses at the Henderson building and his other tenants on Surf, they were mom and pop businesses. Now he took on Geren, and they will go to court over this. They will sue for illegal lockout.”
Joe from Coney Island
“Actually, we here at Whore Equities are very kind people. We first thought about burning down Dreamland, but instead we just decided to cut locks and evict people. Why do we do this? We get bored. Is anyone interested in renting some property? We have sky-high rates and we’ll evict you soon. Sounds great, right?”
Whore Equities
from Brooklyn
“Joe is right, you need a sheriff to evict someone, post a judges order, padlock the place. I have seen this numerous times in the city. Even when Coney Island USA bought its building, they had court ordered paperwork affixed to stores that they wanted to evict. If Sitt’s hand isn’t slapped over this, then we know some official is running interference for Sitt, not hard to figure out what public official is on Sitt’s payroll.”
Mark from Coney Island
“Sitt thinks he’s above the law. He needs to go through the process and evict and then only a city marshal can put a lock on the door! Sitt can be sued by the leasee for this infraction. Big time!”
Jerry from Brighton Beach
• • •
Meanwhile, our online story about Mayor Bloomberg’s effort to win our newspaper’s endorsement (“Bloomy still wants Gehry — plus other tidbits from the mayor,” Aug 25) generated plenty of Web traffic itself:
“Mayor Bloomberg has done a great job. Mayor Giuliani cleaned up this city and made it livable and did things no one else had the guts to do. Mayor Bloomberg continued making it better. All the other candidates would drag the city back to the bad old days.”
Al Pankin from Downtown
“I agree with Bloomberg about using the Gehry design at Atlantic Yards. Brooklyn’s architecture and ways of life need a jolt. Our landscape has been afflicted with too much modesty and self-effacement for too long.”
John from On High
“Nothing like a puff piece, is there? Was this an interview, a recitation of PR statements, or a junior high softball game? You wrote that he ‘won the chance to run for re-election last year after the City Council acceded to his wishes.’ You mean the guy who bought his way back onto the ballot by bribing and coercing the Council — ask Darlene Nealy what pressure puke tastes like — after a slavish parade of organizations that he funds called him indispensable? The guy who didn’t put aside any city money during the flush times and made the city’s economy more dependent than ever on finance, insurance, and real estate by driving out light manufacturing to make way for luxury condos? That guy?
“The guy who calls himself the Environmental Mayor while flying to his weekend place on his highly polluting private jet?
“These are all the obvious questions a reporter would have asked. Too bad one wasn’t around.”
Paul from Park Slope
“I’m not a huge fan of Bloomberg, but I have to reluctantly agree that he’s better (and has been better) than any of the other candidates who make it to election day.
As for Atlantic Yards, I’d love to see Gehry there. I don’t wanna pay for it though, which kind of means I am against the project. Same goes for Coney Island. These big projects that mayors love always wind up being paid for by taxpayers, while the profits are reaped by well-connected developers. The city’s job should be simply to zone the land and then get out of the way. Stop sticking us with the bill.”
Rhywun from Bay Ridge
“One of the great sins here is this small group of people — Mayor Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and 28 other councilmembers — extended term limits that had twice (!) been approved by the city’s voters.”
Eric McClure
from Park Slope
“Simon and Garfunkel?!”
Brokeland from Downtown
