It’s been five years since the spinning, soaring “Zipper” ride in Coney Island was taken apart and shipped overseas after being a casualty of a game of chicken between the city and a developer over the seaside amusement district’s future.
But now the once-popular ride is back for all Coney Island lovers to see – at least on the Big Screen. It’s the focus of a well-done, new documentary by director Amy Nicholson.
The 77-minute film “Zipper,” which premiered Saturday to a sold-out audience at SVA Theater in Manhattan, uses the popular carnival ride and its longtime operator Eddie Miranda as a backdrop to a much bigger story going on at the time: the battle between the Bloomberg administration and developer Joe Sitt over how the amusement district should be revived.
For those who don’t recall, Sitt and the mayor had conflicting visions for Coney Island. Sitt owned most of the prime boardwalk real estate, but he couldn’t go forward with his plan to bring a Vegas-glitz entertainment complex there without city blessing.
Meanwhile, Zipper and other popular seaside attractions became casualties of war after Sitt opted not to renew various leases. That move, many insiders say, was done to help pressure the city into dealing with Sitt to prevent the beachfront from resembling a ghost town.
The movie is the latest documentary to look at this epic seaside fight, following the lead of director JL Aronson’s ambitious 2010 documentary, “Last Summer at Coney Island.”
While both tell similar stories, Aronson’s film uses the closing of fabled Astroland Park in 2008 as its backdrop story.
Both films are worthy watches in their own right.
Aronson did a better job documenting the tearful final days of Astroland than Nicholson did showing Zipper’s final moments.
However, Nicholson more than makes up for it in several way, particularly covering the behind-the-scenes politics as the city in November 2007 first proposes a seaside rezoning that would set aside 15 acres for amusements — and then months later drops the amusement area plan down to 9 acres.
This chapter is brilliantly told through interviews with past and present city officials like Lynn Kelly, Seth Pinksy, Robert Lieber and Councilman Domenic Recchia Jr., along with footage of the City Council approving the rezoning to the dismay of many local activists who wanted more space set aside for amusements.
And unlike “Last Summer,” Sitt gets to tell more of his side of the story – offering a nicer balance. One of this movie’s better lines was Sitt — a notorious “flipper” of properties — saying, he’s “proud of being preservationist speculator.”
His explanation of how he came up with the name of his company, Thor Equities, is also priceless.
“The concept of the Nordic God Thor was that he was the protector of the planet Earth …,” he says. “Myself, as a city dweller, someone who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, I kind of liked the concept of what that was about. … The character was consistent to what is the theme of our company: protecting the old” and restoring properties.
The film also does a great job illustrating how big of a media story the fight over Coney Island was between 2006 and 2009. It shows many top headlines from local newspapers as well as some cool footage from the old “Reporters Roundtable” show on Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT) in which reporters like myself often debated about the rollercoaster ride that was reviving Coney Island. (Damn, I miss that show!) As the movie rightfully notes, the battle between the mayor and Sitt ended in November 2009 when the developer agreed to sell 6.9 acres of his land to the city, so it could move forward with its vision for Coney Island.
Nicholson amusingly caught Sitt on camera at the City Hall dog-and-pony show in which the deal was disclosed saying then-Deputy Mayor Lieber was such a hardball negotiator that he was like the fictional gangster “Luca Brasi” from “The Godfather.”
“What a henchman he was for the mayor,” Sitt says.
It was a telling moment. Although not in the film, Sitt moments later then says he is “joking” while Lieber stares down and mumbles, “I take it as a compliment.”
As for Miranda, he doesn’t buy the city and Sitt’s line that the amusement business isn’t a moneymaker – and that famously gritty Coney Island needed to be sanitized. He claims he did well financially running the Zipper over four decades.
“They took the life and heart out of Coney island by doing what they did,” he says. “It is not going to be the same. No matter what you put there, it is not going to be the same. “ The film mentions in passing that the city eventually tapped an international amusement operator to run the amusement district, but never mentions Zamperla USA by name or its creation of the new Luna Park.
But that’s a good thing — because it’s a story for another day.
The ending, instead, couldn’t be better. It leaves off in Tela, Honduras where the Zipper – formerly of Coney Island – is now spinning more than 3,500 miles away for a new generation of thrill seekers.
Coney Island’s loss is now Central America’s gain.
The film will air again today both 3 pm and 9:30 pm at IFC Center on 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
Click here for additional information.
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NYPOST.COM BROOKLYN BLOG RATING: 3 ½ stars out of 4