Narrator:
Hey BK with Ofer Cohen
Dick Zigun:
It was fully formed from day one. The first parade in 1983 had everything you'd see now. It had the empty cars, it had the king and queen, it had tongue in cheek contest, not beauty contests for most Beautiful Mermaid, but mermaid costume, the beach putting pouch and all of that was their from beginning. It's just gotten bigger.
Ofer Cohen:
On today's episode of Hey BK, we move on to South Brooklyn to talk to Dick Zigun, the unofficial mayor of Coney Island, the tattoo covered, Yale-educated playwright runs the Coney Island Museum along with the Mermaid Parade, which he founded 37 years ago, the giant art parade in late June, showcases as an array of memoried customs and Coney Island pride. It's the largest parade in the United States. Growing hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. Dick moved to New York City in 1979 and has been an advocate for Coney island ever since.
Dick Zigun:
Coney island has always been a little bit off beat, a little bit weird. It is a place where New York City residents from all five boroughs come to enjoy themselves. Coney Island is different than just about any spot in New York City, except perhaps Times Square where everyone co mingled. You go on a roller coaster and Hassidim are sitting next to homeboys.
Ofer Cohen:
Where did you grow up?
Dick Zigun:
So I grew up not that far away, but not in New York City. I'm a native of Bridgeport, Connecticut. A shortcut to understand me is Bridgeport is the hometown of PT. Barnum. Barnum not only ran the American museum in downtown Manhattan, not only started Ringly brothers Barnum and Bailey circus, he was Mayor of Bridgeport. And when I was a kid, there was a month long Barnum festival and there were parades, there was a carnival that would come to town. There was a competition for young school children to impersonate midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren. And when I was a smart ass seven years old, I was already a Barnum scholar. And I knew that elephants and little people were patriotic. Um, I left Bridgeport at 18. Got a fancy smancy education, a very artsy fartsy Bennington college and then Yale School of drama. I knew that if I was going to make a living in theater, the only place to attempt that in America as seriously as New York City. Um, so I moved to New York but I had this idea that instead of aspiring to Broadway, I would check out Coney Island is a staging ground, as a framing device for my obsession with popular culture rent side shows and burlesque. I moved to New York City in 1979 signed a 10 year lease on a loft down surf avenue directly across the street from Astro land. Put several months on a lot of money into renovating and then the building burned down.
Ofer Cohen:
That was an unusual choice in the 70s. If you wanted to do theater in New York City. I mean, I would, I wasn't born here, but I would go through Greenwich Village.
Dick Zigun:
I had some early success as a playwright right out of Grad school and one of my plays was put on in California. One of the other plays in this festival that my play was put on was by a playwright named Len Jenkin. And the play, um, called kid twist about a Barelas from murder incorporated was full of Coney Island imagery and I was hanging out in California enjoying the beach, enjoy nature, knew I was headed back to New York City and I had this epiphany standing on the Santa Monica pier looking into an arcade building for rent and thinking about theater in a beach amusement park context. Then decided, when I get back to New York I'll check out Coney Island and 40 years later, I'm the permanently unelected mayor.
Ofer Cohen:
And so tell me about the Coney Island that you found.
Dick Zigun:
The Coney Island I found was the archaeological remains, of the world's original amusement park. I'd like to say that there was more left of ancient Rome, then turn of the century Coney Island. But although a lot of the infrastructure was already gone, like steeple chase park was gone, Luna Park was gone. There's something about those salt air and the fresh air in Coney Island, even though it rots the mind, it preserves the body.
Ofer Cohen:
So you're describing as somewhat desolated kind of place.
Dick Zigun:
Well not totally even, at it's worse than the 70s when it was burned down, bombed out, graffiti, full of gangs and arson. Millions of people would come, their businesses were open. It was an incredible sea of humanity. Which it is to this day. Um, but it was broken. Because I'm an advocate of popular culture because it is Coney Island trying to figure out what to do when Coney Island, after those initial steps, I essentially was apprenticing myself, um, to people in Coney Island and learning their style and learning their language and all of that fed into creating Coney Island, USA the not for profit arts organization, which says that its mission is to defend the honor of American popular culture through innovative exhibitions and performances. So that gave me a framework and a justification for getting involved and advocating and experimenting with culture that a lot of people were embarrassed by. A lot of people thought that should be forgotten. Things like burlesque, things like freak shows, um, powtoons, all of those things which are incredibly popular now.
Ofer Cohen:
Dick says he was launching a movement, so he decided to do something completely different. He went to the city to start the first mermaid parade.
Dick Zigun:
The idea became, well, let's make a statement. Let's take over the entire neighborhood one day a year. I went to the community board, the local police precinct, the local politicians and said, hey, I want up running a 4th of July parade. Dude waited a little bit funky and weird and they laughed at me, not because they didn't think I could do white puppy because 4th of July was the busiest day of the year. Ironically, the Mermaid parade now rivals 4th of July for the busiest day. But not back when we first did it in 1983 they told me I couldn't do 4th of July, but I can pick any other date in the summer calendar. I decided, um, to round off the summer solstice to the weekend. And when I made up the name Mermaid parade, even before the first parade happened, people were laughing because mermaid don't have feet. How did they march in a parade?
Ofer Cohen:
It sounds to me like your vision of the mermaid parade has kind of evolved.
Dick Zigun:
No, it got bigger. It was fully formed from day one. The first parade in 1983 had everything you'd see now it had the empty cars, it the king and queen, it had tongue and cheek contest, not beauty contests for Most Beautiful Mermaid, but mermaid costume, whether it was ugly or beautiful, as long as it was creative, the beach cutting pageant and all of that was there with the beginning. It's just gotten bigger. I think biggest parade, uh, we've had so far has been about 800 thousand people, which means that the mermaid parade is bigger than Boston.
Dick Zigun:
Wow. So throughout the 37 years, tell me one struggling moment.
Dick Zigun:
Oh, I've tried to kill off the mermaid parade over the years and fights back . So it is expensive to throw a free party for New York City.
Ofer Cohen:
So just to kind of pay for it?
Dick Zigun:
So the parade, uh, costs well over $100,000 to put on this parade. As the parade gets bigger, we have, not only an obligation to make good art, but there's also a civic obligation. We disrupt bus routes. We, I don't know how much money the city spends on overtime from NYPD. Um, homeland security is there. The Mermaid parade is a very expensive ordeal for New York City. And because Brooklyn is cool, Brooklyn wants the mermaid parade and loves the Mermaid Parade, I've had to adapt over the years. At the beginning. The antique cars could drive on the boardwalk. They can't do that anymore.
Ofer Cohen:
You just said, um, you know, because Brooklyn is cool and the Mermaid parade is cool, Brooklyn wants the mermaid parade. And I could totally see how hipsters from Bushwick and East Williamsburg are, uh, you know, finding their way through the mermaid parade every year. Brooklyn was not cool 36-37 years ago.
Dick Zigun:
Let's talk about the former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, when he was a New York state senator and running for, um, Brooklyn borough president. He wanted a march in the mermaid parade. And I told him, as I told him, tell most politicians, if you wound a march in the parade, you have to wear a costume. He didn't wear a costume. He showed up anyway and worked the parade route. Um, he got elected borough president, I think he loves the Mermaid parade more than I do. And Mayor Giuliani tried to shut down the mermaid parade.
Ofer Cohen:
So how did you prevail?
Dick Zigun:
Marty Markowitz helped, the local politicians made it clear that the mermaid parade as important. You know, there was a certain amount of harassment. Uh, we weren't closed down and then there was a new mayor the next year,
Ofer Cohen:
Beginning of the 2000 was a big turning point for Brooklyn in terms of, um, how other neighborhoods started to change and demographics started to shift.
Dick Zigun:
Sure and Mayor Bloomberg, who, no matter what you think of his politics is known for being very smart and recruiting very qualified people. Uh, was working with Daniel. Dr. Roth, in terms of major rezoning of New York City neighborhoods, including Coney Island,
Ofer Cohen:
Was that intimidating at all?
Dick Zigun:
It was probably the hardest thing I've ever navigated. And at the same time, people will tell you that you were born for one moment in your life. I had no idea going into with that. I would be the major figure who all sides were vying for, first of all, I have an obligation to the not for profit. I started and I worked for Coney Island USA and this was our moment to go from being a fledgling arts organization to institutionalizing ourselves, which is the desire of a successful not for profit. So that was my main priority. My experience taught me that Coney Island, the way it was was broken. It was not sustainable. Things did need to change. Um, and then mayor Bloomberg made me a mayoral appointee to the Coney Island Development Corporation.
Ofer Cohen:
Every rezoning in New York City has a, especially a neighborhood wide, rezonings has somewhat of a debate.
Dick Zigun:
So the big debate was the day that, uh, directors of the Coney Island Development Corporation, including myself, got a 10:00 PM phone call saying, we want to give you a heads up that tomorrow there will be a front page article in the New York Times about how the city has struck a deal with Thor Equities and is going to shrink the already shrunken proposal in the rezoning for the tourist or amusement section that would be city owned, that is now Luna Park. Instead of being 15 acres, which shrinked to nine acres where as originally, um, in the rezoning from the 60s, Coney Island tourist amusement area with 66 acres. Now I said, uh, already on this podcast that Coney Island was broken and not sustainable. Out of that 66 acres, a lot of it was empty property for the weeds and broken glass, shrinking 66 acres to 27 acres, 15 of which would be a city owned amusement park shrunk to nine acres. I resigned from the Coney Island Development Corporation. I joined the opposition. The rezoning went through. But the advocacy and the noise we made after and through the rezoning led to a lot of additional compromises. That nine acres in reality is back up to 15 acres or even more, all ready in 2019, 10 years after the rezoning. In terms of activated property, we already have more than we had before the rezoning. We've lost the empty lots full of garbage weeds, broken glass, but we're definitely thriving. And on the upswing, my organization succeeded, didn't get him three buildings landmarked. There were already were landmark rides protected by the city. The parachute jump, the cyclone roller coaster, the wonder wheel, uh, prior to the rezone, no buildings where landmarked. We got the Ford amphitheater, which was a derelict building landmarked. It's been rebuilt. Our own building, the former child's building, that Coney Island USA had been renting, got landmarked and we've put a couple of million into restoration and the shore theater across from Nathan's. Um, we got landmarked and it's about to start a major renovation and turn into a 50 room hotel.
Ofer Cohen:
When you look at where we are right now in terms of the redevelopment of the broken Coney Island of the 70s 80s and 90s, it's gone.
Dick Zigun:
It's gone. But especially when the shore theater turns into a hotel and about two years the shore theater will be done and Luna Park will finish their build out, which is still in progress. Uh, within two years, if you walk around Coney Island, there will be nothing derelict.
Ofer Cohen:
So how do, how do you see the rest of the development around Coney Island?
Dick Zigun:
They're adding a lot more people to the island and considering hurricane super superstorm Sandy. And what happened there, what happened to my business, my pickup truck, my home. It's sort of surprising that flood zone A is adding that much housing but I guess is New York City comp resiliency. Um, they're going to have to build some kind of storm surge barrier between, uh, the Rockaways and somewhere in New Jersey to block that. Supposedly the new housing high rises will have parking garages in their center core. I don't think it's gonna work. I think they're going to have to deal with some type of people moving and mass transit. But otherwise, um, you know, having spent 40 years of my life at Coney Island and reconciled myself too with being the place, the time and real estate developers forgot suddenly like only can happen in New York City. When the real estate gets hot, it happens fast. It's certainly every inch of Coney Island seems to be under construction and the sidewalks, the streets, the sewers, I'm pretty happy with the way it's going. The rezoning has five other hotel sites not all of them aren't going to build hotels. Um, personally I think one of them should have a casino. Um, but that is by far not a universal opinion.
Ofer Cohen:
I was about to ask about that. So I'm happy you saying your hope that the casino in Coney Island would sort of make it a lot more of viable a year round destination.
Dick Zigun:
Of course it would. The state constitution or ready allows for written the next couple of years three casinos in the Metropolitan New York City area. Even with the decentralization in the metropolitan area of casinos. The one closest to it to Manhattan in New York City is going to thrive.
Ofer Cohen:
While Coney Island is currently being redeveloped. A significant portion of the property is still owned by Thor Equities Joe Sitt.
Dick Zigun:
Joe Sitt iss a much more likable guy than let's say Donald Trump who was a real estate developer in Coney Island. We actually have Trump village and Coney Island. But anyway, we were talking about Joe Sitt who's a likable accessible guy. If I wanted to talk to him and call him up, he would talk to me. He made a couple of small donations. He paid for the architectural exterior lighting, on our landmark bill date. But he owns a lot of the property. He hasn't developed it. He's put it up for sale. The asking price is high and that's holding us back considering, the person who owns the most property, who was supposed to be the city's economic development corporation partner is not developing. And it's remarkable how far Coney Island's coming without a major component. I hope he lowers the price and sells it soon.
Ofer Cohen:
Tell me something, and nobody knows about you, publicly ?
Dick Zigun:
Not enough people know, my training is as a playwright, I write plays, I write damn good plays, weird American plays and I, although I get some attention, when we put them out at Coney Island, it not only holds me back, but because there is a lack of respect or interest in South Brooklyn or Coney Island,, for being honkytonky Hoity toity people turn down their nose at Honky tonk. So we have trouble getting reviews, which not only harms me, it harms the actors and directors and the designers who work for me, who should be getting Obie awards and grants and attention. So if you're, Susan Feldman out there from St. Annes or if you were Oscar, at the public theater, why not develop a weird playwright who's got a lot of talent and is well known in Brooklyn.
Ofer Cohen:
Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time.
Dick Zigun:
Sure.