The Hang-bar

Here’s a teaser from my latest story:

Rumbling across the Brooklyn Bridge on the Sea Beach Express subway train, it is easy to envision what waits at the Coney Island boardwalk off the last stop. The little things that come to mind are those that have made Coney legendary over the last 150 years- the smell of fried foods, the salty taste off the shore, even the distant screams coming from the Cyclone rollercoaster. But not far down from that famous rollercoaster, there is one sight you might not expect: a three-block long fish tank, filled to the brim with sharks. At least, that is the plan.

“Usually, the cry of ‘shark’ means fewer people on the waterfront, but here in Brooklyn, it’ll mean more,” said Brooklyn President Marty Markowitz about the New York Aquarium’s plan to build a $100 million shark exhibit extending onto the Coney boardwalk.

The exhibit is part of a ten-year makeover at the aquarium called “Sea Change,” which was initially proposed in 2008 as a way to increase the aquarium’s attendance and augment the ongoing redevelopment at Coney Island. The ambitious plan was put on hold until late last year, while the city struggled to purchase the necessary land from real estate mogul, Joseph J. Sitt. But last December, after nearly three years of redesigns and stalled attempts, the project was given the green light by the city’s Public Design Commission.

“This important project will drive more tourists than ever to South Brooklyn, as well as provide jobs for the community,” explained Councilman Domenic Recchia, whose district includes Coney Island, in a statement. “It’s a huge boon for the neighborhood.”

Moved to Coney Island in 1957, the New York Aquarium last opened an exhibit in 1989, and has never before extended onto the boardwalk. Its current shark exhibit is more than two decades old and houses only three varieties of sharks in a relatively small 90,000-gallon tank. In 2008, Councilman Recchia, along with Brooklyn President Markowitz and Mayor Bloomberg, began to promote the idea of a new exhibit as a way to bring jobs and revenues to the Coney Island area. But even as early as 2005, aquarium developers were dreaming up a massive exhibit to entice board-walkers into their shark infested waters.  

Ten stubby fingers dig into a small plastic bag with popcorn. Using her index finger as a mixing spoon, a jumpy girl swirls in a spoonful of chocolate pudding, as if mixing together some corn-sugary concoction. Carefully, she removes her hand, and puts it to her tongue savoring every second before turning back to the menu.

“What’s magi-reeta,” she asks her mom (not knowing how to pronounce Margarita). “I want to try it!”

Her mom starts to laugh, before nodding yes as if to indicate “you can try anything you want.” The little girl flashes a bright smile, revealing two missing teeth, and reaches towards the lever. With a yank of the handle, the trap door falls through, releasing thousands upon thousands of tiny green dots clinking through the slot machine and into her plastic bag- jackpot.

“Green jelly beans, my favorite,” screeches the little girl.

The staggering amount of these beans produced for the Easter holiday is enough to fill a candy bag slightly larger than the little girl’s: one the size of a nine story building to be exact.  Anyone of the Jelly Beans part of the girl’s “choco-reeta-popcorn,” is just one of 16 billion beans produced annually for the holiday; and at Dillan’s candy bar in New York City, that means one thing for the thousands of kids who are lucky enough to make their own concoctions- choices and lots of ‘em.

Be it the classic taste of Red Apple, Very Cherry, and Lemon Lime or the more exotic flavors of Strawberry Cheesecake, Dr. Pepper and Carmel Corn, the line to the Jelly Bean display is never in short supply. Standing at 10 feet, the wall of beans features the better part of two dozen flavors and towers over the children with chocolate remnants of snacks past tucked into the corner of their lips, who crane their necks to take in all of the possible options.

But kids aren’t the only ones who have taken a shine to the bean. Hidden among the aisles of chocolate and sinfully sugary treats, a “wall of fame” display reveals the candy choices of some of Hollywood’s sweetest and sourest figures. Whether it is Roger Ebert’s Buttered Popcorn or the little girl’s “choco-reeta-corn,” it seems as if this little candy shows a little bit about ourselves- who we are and where we’ve ‘bean’.

When Rabbi Kitzman left his home last week to lead his temple’s Shabbat services, he was fortunate just to be able to push his small children in strollers out the front door.
 
For Kitzman, an Orthodox Jew whose religion forbids operating a vehicle on the Sabbath, it is an “Eruv” -a region marked by a thin string tied to light posts- that allows him push the strollers and carry religious texts to services, activities otherwise forbidden on Shabbat. But last Friday, while Rabbi Kitzman was busy addressing his congregation on the “2000 year-old debate” surrounding Jewish law in society, Orthodox Jews in Long Island’s Westhampton Beach remained engaged in a two-year struggle to construct their own Eruv, faced with an unlikely opponent: the town’s existing Jewish population.

So when the comedy-news program “The Daily Show with John Stuart” aired a story on the Westhampton Eruv conflict last Wednesday, titled “The Thin Jew Line,” it threw fuel onto a 2000 year-old fire.

“It’s not a subject to be treated lightly and definitely inappropriate for a comedy routine,” stated Arnie Sheiffer, President and Founder of the Jewish People Opposed to the Eruv (JPOE). “The Jewish people have fought for generations to get out of the ghettos and be treated equally- we do not believe any municipality should create special areas for any religion.”

                          

Mr. Sheiffer estimates that 90 percent of the existing Westhampton Jewish population disapproves of the Eruv on an aesthetic and moral basis, fearing the string tied to light and power poles will ruin the quaint feeling of downtown Westhampton, while promoting a feeling of segregation in the process. Other local residents see JPOE’s opposition as an attempt to avoid the shift in power that has manifested in other Long Island communities like Lawrence and Merrick, where erected Eruvin have drastically increased the Orthodox presence in recent decades. 

“What they’re really afraid of is that the Eruv will bring in Orthodox Jews with big beards and hats,” said Dan Wiess, a Manhattanite who also owns a house in the Hamptons. “And that it will screw up their real-estate values.”

The once-local debate between pro and anti-Eruv camps made national news in January, when the East End Eruv Association (EEEA) filed a lawsuit against the Mayor of Westhampton, claiming that the town had no authority to prohibit their project as they had done since 2008. Only days after the EEEA lawsuit, the Long Island Power Association (LIPA) and Verizon Wireless also started litigation against Westhampton, hoping to expedite the legal process.

“Our stance is that we’ll do whatever is decided,” stated John Bonomo, Director of Media Relations for Verizon, one of the two companies who would be responsible for taxing the EEEA for hanging the Eruv lines on their poles. “But until someone makes that choice, we’re kind of stuck in the middle.”

This same convergence of religious law and communal interpretation was at the heart of Rabbi Kitzman’s sermon last week. Or, as he put it in more colloquial terms: “it’s the old saying of having two Jews, and three opinions.” He’s saving that one for next week’s sermon.