Credit where it's due: Markowitz was force behind Coney Island concert venue
Erik Engquist
Former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz made the new Coney Island amphitheater become a reality.
A press release Tuesday announcing a Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony for a Coney Island amphitheater mentioned seven public and corporate officials by name, but not the man most responsible for the project: Marty Markowitz.
The former Brooklyn borough president relentlessly championed the idea for years, pushing through local resistance and other obstacles until the concert venue was all but inevitable. But he was term-limited out of office before it was completed.
Crain's asked Markowitz on Tuesday about the omission in the release, sent by a private entity called Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, but found him anything but bitter. Quite the contrary, in fact.
"It's all good," he said. "I am thrilled that the amphitheater is reality, to be enjoyed for the many years ahead."
As the organizer for decades of a popular free concert series at the beach community, Markowitz saw a covered venue as essential because fans sometimes got drenched by summer downpours. The new Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk will protect 5,000 viewers from precipitation.
Markowitz downplayed the apportioning of credit, deeming it "a pebble within a mountain."
Things got better the next day. First, the mayor's press office included a quote from Markowitz in its own release about the ribbon-cutting, albeit after seven other officials' quotes and without mentioning his role in making the project happen:
"The opening of this amphitheater is a dream come true not only for Coney Island, but for Brooklyn," said former Borough President Marty Markowitz. "The Coney Island Amphitheater will now join the ranks of Jones Beach and Hyannis and will become a mainstay on the national summer concert circuit."
Then, at the ceremony later that morning, Markowitz found himself singled out by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who praised Markowitz first in his remarks:
"Now, we always invoke the phrase, 'Success has many mothers and fathers.' ... But in this case I want to call out a father in particular because there was a visionary born in Brooklyn years ago. And if you watched him in his time as borough president, you know, you sometimes were tempted to say, 'Is that idea actually ever going to happen?' ... But there is a place in this world for sheer force of will, and for vision, and for love of your borough, and your people. So, my dear friends, let's thank Marty Markowitz...
"Marty, you kept coming back year after year with those wonderful concerts. And you wanted something even more. So, I hope today you're feeling an incredible satisfaction that your dream came true. Congratulations."
Markowitz, who was a state senator before attaining his dream job as borough president, now works for NYC & Company, the public-private partnership that promotes the city's tourism and hospitality industry.
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