City officials on Friday saluted attendance on Pleasure Beach following its reopening June 28 after a fire to the drawbridge shut off access nearly 20 years ago. Hopped a water taxi there myself last Saturday. Fun reconnecting with the beach, but way too much time in the sun. Still look like a lobster. Pass the aloe vera, please. Peel skin. Do ya think Pleasure Beach will be mentioned a few times during Mayor Bill Finch’s reelection campaign next year? News release from mayor’s communications director Brett Broesder. Even State Rep-elect Andre Baker got in on the beach action.
Today, Mayor Bill Finch joined State Rep. Don Clemons, Board of Education member Andre Baker, Bridgeport City Council member Eneida Martinez-Walker, Director of the Office of Anti-Blight Christopher Rosario, Bishop Richardo Griffith, President of the East End NRZ, members of the Bridgeport Police Department and the Bridgeport Wildlife Guards for a press conference celebrating more than 13,500 people who have visited Pleasure Beach since re-opening on June 28.
“This is incredible news for our city,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. “After being closed for nearly 20 years, we’re thrilled to be able to bring folks out to Pleasure Beach. It’s a critical piece of Bridgeport’s history, but more importantly, it’s proof that we’re making smart investments in the future. Thanks to everyone who made this possible.”
Pleasure Beach closed in 1996 after a fire burned the bridge, which was the only way to access the 71-acre barrier island, making it inaccessible to residents. It remained inaccessible for nearly two decades until this summer when it once again opened to the public.
“Pleasure Beach is a direct result of what happens when you have the city, state, and federal governments all working together to see the vision of the community come to fruition,” said State Representative Clemons (D-124).
“I am happy to see so many people utilizing this great asset of Bridgeport,” said Baker. “Pleasure Beach serves an attraction for Bridgeport that will continue to draw people from the city and throughout the region.”
“Pleasure Beach is great for the East End community,” said Council member Martinez-Walker. “Seeing so many people come out to our neighborhood to visit this beautiful beach has been a very uplifting experience.”
“What you’re seeing with the success of Pleasure Beach is the power of being resilient,” said Bishop Griffith.
“I look forward to working with the Bridgeport delegation to continue improving Pleasure Beach,” said Rosario.
The rich history of Pleasure Beach. Bridgeport annexed Pleasure Beach from Stratford in 1889. The barrier island then served as a regional and national tourist destination in the early 20th century. George C. Tilyou, best known for development of Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park, once owned an amusement park on the barrier island. Professional baseball teams, including the Chicago Cubs, played games at a baseball park on the site, which was owned by Hall-of-Famer James O’Rourke. And, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a speech on there in 1932 when he was Governor of New York, and shortly thereafter he became President of the United States (to view historic photos, click here: bit.ly/1t0Ep7z). The amusement park on Pleasure Beach closed in 1966. But up until 1996, the peninsula served as a park that was regularly used by residents.
Everything you need to know about Pleasure Beach
–> bridgeportintheknow.com/PB.htm
What I know about Pleasure Beach is my taxes are paying for the Finch crowd’s happy dance. I also know while Finch is doing the happy dance, our taxes have just gone up again and we’re all going to get clobbered next year by the reval. Not my kind of happy dance.
So what does Chris Rosario have to do with Pleasure Beach that he’s out there standing with all the politicians at some news conference? Shouldn’t he be citing the City for a pile of rubble where the carousel was?
Why wouldn’t the Mayor blow his horn on this? He has every right to claim credit. The City and East End have every right to see this as a victory and any individual who feels otherwise is just sad. So many people will benefit and hopefully have happy memories as the East End develops into a major destination between Steelepointe, Pleasure Beach and a new railway station. Bridgeport should be excited and spread the news. Mayor Finch can gloat unless nothing happens on Steelepointe until the next election and of course Marina Village replacement housing downtown will be his worst nightmare. MARINA VILLAGE REPLACEMENT HOUSING DOWNTOWN … BRILLIANT … NOT!
So Steve, how many times have you been to the island since it reopened?
I can honestly say I have not been there once. Reason being I stopped being a sun worshiper years ago including tanning booths. These days I just go to the beach for a drive through or walk the length. Seaside is fine by me. I will however make it to the beach. Just out of curiosity, does it matter if I went to Pleasure Beach? I personally wish they turned it into a campground. I do however patronize Dolphins Cove and worked summers at Cilco Terminal while on summer vacation from college so I remember Pleasure Beach well.
I wonder if Dolphins Cove Marina Restaurant has seen any business from the opening of Pleasure Beach. They have an incredible menu and the best Portuguese seafood. I have been going there for over 20 years and the food has always been superb.
Steve, we went there the other day. Enjoyed food.
Good for you! Hope it was fab!
Shuttling 13,000 people back and forth, who’s paying for all this?
I paid, we are paying. The City of Bridgeport raised the cost of the Park sticker from $5 to $10. Anyone who parks their car on Seaside, St. Mary’s or Beardsley Park and doesn’t have Park sticker is ticketed $30. Around the start of June, my wife asked me for $5 to take our 12 year old to Seaside. When she pulled up to pay at the checkpoint, she was told it’s $10. She turned around and left. She did not tell me about this until about a week later when we all drove to Seaside and I parked near the ball fields. When I came back to the van about an hour later, I had a $30 ticket on my windshield.
Out-of-towners like Lennie Grimaldi can come down to Pleasure Beach, get free parking, free round-trip ferry ride to the Island, no worry of a ticket, leave some trash behind, and use the bathrooms to leave more sewage for us to pay for it. How nice, eh?
13,500, wow, what a number, huge, that many unemployed given something to do, nice.
Or are the “hear take a ticket folks” the same people who give out the absentee ballots, or perhaps it’s just they are “in training.”
Is there a log of visitors? Is it 13,500 individuals or 13,500 visits?
Let’s see, $8,000,000 divided by 13,500 visits = $593 per visit.
Cornerstone of the Finch reelection campaign. (Paid by taxpayers.)
WOW! Is that the Finch $600 tax rebate check we’ve been waiting for? He’s still short 7 bucks.
Tom,
Thank you for doing the math on visits vs. the disclosed capital expenses. However, there are continuing operating expenses that come out of one or more departments, aren’t there? New employees? Or more efficiency than in the past? Of course you would need a Transparent display by an Accountable City source to provide Open governance to the people of Bridgeport, wouldn’t you? Perhaps it is easier to operate a water taxi. And can anyone tell me why a pedestrian bridge was out of the question? Time will tell.
Tom White, as I said before that is a good point about the mayor and Pleasure Beach. Now we can look for Mayor Finch to arm Bridgeport with FEMA-surplus Navy vehicles to bring visitors out and back to Pleasure Beach. At some point the mayor will need to hire more people to support this five-months use of the beach.
OK folks. The beach has been open for 45 days. Let’s pick a number. Let’s say 300. So 300 people for 45 days is 13,500.
This is what the city did to figure out how many people have visited. SWAG–silly, wild-ass guess. Don’t get too excited, the number isn’t real.
So Lennie, what day of the week were you out there? How many people did you count as being out there?
If you didn’t do this then what happened to the Lennie who used to be a reporter?
The city throws out 13,500 and you print it.
Actually Troll, it was last Saturday and I counted roughly 300 on the beach and another 50 or so on the pier fishing when I departed after a two-hour stay. People come and go throughout the day. I arrived noonish with no wait for a water taxi. Upon return there was a line of about 25 waiting for a water taxi. The larger taxi can accommodate about that amount. As for the city’s 13,500 figure, that would be the number of total visits and not unique visits. Impossible for the city to calculate unique visits, the different individuals visiting the beach. So the number is based on return visits as well. Sometimes, when the mayor refers to sites such as Only In Bridgeport his nerve endings bristle, “It’s all about the clicks.” So yes, in this case of Pleasure Beach for the mayor, “It’s all about the clicks.” As for me, I am grateful for OIB return visits. Thank you, for your return visits, Troll.
I do think it’s costing the city a small fortune to staff Pleasure Beach with lifeguards, parks and emergency personnel. The city may be benefiting from the novelty of Pleasure Beach access. Next year might require a plan to offset costs, perhaps a taxi fee for suburbanites, or maybe the novelty wears off. Either way, even though it’s five years after he promised Pleasure Beach access, the mayor will milk its reopening for all it’s worth, especially with East End voters. We’ll see how long the interest lasts.
And speaking of reporting, when you were at Dolphin’s Cove did you talk to the people there? Get any feedback? Has it helped business?
Now Lennie, let’s do the math a little. If there are three hundred visits a day (unique or repeats does not matter), that would be 2,100 a week. If that number is 200 a weekday then it would have to be 550 on a Saturday and Sunday. If it is more like 150 a weekday then it would be 1,350 for a weekend and then the numbers become problematic logistically.
If the city does not have numbers by day by time of day, then they cannot an for next year. But that’s OK because there is no an to charge for next year. Next year is an election year. Free service while it lasts.
If the voters of the East End turn their back on Ernie Newton, someone they loved well, Bill Finch will lose the voters of the East End. Pleasure Beach and water taxi or not, this isn’t bringing money into the East End or creating new jobs. The East End has seen what Mayor Finch has done for six years, NOTHING.
No, I have not. Maybe next year.
Lennie, is the City (our tax dollars) or the Finch reelection campaign paying for the ‘Rediscover Pleasure Beach’ advertising on OIB?
Tom, it’s part of a city-paid marketing campaign that includes OIB and other media outlets.
Just thought I would ask.