Reported on Aug. 15, 2009

Connie Francis was pouring her heart out on stage performing her hit ballad “Who’s Sorry Now?” Frankie Valli was warming up out back; the few remaining open seats were filling up fast; and the line to get into the 2009 Seaside Summer Concert Series still stretched five blocks down from the entrance of the amphitheater in Asser Levy/Seaside Park.

Ida Sanoff collecting signatures, July 30, 2009, Asser Levy Park, Brooklyn. Photo: Rio Slaven.

It was late June and the weather, for the first time that month, was cooperating. It was warm, a pleasant breeze was coming off the Atlantic and the sun was just beginning to set behind the band shell. The air crackled with anticipation and excitement – Frankie Valli was here!

Oh, what a night.

Ida Sanoff stood just a few feet from the makeshift entrance gate. She was excited, if not a little tired from having been on her feet for the last hour or so. As she gazed at the long line of people still waiting to get in – 200 or 300 at least – a determined smile spread across her deeply tanned face.

Readjusting her clipboard, she set off toward a group of concertgoers.

“Excuse me,” she said, “would you be willing to sign a petition to save our park?”

Oh what a night, indeed.

Sanoff, 57, who was born in Queens, has been living around the corner from the park for the past 31 years. Last year she learned that Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz was planning on replacing the park’s sleepy little band shell with a $64 million, state-of-the-art amphitheater.

Her response to hearing the news?

“Over my dead body,” she said.

Sanoff is not new to standing up for her community. She has been fighting the good fight for more than a decade.

It all began in 1998 when she met Kerry Sullivan, executive director of the Natural Resources Protective Association.

“It was a three-second conversation that changed my life,” said Sanoff.

Sullivan had informed Sanoff that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was planning to dump toxic waste off the shore of Coney Island. It was an issue that Sanoff had thought had been beaten and was furious to learn otherwise.

“Ida went crazy,” said Sullivan. “She was so angry she was shaking.”

Shortly after that meeting, Sanoff joined the association as its Brooklyn representative. Her unwavering dedication and scientific acumen – she holds a Master of Science in medical microbiology from Long Island University – proved to be invaluable and she quickly rose to the position of chairwoman.

“She came to our meeting and became our powerhouse,” said Sullivan.

The association, along with a coalition of like-minded organizations such as the NY/NJ Baykeeper and Clean Ocean Action, took on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2002, and won. Today it continues to watch over and protect the area’s beaches and marine environment.

“Ida has remained vigilant over all these years,” said Cindy Zipf, founder of Clean Ocean Action, who has known Sanoff for more than 12 years. “She’s still enthusiastic and still believes you can change the world.”

What makes Sanoff such a formidable opponent is her thorough understanding of the ins and outs of New York City politics; an understanding she gained during the eight years she spent as a member of Brooklyn’s Community Board 13.

In 1998, while protesting former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s policy of closing off beach access with wooden fencing, Sanoff was approached by representatives from the now defunct Good Government Democratic Club who asked her to become a member of the community board.

“They asked me to join because they saw that I had a big mouth,” she said with a chuckle.

Sanoff eventually became first vice chairwoman of the board, and in 2006 decided to make a bid for the top position. By that point, however, her outspokenness had caused her to fall out of favor and her name was not among those chosen to run for chair.

But she ran anyway.

That decision cost Sanoff not only her board membership – she lost the bid for chair and was let go after her term as first vice chairwoman expired – but several of her friends as well. She asserts that once she decided to run on her own, many of her fellow board members were reluctant to support her out of fear of retribution.

“One of the people that turned on me was someone I had known for years. When I asked her why, she admitted that if she were to vote for me, her organization would lose its funding,” said Sanoff.

That person was Pat Singer, executive director the Brighton Neighborhood Association, and she remembers things differently.

“Ida wanted to be chairwoman and when she didn’t win she got mad,” she said. Sanoff got kicked off the board because she began to insult elected officials, she added.

Sanoff sees her involuntary departure as the best thing that could have ever happened.

“They thought I would go home with my tail between my legs,” she said. “But they actually did me a favor. They freed me.”

Sanoff is now more involved than ever. She goes to every board meeting, sits on several committees and is at the forefront of the fight against the proposed amphitheater project.

The new amphitheater is the cornerstone of Markowitz’s initiative to overhaul the park and commercialize the concert series. The sheer size and scope of the project have Sanoff, and the area residents she represents, greatly concerned about the impact on their community. With an 8,000-person seating capacity, the proposed amphitheater would be bigger than Radio City Music Hall.

Markowitz has been hosting the free concert series for many years, so residents are quite familiar with the level of noise, traffic and litter that a show can bring. They want no part of an arena that will attract better acts and bigger crowds to their already congested community.

Groundbreaking on the project was originally slated for Sept. 1 of this year, but because of the opposition efforts it has been pushed back to an unspecified date.

“Officials at the borough president’s office have said numerous times that pushing her off the board was the worst mistake they ever made,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, who has been fighting alongside Sanoff on the amphitheater issue since last year.

A representative from Markowitz’s office declined comment for this story.

Sanoff’s tenacity does not end with her advocacy work. She applies that same will and determination to all facets of her life, including her 36-year marriage to the love of her life, Jeffrey Sanoff, 58, with whom she also works part time at their small, family-run print shop.

“I first saw my husband on the subway and I knew right then and there that I was going to marry him,” she said. “It took us a very, very long time to grow up and get through all of our issues and finally come together on things, but we did it.”

Jeffrey Sanoff agrees, and said that the secret to their marriage is that they don’t blow things out of proportion and that they are each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Adding that honesty also plays a huge roll.

“I support her because she is on the right side of the issue,” he said. “If she wasn’t, I would tell her so.”

Sanoff’s pride for his wife is palpable. It came off of him in waves as he cheered her on with a supportive “You go girl!” at a recent community board meeting.

For her part, Ida Sanoff beamed as she said with a smile, “I guess he likes his little pit bull.”

The pit bull comparison is one that has been made many times. Sanoff is well known for her tenacious nature.

“She is the environmental bulldog,” said Sullivan. “Once she gets her teeth into something, that’s it.”

Croft, of NYC Park Advocates, agrees. “She doesn’t give up. She can’t be bought off,” he said.

Not everyone is a fan of that tenaciousness, however.

“She could express herself more positively,” said Singer. “But she is who she is, and I don’t hold anything against her.”

Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal, agrees. “Ida is passionate about a lot of things,” he said wearily. “She goes to every meeting and cares very much about a lot of things.”

Much like a pit bull, however, Sanoff also has a deeply caring side. She is an avid birder and loves animals, including the sea creatures she so fiercely protects.

“She likes animals better than most people,” said Jeffrey Sanoff.

Zipf agrees. “She loves her furry kids,” she said, referring to Sanoff’s three cats Daisy, Darwin and Duncan.

Croft goes further, describing Sanoff in a way that those who do not know her well would find hard to believe.

“She’s a softie,” he said.

However people choose to describe her, one thing about Sanoff is certain. She has no regrets.

“You are who you are. And this is what I do,” she said. “Someone has to make the world safe for the fishies and the birds.”