Coney Island Deconstruction

FPM: 26th Jan 2009 - 20:15 GMT

I'm really glad you took the time to actually go there and take these photos and put them here. I haven't been there in years, and after hearing all about what's changing there, I had hoped to see it again, and now I have, vicariously. So what exactly are they tearing down Coney Island for? A mall? Condominiums? *SIGH* more NYC History down the drain in the chase for that almighty $.......

luna park: 30th Jan 2009 - 15:58 GMT

yeah, i think the developers had hopes of building luxury condos and a giant mall, but in this economic climate, i doubt much of anything will be built here anytime soon...

AP: 30th Jan 2009 - 16:01 GMT

That's one of my biggest complaints about big-city "developers". They scheme to swoop in and buy up areas that usually contain a lot of public sentiment, raze them, then leave them sitting vacant and blighted until they plan/save/motivate enough to do something with them. When I heard of the Thor Equities plan to take over Coney Island, I knew this would happen, and it made me sick. I had hoped that NYC would at least make them wait until they had a firm plan and timeline in effect, but.... I guess it is all private property after all :-(

Jack: 25th Sep 2009 - 17:27 GMT

Maybe if they had made improvements, more people would go there. Whoever is responsible for running that place failed, not the developers.

Djoo: 25th Sep 2009 - 17:46 GMT

How amazing and also sad :-(

Jack, I bet it might be that the developers ran out the people running Coney Island. Anyone know? I'm not from there.

Westside Woman Santa Cruz: 25th Sep 2009 - 19:04 GMT

Damn. I really hoped to see Coney Island one day. I've wanted to go there ever since I saw the movie "The Little Fugitive" when I was a kid.

Folks, they did the very same thing to Playland at The Beach in my hometown, San Francisco, in 1974.
It's sad to see a part of ones childhood disappear. :-(

Westside Woman Santa Cruz: 25th Sep 2009 - 19:06 GMT

I hope they never take down the Santa Cruz Boardwalk!
Come to California and check it out, it's wonderful!

Heather: 25th Sep 2009 - 19:09 GMT

These photos show a tenderness for the place and at the same time a real vacancy and sense of abandonment. Such nice photos for such a cathartic time for CI.

And to Jack and Djoo, theres a lot more to the story than saying that the people who ran Astroland allowed it to fail. At best, I would say that the $30,000,000 price tag they were being offered was hard to resist.

Read more here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroland

Joseph Loughlin: 3rd Nov 2009 - 02:56 GMT

I went to Steeplechase at Coney Island in the 1930.s as a kid and it was like going to another planet. Absolutley fantastic! I guess we've just gotten too sophisticated to enjoy such things now. I also worked at Coney as a "beachcomber." ( ie: garbage collector)for the Parks Dept. in 1943. We used to see stuff wash up on the beach from ships that had been torpeded by German Subs right outside New York Harbor.