Coney Island, the iconic beachfront amusement area in Brooklyn, New York, opened yesterday. For its last season. Coney Island will disappear at the end of the year, the victim of "progress". Real estate developers will turn the famous area into something different – rumored to be a Las Vegas style attraction complete with condos and timeshares. But the icon will disappear.
"This is a very emotional day," said Carol Albert, whose family owns the 45-year-old Astroland park, home to the Cyclone and other thrill rides.
"It's breaking our hearts" to be closing the park, Albert said, but added that the plans would yield "a new, exciting and improved Coney Island."
Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz vowed, "We're entering into the best days. The promise is not only to preserve Coney Island, but to make sure that the best days are yet to come, both preserving and expanding" its scope.
He then broke a bottle of egg cream, a New York concoction of chocolate syrup, seltzer and milk, on the roller coaster's front car before a raft of dignitaries, including Miss Cyclone, piled in for the heart-stopping inaugural plunge.
Developer Thor Equities plans a $2 billion amusement, retail and residential project along the boardwalk. The plan, which some reports have characterized as "Vegas-style," includes more than 20 new rides.
Besides amusements, it envisions entertainment, what it calls a "family hotel" and indoor water park, retail spaces and residential condos and hotel timeshares.
It is kind of ironic reading this just a few days after I posted about the old amusement parks in upstate New York when I was growing up. The old Roseland Park disappeared only to be replaced by condos and other real estate developments. So this is your last chance to visit the old Coney Island before "progress" changes it forever into something transplanted from Las Vegas.
The same thing happened in Seattle, when Playland was bulldozed some years ago. Its disappearance was due to the city’s expansion in that direction, so the cotton candy machine, the roller coaster, the merry-go-round, the “Viking giant”, the Midway, the Shoot the Chute and lots of other kids’ delights were replaced by hot-pillow motels and similar atrocities. Ugh.