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HAUNTING CONEY ISLAND

A place much frequented

By Darren Martin

March 1^st, 2014

CONEY ISLAND

A peninsula, formerly an island, in southernmost Brooklyn, New York City, with a beach that touches the Atlantic ocean.

A place where smiles were a dime-a-dozen, a place where you could let your hair down and escape the rat race of Manhattan. A place you could escape the summer heat from New York City’s tenements. The Coney Island resort, established roughly after the American Civil War in 1861, was an escape from reality.

Home today to roughly 60,000 people of various creeds and colours, Coney Island and it’s neighbouring communities have seen it all.

From Rabbit hunting in 1639 (Conye Eylandt - meaning Rabbit Island in Dutch) to trying to capture a prize at Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park in 1920, Coney Island was a land of adventure.

Between 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year.

With names like The Wonder Wheel, The Cyclone, The Parachute Jump, Thunderbolt and Tornado, Coney Island was the place to be challenged.

And it seems Coney Island itself liked to be challenged. From World War II to the gang wars of the 1950’s, nothing could bring Coney Island down. The fires, shutdowns, corruption, and false promises all tried but famously failed.

It has been immortalised in print, film, art and music. But today in life, it’s nothing more than a relic from the past. A wasteland of rusting metal, de-saturated coloured fairy lights and empty streets. An apocalyptic setting waiting for another movie script. A place devoid of smiles.

No doubt, Coney Island has it ghosts, but hope lies ahead.

In June 2009 planning was approved by the City’s planning commission for new construction of housing and the vow to “preserve, in perpetuity, the open amusement area rides that everyone knows and loves”.

For the people of New York City, Coney Island and it’s neighbouring communities, here’s hoping those words won’t come back to haunt the city’s planning commission.