Coney Island
Coney Island, located at the southern tip of Brooklyn, New York City, is historically recognized as a significant amusement destination that played a vital role in the development of modern amusement parks. During the early twentieth century, it was a favored retreat for wealthy vacationers and middle-class day-trippers alike, especially after the subway extension in 1920 made it more accessible to immigrant communities seeking relief from urban life. This era saw the introduction of iconic attractions like the Wonder Wheel and Cyclone roller coaster, shaping its identity as a hub of outdoor entertainment.
Coney Island experienced a demographic shift, evolving into a stable residential community primarily inhabited by Italian and Jewish immigrant families, with a thriving neighborhood offering various local businesses and services. However, by the mid-twentieth century, the area faced decline, marked by increased crime and the deterioration of its attractions. In the twenty-first century, revitalization efforts began, including the introduction of new housing, a minor-league baseball stadium, and the reopening of a modern amusement park, Luna Park.
Despite setbacks, such as the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Coney Island has been striving to bounce back, with ongoing projects aiming to restore its vibrant cultural legacy through events and new entertainment venues. This storied location reflects a rich tapestry of American history and community resilience, making it a fascinating subject for those interested in urban development and cultural heritage.
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Coney Island
A handful of entrepreneurs at Coney Island, New York, created the modern amusement park, with its mechanical wonders and exotic architecture. Coney Island’s entertainment formulas became so deeply ingrained in American culture that by the 1920s, park operators throughout the United States and around the world had copied them, many unabashedly appropriating the names of the resort’s amusement parks. Though it later fell out of popularity and became neglected, by the twenty-first century efforts were being contributed to revive the area.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Coney Island, a sandy beach at the southern tip of Brooklyn in New York City, was the playground of the vacationing rich and the day-tripping middle classes. With the extension of the subway to the local Stillwell Avenue Terminal in 1920, however, a new Coney Island was born. The “Nickel Empire,” so called because the subway ride only cost five cents, became the destination of choice for poor and immigrant New Yorkers looking to escape the city’s tenements and summer heat. Coney Island became even more accessible to the masses in 1923, when a boardwalk was built and the beach was opened to the public.
The 1920s saw the construction of many rides that would change the skyline of Coney Island, including the Wonder Wheel and five new roller coasters, one of them the famous Cyclone. In 1927, the lavish Half Moon Hotel went up about a mile west of the amusement zone, intended to stimulate economic development between the two areas.
The most important transformation of Coney Island was the growth of its permanent population. Coney’s proximity to the subway and beach made it a prime site of New York’s building boom. A year-round residential community of mainly Italian and Jewish immigrant families took hold west of the amusement zone. Mermaid Avenue, which two decades earlier had been a barren strip of sand dunes and marshes, now featured multistory brick apartment houses, two- and three-story storefront buildings, churches and synagogues, banks, grocery stores, bakeries, butcher shops, and clothing stores.
Impact
By the end of the 1920s, residential Coney Island was a stable working- and lower-middle-class neighborhood, and its amusement zone still contained the world’s largest collection of outdoor entertainments. These patterns continued through the 1950s, after which the area fell into decline; arson and street crime increased, the beach and the boardwalk deteriorated, and Steeplechase Park, the only large amusement park that remained, closed down. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was talk of revival—a new amusement park, luxury hotels, casino gambling—but nothing materialized.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, a turnaround occurred. A minor-league baseball stadium opened, the Stillwell Avenue Terminal was given a $280 million overhaul, new middle-income housing was planned, and rezoning for the construction of Las Vegas–style hotels with indoor amusements was approved. As it had in the 1920s, Coney Island was once again reinventing itself.
In 2010, with the support of then New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, Central Amusement International opened the first new amusement park on Coney Island in decades that was based off of the original park for which it still bears the name: Luna Park. While developers continued to dispute over land for other projects, disaster struck in late 2012 in the form of Hurricane Sandy. Waves crashed into the iconic boardwalk and surrounding streets and parks of Coney Island as part of the severe storm that destroyed several businesses and homes along the East Coast. Businesses worked to recover in the years following the hurricane, and the nonprofit Coney Island USA continued holding events reminiscent of the old days, including sideshows, the mermaid parade, and tours of the Coney Island Museum. In addition to plans for restaurants and housing, in early 2016 the company iStar broke ground on a new amphitheater designed to host a variety of concerts and shows as well as a restaurant built off of the landmark eatery Childs; the facility opened in July of that year.
Bibliography
Aswad, Jem. "From Vacant Restaurant to $60 Million Venue: First Look Inside Coney Island's State-of-the Art Ford Amphitheater." Billboard, 14 July 2016, www.billboard.com/articles/news/7438903/from-vacant-restaurant-to-60-million-venue-first-look-inside-coney-islands. Accessed 20 Jan. 2017.
Denson, Charles. Coney Island: Lost and Found. Ten Speed Press, 2002.
Frank, Robin Jaffee. Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art / Yale UP, 2015.
Immerso, Michael. Coney Island: The People’s Playground. Rutgers UP, 2002.
Walker, Hunter. "Photos: Sandy's Aftermath in Coney Island." Observer, 31 Oct. 2012, observer.com/2012/10/sandys-aftermath-in-coney-island/. Accessed 20 Jan. 2017.