The most astounding thing about the sad scene at Astroland yesterday, was the fact that there were no signs saying “Save Astroland” and not a single sheet of paper saying “Goodbye.” Tens of thousands of people descended on Coney’s iconic little amusement park on a gorgeous September Sunday to say goodbye. It is being closed because owner Carol Albert says that developer Joe Sitt of Thor Equities, to whom she sold the land in 2006, has refused to negotiate a new lease. There were long lines to buy tickets and to get on rides, which seemed to get longer as the day went on, and practically everyone, it seemed, had a camera and was taking photos or videos. Last year, during Astroland’s “last day” there were protests, workers hung signs in ticket booth and on their rides asking that the park and their jobs be saved. There was none of that yesterday. The most visible statement, in fact, were the Thor Equities “Summer of Hope” t-shirts being worn by a large group of young people attending the last day with tickets donated by the developer.
We heard one worker speak with disgust about how Astroland would be an empty lot next near and how Thor Equities would be “taking jobs from 350 people and from their kids who could have worked here too.” He condemned the city too for doing nothing to prevent the closure of the park. We lost track of the number of people who said to us how “sad” it was that Astroland was closing. Everyone, it seemed to us, was resigned that Astroland would cease to exist when the gates were closed last night.
And, perhaps, it shall. As we originally reported on Saturday, Astroland’s rides are on the market as part of a “liquidation sale.” The park’s lease runs through January, but it is unclear when Ms. Albert will start the process of permanently dismantling it. Yesterday’s subdued goodbye went late into the night. There is a “Save Astroland 2009” petition circulating, but Ms. Albert continues to insist that she is through without a multi-year lease. We’ll have a full slideshow of shots from yesterday in an hour this morning.
