[Photo courtesy of Deborah Matlack] We hit the new Magic Bowling in early February when we noticed the signage going up and our devoted contributor Deborah Matlack passed by the other day and documented some progress. It was once the home of the B&B Carousell and its sign was painted over because there was apparently […]

[Read more →]

Borough President Marty Markowitz has expressed little interest in funding a fix for the deplorably deteriorated Coney boardwalk in the past and is planning to spend $64 million on an increasingly controversial concert venue that many say is ego-driven waste of money that will actually violate the quality of life of thousands of residents, but […]

[Read more →]

This is from Save Coney Island and we urge everyone to sign it and pass along the link. Frankly, we don’t think the people craftinng Coney Island’s destiny give a rat’s ass what the public thinks, because if they did, plans would already have been signficantly changed and steps taken to prevent Thor Equities from […]

[Read more →]

The person who posted this video writes: “Don’t worry about the financial crisis – take a trip in time to Coney Island, Brooklyn, USA – in 1940 the U.S. unemployment rate stood at 15 %; the country had just undergone ten years of severe economic depression; Germany, Britain, France, and Italy were at war in […]

[Read more →]

A while back, Thor Equities announced that it would have a flea market called “Flea by the Sea” in summer 2009 on the big empty lot it owns on Stillwell Avenue, between the Bowery and the boardwalk. (The lot is empty because he demolished all the rides and attractions two winters ago.) Last summer it […]

[Read more →]

[Jurassic Cigar Store (credit: Scott Specht)] The Municipal Art Society is hosting another meeting tonight to present (or reallly re-present) the work of its design team and all the ideas for Coney sent in by average people. Here’s a bit from the email: The Municipal Art Society will present submissions to the ImagineConey initiative by […]

[Read more →]

Take an interesting little trip through many parts of Coney Island in 2000, including the non-tourist kind of ones.

[Read more →]

We awoke this morning and thought we were still dreaming. Charles Bagli of the New York Times has finally focused on Coney Island. Of course, to close Coney watchers it’s the once-over lightly and fails to capture the truly ugly nature of the ongoing battle for Coney Island. The story is exceptionally kind to developer […]

[Read more →]

Watch this superb vid. From the description: “Famed New York amusement park Coney Island faces an uncertain future due to commercial and residential development in its surrounding area. This video won Best Documentary short at this year’s Webby Awards.”

[Read more →]

Poor Grimshaw Architects. They design an ampitheater for Asser-Levy Park on the Coney Island-Brighton Beach Board and people start calling the world famous firm’s work a “potato chip.” Welcome to Brooklyn, Grimshaw friends. The new Bay Currents, which is unfortunately not available online except in PDF form, starts to detail some of the neighborhood opposition […]

[Read more →]

This is Jim Prince whose butcher shop on Mermaid Avenue was in a slideshow we just posted. If you take the time to watch one vid today, invest it in this one. What Jimmy has to say, days before he closes his shop forever, is worth hearing. He’s been working in Coney for nearly 60 […]

[Read more →]

Major Markets Meats is not the kind of Coney landmark that most tourists would see and Jimmy Prince is not the kind of guy that most visitors would meet unless they happened to wander into his butcher shop on Mermaid Avenue. Yet, the shop has been there since the 1930s and Jimmy has worked there […]

[Read more →]

So, with the economy tanking and so many people losing their jobs, the idea of amusements and spending frivolously like it’s fun times as usual is kind of scary… for some of us anyway. While many have changed their spending habits, many have not. Including the city. When do you say ‘no’ to the fun […]

[Read more →]

It’s not hard to tell that we’re excited to see the Parks Department finally fixing the disgraceful Coney Island Boardwalk about which we’ve been ranting for nearly three years. We caught some actual workers in the act doing actual work, so we thought we’d share.

[Read more →]

[Photo courtesy of Meg Groome] Ah, the fun of the weeky Polar Bear Club gathering and dip in the bracing waters of Coney Island.

[Read more →]

People will even go shirtless and wear shorts in wind chills in the low teens. Actually, we jest. This is Gary Atlas who runs every day from Brighton Beach to Sea Gate and takes a dip in the water. He was featured on NY1 last week and we just happened to catch him as he […]

[Read more →]

In Coney Island yesterday, we noticed that most of the structures left standing on the Astroland property, which is now under the control of Thor Equities, have been marked for demolition. The buildings include Gregory & Pauls, which fronts on the boardwalk and is the building upon which the Astroland Rocket sat. Unless all those […]

[Read more →]

This was the boardwalk in Coney Island yesterday around noonish. Let’s just say it was a little cold out there, even with four layers of clothing. Year-round resort? Oh, yes, definitely. Maybe they could do a snowboarding attraction on the beach. Think about it. It has potential.

[Read more →]

[Photo courtesy of Coney Island History Project/GL Flickr Pool] These signs from the waterflume at Astroland were rescued on the park’s last day, January 31. The Coney Island History Project writes: “Lynn Kowalewski , a Brooklyn resident and member of the Coney Island History Project, helped carry the DO NOT ROCK THE BOAT sign from […]

[Read more →]

The world’s most important newspaper has paid virtually no attention to the Coney Island story, but today it runs an editorial that misses a lot of points–like why the city doesn’t have an interim plan for keeping Coney going–but makes one very good one: “The city’s version displays Mayor Bloomberg’s commendable effort to keep Coney […]

[Read more →]

We’ve spent years ranting about what we called Coney Island’s Trip and Fall Boardwalk. Well, the one bit of good news out of Coney right now is that the Parks Department, as promised, is starting to repair the most deteriorate section, starting at Stillwell Avenue. The new decking will be “pre-cast concrete slabs and new […]

[Read more →]

Remember when another important little piece of Coney Island history was destroyed when the landmark B&B Carousell sign was painted over. Well, now we know what’s going in the space: a bowling place called “Magic Bowling.” How do we know this? Our keen powers of observation. Sure woulda’ been nice if they hadn’t destroyed an […]

[Read more →]

Here’s a sampling of the photos we shot on Astroland’s last day. It’s by no means our last Coney story, but definitely our last Astroland pics. There were not a lot of dry eyes in the house as the eviction deadline loomed. The Astroland office, by the way, is now in trailers next to the […]

[Read more →]

This is a really nice man named Roy Sargeant who works for the Sanitation Department but whose first job was at Astroland in the 1980s. Roy showed us around the ruins on the day lease ran out. Give him a quick view. Oh, and Roy, thanks for helping us out on Saturday.

[Read more →]

And we thought we were upset about Astroland.

[Read more →]