Nothing says Memorial Day like a day at the beach, boardwalk or arcades in Coney Island.
In fact, many are hyping the amusement area’s comeback as a major triumph for New York City.
By: Kyle Jonas
“Coney Island’s fun zone, which jumps into high gear Memorial Day weekend, marks a victory of civic order over urban chaos — a milestone as precious to the city as was the rebirth of “Slime Square,” the New York Post recently wrote. “The boardwalk and environs miraculously morphed from a creepy, 1980s grotesquerie-by-the sea into today’s easygoing pleasure zone that’s a blast for everyone. Like most of the Big Apple’s recent renaissance hot spots, this one owes itself to our most significant stroke of fortune since the early 1990s: the spectacular drop in crime — especially street crime.”
The Post’s feature story looked back in time to an era in which Coney Island was anything but a New York City bright spot. The arrival of low-income apartment buildings had sounded what was nearly the death knell for the South Brooklyn community. As the feature points out, “The boardwalk and environs miraculously morphed from a creepy, 1980s grotesquerie-by-the sea into today’s easygoing pleasure zone that’s a blast for everyone.”
Nothing makes the case for Coney Island’s resurgence better than crime figures. As the Post found out, “Not a single murder occurred in Coney Island in all of 2018, according to the NYPD. By comparison, the 60th Precinct — which includes Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sea Gate — saw 21 homicides in 1990. The death toll didn’t tell the full story. While most victims weren’t Cyclone-riding thrill-seekers, but rather innocent residents of nearby housing projects, the lawlessness spilled into the amusement zone, including on the beach and boardwalk.”
The world famous Steeplechase Park amusement complex was bulldozed in 1966, just part of what drove longtime fans away, and to more suburban locations.
“In the crime-scourged 1980s, the boardwalk and beach swarmed with predatory youths, drunks and crack dealers. Shuttered rides and restaurants lent a dystopian air. Winter defined a surreal land-and-seascape dominated by the derelict Parachute Jump and ruins of the crumbling Thunderbolt roller coaster,” the Post explained.
There has been even more for Coney Islanders to smile about. It was announced in January that the city would add Coney Island to the NYC Ferry system, providing a much faster commute to Manhattan for outer-borough New Yorkers. “It shouldn’t be this hard to get around in the greatest city in the world,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the time. “And so we’re giving people more and better options.”
