Friday, November 9, 2007

The new Coney Island

The city yesterday unveiled an ambitious redevelopment plan for Coney Island that would transform the slumping beachfront into a year-round amusement park combining glitzy new hotels, restaurants and entertainment with the neighborhood's landmark rides and kitschy boardwalk attractions.

A Coney Island fantasy

The proposal, announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is designed to entice private developers to pump $2.5 billion into revitalizing a 19-block area along the boardwalk that includes the existing amusement park, the landmarked Cyclone roller coaster and Wonder Wheel, and stretches west past KeySpan ballpark and the former Parachute Jump ride.

Along with a new amusement park, the city also envisions more than 4,000 new apartments and almost a half-million square feet of shopping.


Pretty drawing, but will it become a reality?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

A glitzy Coney Island that no one can afford except the worst public housing right next door.

Queens Crapper said...

"Amanda Burden, the city’s planning director, said the amusement park would be “open, accessible and affordable,” in keeping with Coney Island’s populist history as the country’s first resort."

Anonymous said...

Why do all these computer generated
architectural renderings
always look like an assemblage
of glass or stainless steel sugar cubes
of varying sizes and shapes....
as if set down from the sky by aliens
from another galaxy ?

All those gleaming window cuts....dramatic skies
(day or night) sweeping vistas and all....
are fantasy trips that rarely make it off
the promotion brochures!

Ahem.....where's the "affordable housing.....eh ?

Is this to be NYC's brave new Tsunami City
when global warming reaches its zenith ?

Anonymous said...

Yea, and who will pay for this when the hurricane washes ashore.

Give it to them if they agree to absorb the recontruction costs and not stick it to the taxpayer.

Of course, that will not happen.

The developers make money only because they stick things like that and infrastructure costs on the taxpayer.

Caitlin B said...

“Open, accessible and affordable,” in keeping with Coney Island’s populist history as the country’s first resort." That sounds good but where does the look and feel of the word glitz come in?

Lisanne said...

The plan isn't much better than Thor Equity's as Bloomberg wants all the amusement area things run by ONE company, so "the little guys" you know the ones that run the arcades and the snack bars, the ones that make Coney, well, Coney, lose again.

Mall on the water.