Friday, April 18, 2008

Some Thoughts on The New Plan

The decision to allow property owners to maintain control over their properties in the amusement are may not be ideal, but it was inevitable that some sort of compromise was going to have to be made in order for the plan to move forward.

The Vourderis family's Deno's Wonder Wheel Park has been- and will undoubtedly continue to be- an integral part of the amusement area, so it makes sense to allow them to continue to maintain and develop their own property makes sense.

However, things such as the inclusion of the generic corporate monoliths of Dave & Busters and NikeTown, and the construction of hotel towers on the south side of Surf Avenue make a lot less sense. One can't help but wonder if this new Coney Island is going to look like Coney Island at all.

What is most troubling is that the amusement area has been whittled down from 15 acres to 9 acres. Hopefully, this number will not continue to be whittled down as plans continue to develop.


City's Coney Island Design Revised to Break Deadlock [New York Times]



- post by Ben Nadler

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm asking because I honestly don't know: Including Astroland, Deno's, the Cyclone and other amusement areas (before they started to leave last year, so let's say 5 years ago), how many acres was/is the amusement district in the recent past? (Not in the early 20th century, but in recent memory)

I'm trying to put this plan in perspective in my head. Will this be a net loss or a net gain, just not as much as the 15 acres would have been?