The New York Times published a editorial on the future of Coney Island today titled Minding Coney Island, comparing the City’s plan for the area and the MAS proposal. Click here to read the article now.
The Times called the City and MAS’ proposals “not drastically far apart”, but stated that the area set aside in the City’s plan for outdoor amusements was “simply too small to attract enough rides and attractions to bring back the big crowds.” The editorial also criticized the city’s proposal to locate four hotels on the south side of Surf Avenue between Stillwell Avenue subway and the amusement area. “The hotels could too easily become a wall,” it states, “blocking public access to the sideshows and the rides, the boardwalk and the ocean.”
The editorial continues, “any rezoning must encourage development without destroying the dreams of a modernized Coney Island”. It concludes that the modern Coney Island “should not be a theme park”, but instead be “an alluring adaptation of Dreamland and Luna Park, and the other exotic places that always made Coney Island spendidly odd.”
Currently on display at our 457 Madison Avenue headquarters is ImagineConey: Bold New Ideas for Coney Island, the new MAS exhibit which presents some of the more than 350 ideas submitted by the public through our ImagineConey initiative and the results of our November “charrette” design workshop. Click here to learn more about ImagineConey.