Coney Island.
File picture by Erica Value
They are saying if Paris is France, then Coney Island in summer time is the world — a magical seaside city with a curler coaster and Ferris wheel dropped in the midst of it. However my job is to combat for the individuals who name the peninsula dwelling all yr lengthy.
5 million vacationers pour into this seaside village yearly. But behind the brilliant lights, from Stillwell Avenue to Sea Gate, almost one in three residents reside in poverty or face meals insecurity. 61% spend greater than 30% of their paycheck on lease. Little one poverty right here is among the many worst within the nation.
The documentary Zipper plunged into the bitter 2009 Coney Island rezoning battle, swimming via the murky creek of city renewal, politics, actual property, greed, and the combat to protect our cultural landmarks. Watching it once more, I couldn’t shake a way of David vs. Goliath déjà vu and requested myself, “What would Woody do?”
Over the past 15 years, Coney Island has grown: greater than 3,500 largely inexpensive housing items, a wave of personal improvement, and $750 million in public funding with extra within the pipeline. However ask the locals, and also you’ll hear a unique story: the site visitors nonetheless snarls, the busted boardwalk nonetheless groans, the West Finish nonetheless floods, and lots of the vacant tons that starred in Zipper nonetheless sit empty.
Coney Island doesn’t need pity and we don’t have to be saved. We want respect and sources. Simply because you may’t see Metropolis Corridor from Kaiser Park doesn’t imply we needs to be ignored. Twelve years after Hurricane Sandy, a lot of our NYCHA developments are nonetheless rebuilding. That’s unacceptable. We shouldn’t need to want upon a on line casino to get issues mounted round right here. We’re happy with who we’re, and we would like town to acknowledge the significance of the resilient individuals who reside right here, not simply the vacationers who go to.
Coney Island has a historical past of snake-oil salesmen promising the celebrities and delivering mud. I suppose whenever you develop up subsequent door to an amusement park, you may all the time inform whenever you’re being taken for a journey. Certainly, the Surfs, Mermaids, and Neptunes endure no fools. Since being elected, I’ve hung out sweeping up shards of damaged guarantees—and proving I’m completely different.
As an alternative, let’s create jobs by constructing one thing that may improve what we have already got, not substitute it. Let’s fill the empty tons with new rides and curler coasters. Let’s flip forgotten alleys into vibrant pedestrian plazas. Let’s entice the brand new retail companies individuals truly need. Let’s open a year-round waterpark. Let’s get severe about constructing a ferry at Steeplechase Pier. It may possibly all be accomplished.
Let’s urge town to ascertain a legacy enterprise registry and preservation fund for the small companies which have been the spine of Coney Island for many years however nonetheless face the specter of displacement. And, relatively than feeling like we should continuously combat in opposition to what we don’t need, let’s come collectively and combat for what we do!
Coney Island is, was, and should all the time stay the Massive Apple’s most well-known egalitarian gathering place — a sanctuary the place arduous work, grit, and enjoyable within the solar for on a regular basis individuals all the time comes earlier than false earnings.
I like you, Coney Island. Thanks for trusting me to serve this wonderful group. Our greatest days are but to come back!
Justin Brannan represents Coney Island within the New York Metropolis Council and serves as Chair of Group Advisory Committee for “The Coney”
