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I suspect Coney Island will weather its current difficulties. It always seems to. Recent developments, however, have put several Coney Island aficionados in deep despair. To recap, quite sketchily, developer Joseph Sitt (chairman and CEO of Thor Equities) has purchased numerous parcels along Surf Avenue, some streets and the Boardwalk, with hopes of building high rise residential buildings and retail establishments, drastically raised rent to force out current occupants and now, has plastered huge "stores for lease" signs on several of the buildings. Ruby's, the venarable boardwalk bar, has been all but forced out and Astroland is being dismantled.

After my annual winter Nathan's lunch, I wandered around Coney and photographed its current transitional phase...

The biggest of Sitt's signs hangs on Henderson's Dance Hall on Stillwell Avenue and Bowery Street. The building was built by entrepreneur Fred Henderson in 1899; was gutted in a 1903 fire, rebuilt, but then cut back in 1923 when Stillwell Avenue was widened. Until 1984 the building housed Lily Santangelo's House of Wax.

Bowery Street and Henderson Walk. The red sign was produced by the 'street artist' who calls herself Swoon. The "scum life" art belongs to a skateboard shop.

Shooting galleries and not-yet-dismantled rides along Bowery Street.

ForgottenFan Tricia Vita of Coney Island History Project: Please note the Bumblebee ride on Bowery and the kiddie rides surrounding it are NOT part of Astroland. This is McCullough's Kiddie Park and will reopen for the 2009 season. The McCullough family is related to the Tilyous and have owned and operated rides in Coney Island for many years and we hope many years to come!

We are devastated by the loss of Astroland but Coney Island will indeed be open for business in 2009.

Among the attractions that will *definitely* be open in 2009:

The Cyclone Roller Coaster
The Coney Island History Project (exhbition center under the Cyclone on Surf Ave)
The Wonder Wheel and Deno's Wonder Wheel Park
The Coney Island Sideshow, Coney Island Museum & Mermaid Parade
Eldorado Bumper Cars & Arcade
Coney Island Arcade
Lola Staar's Boutique (new location in Stillwell Station) & Dreamland Roller Rink
Coney Island Beach Shop
Denny's Ice Cream
The Aquarium
The Cyclones Baseball in Keyspan Park

and more (we hope)...

Though Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side is likely the most famed locale in the Billy Crystal/Meg Ryan vehicle When Harry Met Sally, another scene with Crystal and the late Bruno Kirby takes place at the Coney batting cages on Stillwell just south of the boardwalk. This is what remains of them.

One of the boardwalk food courts that has closed for the season and perhaps for good.

Ruby's Coney Island Old Time Bar and the Lola Staar Carnival Boutique.

I don't remember the first time I stopped into Ruby's for a beer. In fact, I don't remember the first few visits all that well. Things were pretty hazy back then, so it just seemed like another place to grab a round. But there was one visit several years back when Morgan and I stopped in, and something clicked. I can't say what it was, exactly, but the scales fell from my eyes and I realized that we were sitting in The Perfect Bar. Jim Knipfel

In season at Ruby's

Nathan's (boardwalk; the one at Surf and Stillwell Avenues is not owned by Sitt and is safe), Cha Cha's, Shoot The Freak

The Grill, Stillwell Avenue and Boardwalk

Astroland Rocket, Gregory and Paul's (which was the lone Boardwalk concession open on January 3)

As it turned out, this is one of the last pictures taken of the Astroland Park Rocket, at least here, since it was hauled out a couple of days later:

Video by Captain Nemo via Gowanus Lounge. The Rocket was an original ride when Astroland opened in 1962 and I hope it finds a home somewhere.

The closing of Astroland also seems to close the book on the great age of American aviation and space navigation, at least in the public mind. The Houston Astros (whose name sounds similarly anachronistic now) changed from the Houston Colt 45's when they moved into the first domed baseball park, the Astrodome, in 1965. Though the 'Dome still stands, the Astros moved into Enron Park in the 1990s, and when that firm succumbed to the greeedy excesses of its owners, it was renamed Minute Maid Park. The Seattle Supersonics arrived in the NBA in 1967 and, forty years and one championship later, they moved to Oklahoma City and assumed the rather rote moniker the Thunder.

There's always the New York Jets. Or are they still in the league?

The Cyclone and Wonder Wheel are out of the reach of Thor Equities and will remain.

Looking west at the eternal Parachute Drop. It is inextricably identified with Coney Island, though it was first installed at the NYC World's Fair in 1939.

Photographed January 3, 2009; page completed January 7.

erpietri@earthlink.net