Thursday, July 30, 2009

July 28 Coney Island

I have previously explained my love of Coney Island. I understand that the amusement area needs to be upgraded. I just do not want the city of New York to allow hotels and condos on the beach side of Surf Avenue. The city originally said that area will never be rezoned for residential, it is currently zoned as an amusement area. The city council will vote tomorrow on the rezoning requested by Thor Equities, the company that bought up most of the land. For the record they bought it while constantly stating they would create a modern amusement park on the land. Once they owned the land, they began pushing the city for rezoning. So now big money wants to turn one of the last free amusement areas and beach areas of the city into yet another vanilla, lily white corporate playground for rich people. After the events of the past year, I hope I am not alone in my complete inability to trust the government or major corporations to do anything for the average, hard working middle class of this country. I have supported a group of artists who began a not-for-profit organization, Coney Island USA, for years. Please check out their website. I took this picture in Coney Island this summer. One of the shows put on by Coney Island USA is Sideshows by the Seashore. The MC is trying to talk people into seeing the show at a discounted price. I did see the show last a couple of summers ago. It was very cool, sword swallowers, fire eating, snake charmer...stuff like that done very well and very entertaining. I have also witnessed the Mermaid Parade that they put on each summer and was highly entertained. Trust me, you've never seen a parade like this one. Maybe I'll post those pictures some day. As Steve Earle once sang, "the revolution starts now..."

No comments:

Post a Comment