Entries from Gothamist tagged with 'Coney'
June 25, 2008
Last night’s Coney Island Public Scoping Meeting was the place to be, as activists like political performance artist Reverend Billy turned the meeting into a carnival, leaping up on a chair with repeated cries of “Coney-lujah!” Musician Amos Wengler stood up to croon his anthem “Save Coney Island,” and Savitri D., the Mermaid Parade queen who had been on a hunger strike since Saturday to spotlight the meeting, passionately derided the city’s latest proposal for......
Continue Reading "Coney Island's Future Bitterly, Colorfully Contested"June 9, 2008
A nosy Post reporter may have cost Coney Island “Mayor” Dick Zugin his free apartment in a building he purchased with a 3.6 million grant from the city. Zigun runs his Coney Island USA sideshow and museum out of the Surf Avenue building, which the city helped his group buy last year. But when confronted with documents that report the address as his residence, Zigun admitted that he’s also been illegally living there, albeit humbly......
Continue Reading ""Mayor" of Coney Island Living on Taxpayers' Dime"May 22, 2008
Above Wonder Wheel photo courtesy NYCviaRachel As part of a plan to turn over 9 privately-owned acres of Coney Island amusements to the Parks Department, the Bloomberg administration is trying to wrest control of the landmark Wonder Wheel from the family that has owned and operated it since before Coney Island’s comeback. According to amNY, it was in 1948 that Coney Island hot dog vendor Denos Vourderis promised his girlfriend that if she married......
Continue Reading "City Wants Control of Coney Island Wonder Wheel"May 12, 2008
Now that an appeals court has ruled that the city can start requiring chain restaurants to prominently display their calorie information, Nathan’s has begun tossing up their stats just in time for summer at Coney Island. Kinetic Carnival notes that the Nathan’s basic hot dog has just half the calories packed into a Big Mac from McDonald’s. Consumed one or two at a sitting, the “Original Frankfurter” won’t do much damage to one’s waistline.......
Continue Reading "Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, Now With Calorie Info"May 7, 2008
Last month the city announced that the space dedicated to amusements in the latest Coney Island rezoning plan would be cut from 15 acres to 9 acres. City officials explained that the downsizing was necessary to accommodate “local landowners” – the biggest of those is developer Joe Sitt, whose glitzy plans were previously derailed by the city for the express purpose of devoting larger space for the amusement park. Now Sitt’s Thor Equities stands to......
Continue Reading "Shrinking Coney Island Amusement Area Draws Protest"
