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......

Savitri D., normally acting as director of the Church of Stop Shopping, became a mermaid this past weekend. After marching in the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island as Queen, and attending the Ball later that night, she began a hunger strike. She now sits in a storefront on Coney Island, fasting until a scoping meeting tomorrow regarding the fate of the area. You can see her on a livecam that's been set up; she talked......

2007 Mermaid Parade, by ktempest at flickr This afternoon (2 p.m.) is Coney Island's annual Mermaid Parade, which is the semi-official start of summer for many New Yorkers. It's generally one of the most joyous occasions one can come across in the five boroughs, so let's hope it doesn't take on a funereal tone considering the possible destruction of the boardwalk in its present state. Mermaid Queen Savitri D. will commence a hunger strike......

Reverend Billy and Savitri D have been named King Neptune and Queen Mermaid of the 2008 Coney Island Mermaid Parade, taking place this Saturday, and they're using their power to save Coney "from the gentrifying apocalypse of RETAIL ENTERTAINMENT HELL!" But as they say, No pain, No Gain -- and in order to help their cause, the Queen Mermaid has declared a hunger strike.The Queen Mermaid will refuse to go back in the ocean! She......