Talk:Coney Island
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Moved from article because of copyright concerns, and because they're closer to promotion than anything encyclopedic:
From a Souvenir Folder (postcard folder) of the 1930s:
Coney Island is one of the most famous playgrounds in the world. Located in New York City at the eastern end of Brooklyn at the mouth of the Atlantic. It is about five miles in length and about three-quarters of a mile in width. Accessible by fast Subway, Street Cars and Busses and Excursion Steamers.
It is not unusual to find over 1,000,000 people spending their Sundays or Holidays at this Amusement and Bathing Resort. The Boardwalk is second to none.
Among the many famous places of Amusement at the Island, are Steeplechase Park and Luna Park. There are many exhibits and side shows which are procured at great expense, showing rare freaks of nature and daring feats of skill.
These and other amusement spots at Coney Island attract large crowds throughout the season which usually runs from Easter Sunday until the middle of September. The Grand Finale of the season usually ends with a Mardi-Gras which lasts a week. Each night a pageant is held with floats and spectacles which are very impressive and colorful and a Carnival spirit prevails.
From Fortune Magazine, August 1938, "To Heaven by Subway"
"[Coney Island] is the home of sixty bathhouses, two big amusement parks (Steeplechase and Luna), seventy "ball" games, thirteen carrousels, eleven roller coasters [see http://home.nyc.rr.com/johnmiller/ci_tbolt.html], five tunnel rides, three fun houses, two waxworks, six penny arcades, twenty shooting galleries, three freak shows, a variety of other games, rides, shows, and souvenir shops, and some 200 eating establishments--more than 500 separate enterprises in violent and continual conflict--perhaps the greatest concentration of independent little businesses in the world." Vicki Rosenzweig 22:12 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)
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[edit] Name of Coney Island
An anon, in good faith, believes that Coney Island is named after the island of the same name in Ireland. He cites a PBS story[1].
First, PBS is not famed for doing a very thorough job on local history. Their primary source for this claim is a 1924 "document." They don't state what the "document" is, but it is ill placed to "prove" anything about the name of Coney Island. Also, the article gives a bunch of explanations, they just end with the Irish island one because apparently that is the most colorful. I am altering the claim to accurately reflect the contents of the article. The bald claim that the other explanations are wrong and it is named after the Irish Coney Island is unsupportable. -- Cecropia 06:48, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
- Correction: the 1924 "document" is for a different claim, that Coney is named for a "Konoh (Bear) Tribe." The claim that it is named for the Irish Island is a popular legend in Sligo, Ireland, where "that" Coney Island is, and the claim is from an article in the local newspaper. -- Cecropia 16:51, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Clean up and NPOV
This article needs a clean up and an NPOV check. A quick run through found NPOV statements such as "Coney Island's excellent and sun-drenched beach remains a major attraction." Páll (Die pienk olifant) 09:50, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
- Looks like most of the POV has been taken care of by now. Useight 06:00, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Bumper Cars
The section on bumper cars is pretty rediculous and not encyclopedic at all. I would clean it up, but I don't even know where to start. Someone should have a look at it. Papercrab 21:41, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
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- I tackled it. It was complete POV and sexist to boot. I only edited the amusements section though; I couldn't figure out how to work with the rest. DanielEng 18:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Coney Island plane crash
Although I am not sure that this isn't better left as its own article, if the consensus was that it be merged here I don't have a problem with that - I'll do it, so the information they gathered isn't lost, and if further discussion here results in not wanting it in this article, it can easily be removed. Oddly enough, I live in NY and have no recollection of this accident, from just last year. Tvoz 22:08, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
HOwever, when I went to do it, the original aricle had much too much detail for this article, so I boiled it down to a few sentences - and I am not convinced that it belongs here. I set up a section called "Accidents", thinking if anyone wants to research and write up something about roller coaster accidents at Coney Island, that could work - but as it is now, I think this is not all that appropriate for this more general article about COney Island. Any thoughts? Tvoz 23:05, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
Oppose merge and deletion - it belongs where it has now been placed in Aviation accidents and incidents in 2005. Please leave it in place with all other aircraft accident articles. Ardfern 23:22, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
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- Fine with me - I didn't think it belonged here anyway, as per above. But the proposed merge and deletion was talking about a separate article for the COney crash which we were asked to merge here - I don't see an article named Aviation accidents and incidents in 2005 but maybe the name is slightly different. Tvoz | talk 23:40, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
- An accident article should not be merged with an amusement park article. The categories in which these articles naturally belong are different. Hmains 19:20, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Peninsula
Just out of curiosity, how is Coney Island formerly an island as I am guessing that it wasn't dragged by ships to be attached to the mainland. Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question but I am from Britain not the USA so we're not really knowledgable about specific areas of the US.
Thanks v. much in advance! --Xsamix 17:24, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
- It was filled. Gravesend Bay and Sheepshead Bay were once joined by a channel, now filled in. Several former small islands in New York including Furman and Belmont Islands had garbage, earth and other filler material dumped into the waterway, and built over. Randalls Island and Wards Island still have separate names, but are no longer physically separated. Do some British cities have similar former islands? Jim.henderson 18:22, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Ghost Hole
Where is it? I was there this past weekend and didn't see it, but it is very possible that I missed it. Astroland wasn't even open yet, though Deno's was. --Scottandrewhutchins 15:36, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
- Found, visited, and written up on Wikipedia. --Scottandrewhutchins 19:51, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Size
Goodness, this has become a big article for such a small part of Brooklyn, though the material is mostly worthy. See WP:SIZE. Perhaps the time has come to make a separate article of the long section about controveries of the future. Jim.henderson 17:47, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Balanced lead
The first paragraph of the lead is about geography and is neat and precise. The second is about the glorious past of the proprietary amusement parks, and how baseball is what's important about the present. This presentation is unbalanced since, as the body of the article says, there's plenty else to do at Coney and always has been. Better, seems to me, to halve what the lead says about baseball, and add a sentence or two to hint at the other attractions that are detailed in the various sections. Jim.henderson 17:47, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Img of Aquarium
The text of the img said: "The New York Aquarium opened up in 1896. It currently occupies 14 acres by the sea in Coney Island, and boasts over 350 species of aquatic wildlife". The previous photo mismatches the text under a photo. The previous photo of exit to ocean has been constructed in 90-s. The text of photo tells about the Aquarium, instead of about gate to ocean.
[edit] Article update of current development
The article has a flag on an unsourced and undated quote from a NYTimes article about the development situation. A Google news search shows that things have moved on from the developer's drawings mentioned in the article. Does anyone else want to do a rewrite of this section? Lots of articles out there since this is the end of the season, particularly http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0735,demause,77638,2.html and http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nycone295350481aug29,0,2384713.story. --Tinned Elk 00:15, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Major editing needed
I haven't actually read this in a while, and I am quite surprised at how it now reads. The sections "Summer of 2007" and "Development efforts and controversy" are way, way, way too long - disproportionate to the rest of the article. There should be a short, maybe 2-3 paragraph summary about development, not the tome that is now there. This is an encyclopedia article about Coney Island overall - its history, culture, tradition, etc - not an article about the current development plans or about Thor Equity. These sections make the article read like an annual report and it never used to. Also, you don't include things like "at the time of this writing" - this is not a news report. I'm inclined to just lop all of that stuff off, considerably shortening those parts, but I'll give editors a chance to look at it. Tvoz |talk 07:51, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
- The discussion of ongoing shenanigans related to Coney Island development makes fascinating reading and I for one would be sorry to see it removed. (On the contrary, I'd be very eager to find the results of investigation into related questions: Just who is Joe Sitt? How did he get his start? Whose money is behind him? What is the connection between the timing of NYC concessions on his behalf - and their percipitent withdrawal - and campaign contributions made on his behalf, perhaps through other companies, to campaigns of Giuliani, et al? I don'g doubt that investigations in this area have the potential to become an important issue in the upcoming presidential race..
- Notwithstanding Tvoz's remark, corruption and political manouevring have been a signature part of Coney Island's and the surrounding area's development almost since the first small clam restaurants made their appearance; and this aspect is almost ignored in this otherwise exemplary article. (Examples include Robert Moses' passive support of lawless youth gangs in the early 60s; and long periods during which organised crime operated prostitution and even gambling racing tracks without legal harassment).
- Understand what is at stake does not really require too much imagination. There is no natural law that Coney Island must be split between low income housing and cheap entertainment. With adequate political support, I could imagine it turned into one of the most expensive residential districts in America with, say, luxury sea side housing being combined with ultra fast hovercraft transport to Wall Street.
- If the community sense is that this section ought to be moved or scaled back, I hope it will find a new home elsewhere in Wikipedia.
--Philopedia (talk) 15:16, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
I agree it needs to be edited down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.118.127.126 (talk) 00:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Elephant
What about the Elephant? http://www.mmcsl.net/coney/html/page009.htm Jooler 23:38, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Music
Bruce Springsteen's "Tunnel Of Love" song video has Coney Island amusements/shore in it I believe...or else some other amusement park. Verification needed.76.17.252.73 (talk) 01:34, 5 April 2008 (UTC)etsryan
