[NYguy]

https://nypost.com/2023/06/24/wake-u...nderrated-gem/

Wake up, New Yorkers: Coney Island is now an underrated gem





By Steve Cuozzo
June 24, 2023

Hot dog! Coney Island’s annual wiener-wolfing contest isn’t till July 4th, but it isn’t too early to celebrate the city’s reborn capital of good, clean fun.

The seaside playground famed for its beach, thrill rides, and roller-coaster history — both literal and symbolic — is in its best shape in generations.

If you haven’t been recently, you’re missing out on the Big Apple’s happiest good times, waterfront revival.

Coney Island in the 1970s-’90s was a crime-filled, run-down ghost of its glorious heyday, but has since morphed into the city’s most welcoming-to-everyone, old neighborhood made new.

Unlike expensively redeveloped waterfront complexes in Manhattan and northern Brooklyn, Coney Island isn’t “gentrified.” There are no designer boutiques or $75 veal parmigiana.

There’s Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park and the 103-year-old title attraction with the famous swinging cars.

The Steeplechase Pier, which was rebuilt and improved after Superstorm Sandy, thrusts 1,100 feet into the Atlantic Ocean.

Unexpectedly diverse new places to eat share Surf Avenue with attractive new housing developments.

Everything is within an easy stroll of the European-style, glass-domed Stillwell Avenue subway station where the B, D, F, Q, and N lines converge.

And it’s a 15-minute walk to the New York Aquarium and a 20-minute stroll to Russian-dominated Brighton Beach to the east.

The future is looking bright, too.

All eyes are on the landmarked former theater at 1301 Surf at the corner of Stillwell, which a development outfit called PYE is slowly transforming into a hotel that Coney Island desperately needs.

And a consortium led by Coney Island native Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities hopes to win a gaming license for a five-acre location it owns behind Luna Park — one of the dozen-odd proposals the state will consider for a casino in the city, a decision likely to be made later this year.

Here’s a beach bag full of reasons why every New Yorker should put Coney Island on their “must” list this summer — and even consider it as a place to live.

Potholes have been replaced by gateways to pleasure
Visitors once had to navigate grungy, pothole-filled obstacle courses at the feet of Stillwell Avenue and West 12th and 15th streets to reach the boardwalk.

The Parachute Jump is prettier than ever
The iconic ride often called the “Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn” was moved from the 1939 World’s Fair to Coney Island’s long-gone Steeplechase Park in 1941 and thrilled customers until 1964.

The skeletal steel frame survived efforts by Steeplechase owner Fred Trump to sell it for scrap metal and was designated a landmark in 1989.

Now, its nighttime LED lighting in shifting colors makes it one of the Big Apple’s most arresting sights.

The rides are more fun than ever

If the Cyclone’s too much for you, “family-friendly” Tony’s Express twists and curls around Leti’s Treasure, a water flume ride that recalls the old Luna Park’s famous Shoot the Chutes, at a (slightly) less-heart-pounding 30 mph across 1,200 feet of track.

An older coaster, the Thunderbolt is named after a long-demolished roller coaster referenced in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.”

At Deno’s, run by Dennis and Steve Vourderis, the new roller coaster Phoenix roars into its third season.

There’s a mini Restaurant Row developing
Legendary Gargiulo has served fine cuisine at 2911 West 15th Street since 1907.

Famed pizza eatery Totonno’s reopened last winter after a Covid shutdown.

Both of them, as well as the original Nathan’s Famous, are joined by bold new efforts to break Coney out of its fast-food rut.

The menus are as polyglot as the crowds.

Teura at 1215 Surf Avenue offers a blend of Italian and Albanian.

Cajun seafood spot Hook & Reel and KPot Korean BBQ dwell under the same roof at 1217 Surf Ave.

Zula, a sprawling, two-level Mediterranean spot, took over the landmarked, Spanish Colonial-style Childs Building on the boardwalk at West 21st Street.

The Turkish-tinted menu has everything from side pide to octopus carpaccio, and the rooftop offers a “hookah” bar and live entertainment.

You can live by the ocean
One block north of the boardwalk, Surf Avenue’s previous backwater of crumbling buildings and empty lots is growing into an attractive residential corridor.

Gargulio was instrumental in the Renaissance.

Restaurant owner Michael Russo leased land he owns across the street to developer LCOR, which just topped off a game-changing, twin-tower rental apartment building at 1515 Surf Avenue — with a mix of market-rate and “affordable” apartments, retail storefronts and an open-air pool for residents.

Russo, who was born in Coney Island, took care of deciding whom to bring to the site.

“I investigated before I signed the lease,” he said. “Everybody wants affordable housing, and that’s good.”

But unlike other projects, LCOR’s project has market-rate apartments as well as cheaper ones, making “a real investment in the neighborhood,” he said.

Meanwhile, major developers BFC Partners, L + M Partners, and Taconic Investment Partners have opened two large, all-affordable apartment buildings on blocks west of LCOR and will break ground soon on a third.

Farther west, another handsome residence, Raven Hall, will soon open as well.

One priority for The Alliance for Coney Island, a business advocacy organization, is to upgrade the shopping scene along Mermaid Avenue.

“We’re very fixed on retail upgrades on Mermaid,” said executive director Daniel Murphy. “The amusement parks are great but they can’t alone sustain a residential neighborhood.”

Developer John Catsimaditis, who also owns the Red Apple Group supermarket empire, built two gleamings, Miami-like Ocean Drive apartment towers at the boardwalk’s west end.

He wants to build three more towers next door, to be called Ocean Dreams.

But he needs approvals to create market-rate apartments. “There’s enough affordable housing in Coney Island already,” he said. “We need more middle-class housing.”

It’s a fantastic people-watching experience — for free
The Riegelmann Boardwalk, a name nobody uses, is 3.2 miles long from Brighton Beach at the east end to the private Sea Gate community at the west end. It doesn’t cost a dime to take it all in — but it will transport you.