Wanna taste some clam? (Coney Island)

Member Name: Cargill

Product:	Coney Island
Date:	03/11/04 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nostalgic, Fresh Air

Disadvantages: It's a relic, Long subway ride from Manhattan

There is more to New York than Manhattan.

True, Manhattan has it all; Times Square, Broadway, The Empire State Building, Bloomingdales and Central Park, but how many visitors get beyond the East River, to the other boroughs? Guidebooks focus on the Manhattan attractions, so many tourists just don’t realise what Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx have to offer.

Errr…. That’s the other thing. When we hear Brooklyn or Bronx mentioned, we don’t want to know. We’ve heard bad stories, of ghettos, drug crime, shootings and areas where even the police don’t go.
Well, sure, there are going to be a few no-go areas in the World’s second largest city, but I’ve not seen them, so switch out of ‘Cagney & Lacey’ mode and I’ll tell you about my half day in Brooklyn, and Coney Island in particular.

Let’s look at Brooklyn first. Definitely not to be regarded as a suburb of New York, Brooklyn started out as a city in its own right. The public buildings are huge and beautiful, symbols of the prosperity that Brooklyn boasted in the Nineteenth Century. It was less than a hundred years ago, that this city became part of New York City, and even today, Brooklyn in itself would still be the fourth largest city in the USA.

I planned on visiting the Brooklyn Museum. In the planning stages, this was designed to be the biggest museum anywhere in the World. For some reason or another, only one fifth of it was built; Enough to still make it an impressive and imposing place.
I had also heard of Coney Island, a place that intrigued me, so I set out to see both in one day.

From my hostel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I checked the subway map. The New York Subway map in itself is like a work of art, though (unlike a London
Tube map) the stations can appear cluttered together in parts. The station I wanted is called “Brooklyn Museum – Eastern Parkway” and you can take a red or green train from Manhattan stations. Also unlike London, the New York subway operates a flat rate; you pay $1.50 (this was 2001) to get on a train, and then you can travel as far as you like, including travel on connecting trains. Without digressing, I could just say that unlike London, New York’s system works.

Having crossed the East river by bridge (stunning views of Lower Manhattan), the train follows an elevated route. In other words, about 30ft above level. So it’s a nice ride with stuff to see.

I arrived at the museum to find it was closed!

Kicking myself, I recalled a previous visit to NYC where on arriving at the Metropolitan Museum, that too was closed. Most museums close one day a week (Check first!)

Back at the subway station, I had to backtrack to Atlantic Avenue station, from where I could get a train to Coney Island.

The trip on through Brooklyn was lengthy, and I really began to appreciate the size of this borough. All the neighbourhoods that passed below looked like very pleasant areas. There are lots of diverse groups in the borough, with shop and restaurant signs reflecting local populations; Poles, Italians, Jewish and in Coney Island itself; Russians.

Now, about Coney Island…

It used to be an island, but was joined to Long Island with landfill after the civil war. There is a long beach, with a 2 mile boardwalk stretching its length. A boardwalk is similar to what we know as ‘Promenade’ at the seaside, but it’s a wooden walkway, slightly narrower than a street. I guess it looks like the decking that is springing up in back gardens everywhere these days.

The biggest attraction here is the amusement park. It is nearly 100 years old, and you can tell. Just stand still and take a look around. Fire damaged the original fun fair early in the last century, and from those ashes the current park was born.

This is not Disneyland, but a relic of days gone by. The Cyclone roller coaster is considered one of the world’s great wooden rides, for a long time it was the greatest white-knuckle experience. There are log flumes and many other primitive rides. I was here on a cold November weekday, and it looked derelict. It was somehow, as I expected. Coney Island belongs to an age that has gone, and the nostalgia factor remains its greatest draw.

New Yorkers still flock here in their thousands. The summer weekends apparently are a different story to the one I was witnessing. You need to check the website for opening times etc. I looked at all the decaying facilities and somehow felt happy. Although decrepit, it represented fun, and there were plenty of outlets around here to make sure people were having fun. The area can boast sideshows too; very freakish really…. Mermaids, rubber people, sword swallowers and fire eaters!

I wandered along the boardwalk, enjoying the fresh air. This was a welcome escape from Manhattan for me. I was heading east, to my right was the Atlantic Ocean, and to my left and ahead; a horizon punctuated by poor quality residential tower blocks and a few burnt-out buildings. Make no mistake; this is a poor area of NYC. Some describe it as a ghetto, but I felt perfectly at ease wandering along the boardwalk. There were locals, probably of Russian origin, gathered on benches all along the seafront, absorbing the Atlantic view, and chatting amongst each other. You are quite close to JFK airport here, so you will always see incoming aircraft circling overhead, and outgoing flights climbing in to the sky.

It’s very pleasant, walking along the boardwalk. There are numerous fast food shacks and restaurants dotted along its length. Most places advertise the famous specialities…

Clams were tempting, but I settled for a chilli dog, followed with fries, and then some pizza! Forget the arguments surrounding junk food; the USA always delivers what you want, when you want it! Rarely in the US one is disappointed with the food that your dollars get.

Walking along, you will discover the NY Aquarium, highly regarded, and home to many species, famously including Beluga Whales. I didn’t go in, so I cannot offer opinion here.

So….

Coney Island is a history tour. Its run down, burnt out, an example of an immigrant community stumbling through the challenges of capitalism in a tough city. The amusements belong to days gone, yet still attract thousands of New Yorkers who need relief from their manic city, and littered with shabby fast-food shacks chucking out grease. Simply, It is a dump!

Sounds harsh huh? Well take an American visitor in Britain to Blackpool or Cleethorpes on a rainy day in January and I guess there’s a good analogy.

Yet I enjoyed my time at Coney Island. Firstly, I got to breathe fresh sea-air, in itself a welcome from the Manhattan chaos. I got time to think, to stroll without hassle, and to eat lunch in peaceful surroundings.

I also saw a bit of NYC that New Yorkers keep for themselves, a great example of the respite and school-holiday culture that tourists don’t get to see. Coney Island made some great photos, and was an interesting social experience.

To sum up…

Don’t get off the flight from Heathrow, go to a taxi and say “Take me to Coney Island…. And step on it!”

I love New York. Prior to this experience I had visited 4 times. Everyone knows what he or she wants to see in New York, so make sure you prioritise. I had covered most of Manhattan by this point.

On my fifth visit, I realised it was time to venture into Bronx and Brooklyn, so that’s how I ended up at Coney Island. Don’t waste a first visit to NYC doing this!

The purpose of this review really is not to send everyone to Coney Island. But, if you are going back to New York for the second or third time… Do consider a day in Brooklyn. I’ll tell you about Bronx another time!

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