Coney Island Visions From
CONEY ISLAND November 2008 VISIONS www.nycfuture.org The Bloomberg administration has a plan to rezone Coney Island. But is it really a bold vision for creating a 21st century amusement area that is worthy of its incredible brand and unique place in the hearts of New Yorkers? To inject fresh ideas into the redevelopment process, the Center for an Urban Future asked thinkers from a variety of fields to share their vision for Coney Island. We talked to dozens of experts from New York and around the world—including amusement industry veterans like the CEO of Copenhagen-based Tivoli Gardens, the founder of a New York based video game development company, the visionary developers of Chelsea Market and Red Hook’s Beard Street warehouse, novelists who have written extensively about Coney Island and Brooklyn, and an assortment of architects, urban planners and historians. Featuring Coney Island Visions From: Jonathan Lethem, author, Motherless Brooklyn p. 3-4 Gary Dunning, executive director, Big Apple Circus p. 15-16 and The Fortress of Solitude Greg O’Connell, Red Hook-based developer of p. 16-17 Eric Zimmerman, founder of video game develop- p. 4-5 Beard Street warehouse and Fairway ment company Gamelab Martin Pedersen, executive editor, Metropolis p.17 Alexander Garvin, president and CEO, Alex Garvin p. 5-6 Magazine & Associates, a New York-based urban planning firm Charles Canfield, president, Santa Cruz Seaside p.18 Mike Wallace, author of Gotham: A History of New p. 6-7 Company York City to 1898 Sharon Zukin, professor of sociology, Brooklyn p. 18 Michael Immerso, author, Coney Island: The Peo- p.
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