The Village Voice: Runnin' Scared

Rally Sunday to Save Astroland

posted: 6:58 PM, September 7, 2007 by Michael Clancy

The Zipper is packed up and on a flatbed truck. The Zipper and The Spider are both heading for an amusement park in Honduras, according to the New York Post.

The call to arms has gone out on the Coney Island Message Board: Rally for Astroland. Noon. Sunday. Surf Avenue Entrance to Astroland.

See you on Sunday, Sept. 9, at high noon at the Surf Avenue entrance of Astroland, to demonstrate our support for Astroland. Bring yourself, your friends and family. Don’t forget to make signs! If you don’t have materials, come early (11am) and create your own sign. I'll have foamboard and markers on hand. Wear colorful clothes- this is not a wake or a funeral! We will march through Astroland to celebrate our attachment to the park and express our desire that it reopen for the 2008 season! Remember how the B & B Carousell was saved on the eve of the auction? We're hoping for another last minute reprieve.

What does the future hold for Coney Island? A Wal-Mart?

Neil deMause had an interesting analysis of the situation in Runnin' Scared last week that lays out the three courses developer Joe Sitt could take to end his stalemate with the city. This is the option that has a lot of people worried:

Take a bulldozer to the buildings he owns along Surf Avenue—which include the Grashorn Building, Coney's only surviving 19th-century structure, and the Henderson Building, where Harpo Marx made his stage debut—and gamble that either this mayor or the next will cave on the rezoning once faced with vacant lots.

categories: I Loved New York

Comments

to whom it may concern,i dont think nothing should be torn down,we need this park to have fun and go on rides,i lived near coney island for 7 years now and im basically there every summer having my fun,especially doing the annual mermaid parade,please i beg you do not tear nothing down,if you have to just fix it and put it back up where it belongs,im very upset to see this and very angry,just put new rides if you have to,do something but do not tear nothing down,coney island is my favorite place to go every summer and it keeps the kids off the streets,
thanks so much
ivy brodsky

Posted by: ivy brodsky at September 8, 2007 11:10 AM

i go to these rides as child. Such shame...

Posted by: P.Petrikova at September 9, 2007 1:44 AM

I AM BRINGING MY 2 YR OLD THERE TODAY B/C ASTROLAND IS A LANDMARK FOR ANYONE WHO EITHER LIVED IN NYC OR KNOW PPL WHO DID OR WHO VISITED IT .. AND TO TEAR ASTROLAND DOWN IS A SHAME IN ITSELF .. I AM BRINGING MY DAUGHTER N TAKING PICS SO AT LEAST WHEN SHE IS OLDER SHE CAN SAY SHE WAS THERE ... EVEN IF SHE DONT REMEMBER OTHERWISE..

Posted by: Davida at September 9, 2007 12:33 PM

I have always wanted to visit NYC and go to Coney Island's amusement parks since I was a little kid, and haven't got the chance yet since I live 14 or 15 hours away. If I had known this was the last season I would have planned to come up. Please make it for one more season so I can do this. :'-(

Posted by: Jon L. at September 9, 2007 5:58 PM

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