It was 2018, one of the first summers in New York, those of discovery: in the muggy and crushing heat, we took the subway as a family to Coney Island, in the south of Brooklyn. When we arrived, the sky was dark. We lay down on the sand that was too hard, then bathed in light gray water, no doubt clean but dull, devoid of the slightest smell of iodine which is the charm of the ocean. And then the storm broke. So the crowd in bathing suits took refuge under the awnings of the changing rooms in a joyful atmosphere. Promiscuity of wet bodies, ages and ethnicities – Whites, Indians, Latinos, Blacks – so rarely experienced in the United States. It is the exceptional character of Coney Island, its beach and its amusement parks, including the famous Luna Park.
Then, bravado, we took a ticket for 10 dollars (about 9 euros) for a roller coaster, the Thunderbolt, which has the curious idea of falling vertically and chaining several loops: two minutes of excitement and three hours of nausea. We ended up buying a hot dog and fries and then we went back to Manhattan. Coney Island is New York’s amusement park, unknown to European tourists. The anti-Disneyland.
Coney Island is located on a stretch of beach undermined by the Atlantic and served by rail since the end of the 19the century. When Brooklyn Mayor Edward Riegelmann inaugurated the planked waterfront in 1922 that separated the huge beach and amusement parks, he declared that Coney Island was “America’s Playground”. At the foot of a huge Wonder Wheel, which is about to celebrate its centenary, DJ Vourderis, who operates this merry-go-round with his family, perpetuates the legend. “No matter where you came from, who you prayed to, where you lived, Coney Island was where people came to have fun, to forget their worries and live the American dream. It is the place where people line up together and share the same basket, even if their countries are at war”he says, citing Ukrainians and Russians, who continue to have fun here.
“A place of gathering, of unity”
This June Saturday, families flock to Coney Island like a century ago. “There is always something new here”, rejoices Gloria Choez, an Ecuadorian who came from Queens by metro with her four children. All delighted to come out soaked in a new aquatic attraction. “My parents were from Brooklyn and they were dating in Coney Island in the 1960s”, says another visitor, Alex Picciano. His African-American friend Nuwoe Goteh only discovered Coney Island in 2022: “When you live in New York, you don’t imagine there is a place like this. It’s much more accessible [que Disneyland] for people who have less money, it’s very democratic. I love that you meet so many different people there. »
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