Originally, the Native Americans, who were pushed out of their home by the Dutch settlers sometime in the early 17th century, inhabited Coney Island. The Dutch not only took over the Native American land, but renamed it as well. The original Dutch spelling is Konijneneiland, which was eventually adopted into the English version Coney Island.
The build up of Coney Island’s amusement park began in the 1800’s. First, a hotel was built, which began getting popular around the time the railroad connected Brooklyn to Manhattan. It attracted Manhattan beach-goers, which attracted entrepreneurs. Over time, three different sections of a larger amusement park sprung up, and money was being made from the Manhattanites who were looking for a day trip.
The communities surrounding the new amusement park opposed these changes. Many of the residents wanted to keep the beach’s natural beauty. Eventually, in the early 1900’s, Robert Moses rezoned Coney Island so the area south of Surf Avenue would be used for recreation, not residency.
In the mid-to-late 1900’s, Coney Island was slammed by a depression. This travesty led to a downward spiral, where the town became riddled with prostitution, property damage, and gang violence. Tourists and residents alike lived in terror of being mugged and beaten.
In addition to government funding, a series of investors tried to clean up and rebuild Coney Island to the grandeur that it once possessed. Coney Island’s boardwalk now houses the Coney Island Aquarium, the Cyclone, and the home field of the minor league baseball team The Cyclones. Although Hurricane Sandy did set back the revitalization effort, the government has jumped back into the project. Efforts are still being made to beautify this area, but efforts to clean up the surrounding neighborhood seem to have halted.
