For starters, where are the fresh fish, fresh fruit, and fresh pastries?
Have you ever lived in a crowded house with only one bathroom? That’s a little bit what the West End of the Coney Island peninsula is like, if you had been waiting for a new bathroom for fifty years.
For decades, Coney Island has been a commercial wasteland. More than thirty thousand people share two supermarkets. Small corner stores and check cashing signs are the signature storefront.
People buy the basics in other neighborhoods, an inconvenience for those with cars but not the end of the world. But for the majority of residents, not to mention seniors and the elderly, it can take 30 minutes to take the bus out of the neighborhood, or even longer in the winter, when wind and snow slow you down.
Grocery stores are just part of the problem. “The Mermaid Avenue commercial corridor is missing a lot of basic amenities like regular clothing stores, shoe stores, things that residents need every day,” says Johanna Zaki, Executive Director of the Alliance for Coney Island, a nonprofit coalition of businesses working to revitalize the neighborhood. “There’s a huge gap in meeting the basic needs of residents.”
The problem becomes apparent as you walk away from the boardwalk and the glitz of the amusement park fades. It is often said that there are two Coney Islands: the amusement park, and everything else. The here and the there.
Six years after The Bloomberg administration rezoned Coney Island in 2009 with an ambitious plan to develop the neighborhood, the boardwalk is thriving, but the West End has been left behind.
But change is coming. The de Blasio administration recently announced that it plans to redevelop nearly 20 blocks north and west of the amusement park area.
And Coney Island is represented by City Councilmember Mark Treyger (D-47), who is a passionate advocate for residents of the West End.
“Our commercial retail options are a great need here. We need a clothing store. We need a bakery on Mermaid Avenue. We need more healthy produce. We need more banks. I’m doing all that I can to attract retail investment,” says Treyger.
But for now, Coney Island residents are frustrated by the lack of retail. “There’s nothing over here,” says Millie Bea, a resident I interviewed walking along Stillwell Avenue.
What kind of nothing? I looked at business records and spoke with Coney Island residents to find out what’s missing.
- Clothing Stores
One man wants a closer Marshalls; a teenage girl wants a Macy’s. They’d settle for anything. “There’s nowhere to shop,” says Uaira Reid, a teacher enjoying a family Halloween party in Kaiser Park with her 18-month-old twins.
- Healthy Restaurants
The majority of restaurants on Coney Island serve fast food—like tacos, hot dogs, fried chicken, kebabs, pizza, and burgers. Even Mark Wahlberg cashed in on the trend. He and his brothers opened up his family’s Boston burger chain this summer next to the amusement park.
Not everyone is happy about that. “We have too many burger chains. There are two McDonald’s on Coney Island, and they are less than three blocks apart,” says Jerald Smith, a lifelong resident of Coney Island. “I’d like to see a fast casual chain like Chipotle.”
- Fresh Seafood
For a neighborhood surrounded by water, fresh fish are practically jumping out of the ocean onto your plate, right?
Wrong. “I like to cook seafood at home, but there’s only one place to get raw seafood. They just opened up this summer and they don’t have much,” says Anna Toribio, who buys her seafood in Bay Ridge. But Toribio sees an opportunity. “It’s my dream to open a seafood place here in Coney Island because it would be great business,” she says.
- Entertainment
Jessica Serrano, out with her young daughter Jayla, would like Coney Island to have its own movie theater. The closest theater is in Sheepshead Bay. (But Jayla had other, more adorable, ideas. When asked what she’d like to see on Coney Island, she had a one-word answer: “You,” she said, pointing at her mother.)
- Organic Produce
Brighton Beach bursts with colorful produce, like some kind of promised land. Coney Island, on the other side of West 5th Street, is a world away. “It was nearly impossible to get healthy food, like roasted almonds, until an organic store opened this summer on Mermaid Avenue,” Jerald Smith says.
Some residents say the new place doesn’t count. “We definitely could still use a good source of organic fruit,” says Randy Figueroa, who was annoyed to discover that organic doesn’t necessarily mean fresh, and that many of the store’s groceries are frozen.
- Bakeries
Evelyn Lugo, sales manager at a lease-to-own furniture store, can’t believe Coney Island still doesn’t have a bakery. “Any kind of pastry shop would be awesome,” Lugo says. (Actually, Coney Island sort of has a bakery: New York Bread, Inc., which has been in the news recently.)
- Banks
Coney Island is a bit of a bank desert: Four bank branches serve the entire peninsula. One of the four banks, Chase Bank, has said it will desert Coney Island by the end of the year. Some people don’t care. One man, when asked about what it’s like to have so few banks, waved me away. “You get used to it,” he said.
- Supermarkets
Talk about running into everyone you know at the supermarket: Coney Island only has two, so you’re bound to see a friend, relative, co-worker, or even an annoying neighbor when you shop.
- Optical Shops
Coney Island only has two or three places to get eye care. That seems like it would be a problem for people who break their glasses or need to schedule a checkup. (But maybe it depends who you ask. One optometrist told me that Coney Island doesn’t need any more optometrists.)
- Martial Arts Instruction
Business records show there’s only one place in Coney Island to learn karate. Oh, nevermind; it’s listed as permanently closed.