Robert Guskind writes powerfully of the current state of Coney Island.
Read it and weep. Here's an excerpt but read the rest at his blog,
Gowanus Lounge:

"There were a lot of people in Coney Island on Saturday and most of
them were taking pictures of the mess it has become under the
stewardship of Joe Sitt and Michael Bloomberg. We stood on
Stillwell Avenue, freezing, with Mr. Sitt’s big empty lot on our left
and the vacant Beer Island on our right and wiped tears from our eyes,
not because of the cold but because of fond memories and a sense of
hopelessness and despair that those in charge of this process aren’t up
to the challenge of keeping it on life support while the economy works
itself out.

"What a sad, sad thing for a place that has suffered so much. We urge
the city to negotiate hard with Mr. Sitt. We hope all parties sit down
and come up with a realistic five year plan to keep Coney going. We
hope that Mr. Sitt shows that he has a shred of human decency in his
body and that “Joey Coney Island” helps save it instead of being the guy that pulls the trigger and inflicts the final fatal wound.

Time is running out."