Thanks Brownstoner for running this WONDERFUL pix and this excerpt from a piece in the NY Times about Coney Island in winter. This is a day for Coney Island pictures (see No Words_Daily Pix). I agree with your, Mr. B, Coney Island in the winter is quite beautiful in, as you say, " a stark,
bleak kind of way." The Times’ Nicholas Confessore had this to say:

On Stillwell Avenue, bumper cars were arranged in neat
rows, unridden. Near the Boardwalk, skeletal plastic frames and a few
shreds of tarp were all that remained of the tents and tables that sell
toys and trinkets during the summer. The crack of baseball bats in the
cages is months away, and a ghostly whistle