Richard Zigun Rides Out Coney Island’s Ups and Downs

Bricks peek through chipping plaster on the walls of the stairwell leading up to the second-floor Coney Island Museum.A vine hangs from the dirty skylight overhead. Inside, a gallery, painted in bright carnival colors, still seems dim. Signs for “KA-RAME-LA” and “POP-CORN,” enormous and yellow, echo with the promise of long-vanished summer delights.Silence follows the few Sunday visitors in from the empty streets. At first, they don’t notice the tattooed man keeping warm in the corner by the cast-iron stove.“I have become, whether officially or unofficially, the person who gets to comment the most on Coney Island,” the director of Coney Island USA, Richard Zigun, said.Mr. Zigun arrived in Coney Island in 1979 with a drama degree from Yale University. He has been running a sideshow, organizing a parade, running a museum, and riding out the area’s ups and downs ever since.Now, as Coney Island is on the cusp of major change, Mr. Zigun will have a say in what happens next. He is a member of the Coney Island Development Corporation, a 13-member committee in charge of planning Coney Island’s future. The corporation, together with other New York City offices and two developers, Thor Properties and Taconic Investment Partners, will reshape the waterfront amusement area over the next five years.At the end of the summer, the amusement district’s rides and restaurants will close for good. Thor has bought up a large swath of land and is planning a $2 billion makeover of the honky-tonk amusement area.Mr. Zigun is fighting to maintain Coney Island institutions like Nathan’s Famous, but he would welcome the Hard Rock Café, as well. He’s thinking development, but he’s not sold on condos.“Thor wants everyone to be convinced that condos are coming,” Mr. Zigun said. “A lot of people are angry. Everybody’s playing poker and staking out a position.”Earlier this week, Thor told the New York Post that it would scrap its plans if it is not granted zoning changes to build luxury apartment buildings.Mr. Zigun disagrees with Thor’s plans to put residential units in the middle of the area. The noise would drive potential homeowners out of the neighborhood or up the wall, he said.“I would rather have Coney Island expand to its full glory just by amusements,” he added.A native of Bridgeport, Conn., Mr. Zigun said he is so committed to Coney Island that he hasn’t had time for much else. “I only got married nine months ago,” he said.Mr. Zigun cites his Bridgeport childhood as a major influence on his decision to settle in Coney Island. “I was a Barnum scholar at age 9,” he said, describing the flavor Bridgeport’s founder, circus owner P.T. Barnum, gave to the town.He said he hopes to attract the House of Blues, which could, in turn, attract big-name performers and large crowds. “Let’s be realistic,” he said. “It’s called progress. Although you lose a certain amount of charm, hopefully you have good-quality major attractions.”“Coney Island, the way it is now, is broken,” Mr. Zigun said. “In all its glory, it attracted people from all over the world.”Some of the neighborhood’s mainstays, such as the aquarium, the Cyclone roller coaster, and his own Coney Island Museum, will survive the deluge of new construction, he said, but added that there is no reason to freeze the scene at a certain moment in time.The goal, Mr. Zigun said, is to render Coney Island, by 2011, worthy of its status as a “brand name that everyone in the world has heard of.”

Richard Zigun Rides Out Coney Island’s Ups and Downs

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