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Coney Island Ride Count: Veteran Ride Ops 40, Joe Sitt 10!

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, tagged Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Joe Sitt, Kiddie Park, rides, Thor Equities on June 4, 2009| 2 Comments »

The Wonder Wheel....Go Up...It's Great! Photo © me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

This post was written in 2009. For updated info, please see most recent ride census from April 2011: “Coney Island Has 64 Rides and 30 Weekends of Summer!”

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Yesterday a teller at my bank said she thought Coney Island had been redeveloped into a flea market with just a few rides. Where’d she get that idea? Joe Sitt’s cartoonish “Festival by the Sea” subway posters. Some of the search terms being used to find ATZ have been “What rides are left at Coney Island?” and “Are the rides and games open at Coney Island?” When people hear that Astroland closed, they mistakenly think ALL of Coney’s rides have closed. I went around and did a ride count last weekend (May 30-31). The numbers may surprise you.

THE GOOD NEWS

Coney Island currently has a grand total of 50 operating rides, That’s right FIFTY RIDES. Pretty good for a place that’s rumored to have closed. Forty rides are owned and operated by longtime Coney ride ops Cyclone Coasters, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, McCullough’s Kiddie Park, 12th Street Amusements and Eldorado Skooters.

On real estate speculator Joe Sitt’s property, there are currently 10 rides of the “more than 25 fun-filled rides” promised by Thor Equities in an April 2 press release.

A carousel under construction on May 25 is one of 10 rides in Thor Equities "Dreamland Park." Photo © me-myself-i/ Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Sitt’s pr team hasn’t said a word about rides lately, but the Coney Island Rumor Mill is abuzz with rumors of everything from coasters to kiddie rides being on the way. ATZ will keep you posted if and when more rides do arrive in Sittland East aka “Dreamland Amusement Park,” which is a work in progress.

If you want to see the full list of Coney Island’s 50 rides, Click here for the second part of my post, “What rides are open at Coney Island?”

STARTLING STATS

When you break down the current ride count, forty (40) rides are owned and operated by Coney’s veteran ride owners on land that is NOT owned by Joe Sitt or Thor Equities. Sitt is the largest property owner in Coney Island, with 80% of the land in the amusement district in Thor Equities investment portfolio. Yet two months after Coney’s opening day of the season, Sitt has mustered only ten (10) carnival rides for his so-called Dreamland Amusement Park. McCullough’s Kiddie Park, which occupies a tiny piece of land at the Bowery and 12th Street, has squeezed more rides onto their site than Joe Sitt has in all of Coney Island. The score is McCullough 12, Sitt 10. Or Veteran Showmen 40, Predatory Real Estate Speculator, 10. If this were a ball game, the showmen would win!

McCullough's Kiddie Park in Coney Island has 12 rides. Photo © me-myself-i/ Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

The “dozens of amusement rides” ballyhooed by Thor’s pr firm Knickerbocker SKD in their April 2 press release later dwindled to the promise of “25 rides and attractions” and “upwards of 25 rides”. Obviously Thor Equities picked the number “25” to say, see you’re not missing anything, we’re replacing the evicted Astroland’s old rides with an equal number of new rides.

The startling fact is that last year during Thor Equities “Summer of Hope” (May 22-June 2), Sitt had 52 rides on all of his Coney Island properties. This year, he has only 10. This means Coney Island is down 42 rides from last year during the same time period.

On Sitt’s property on the last weekend of May 2008:

52 rides including

Astroland – 24 rides (Palm Sunday- Sept 7)

Reithoffer Carnival – 18 rides (May 22-June 3)

Geren Rides – 10 rides (May 22- mid-July)

On Sitt’s property on the last weekend of May 2009:

“Dreamland Amusement Park” 10 rides

This year Thor has come up very short. Instead of spending huge amounts of money on the tents and advertising for his flopped Festival by the Flea, oops I mean Festival by the Sea, Sitt should have bought rides and set them up on the property, which is zoned for amusements. A batting range, go karts, bumper boats, mini-golf and other popular amusement attractions thrived here before Joe Sitt bought the property and bulldozed them in 2007 to deliberately create his empty lots and the opportunity for a zoning variance.

“What rides are open at Coney Island?”

Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park has 22 rides. In addition to the legendary Wonder Wheel and Spook-A-Rama dark ride, adult rides include the Thunderbolt, Bumper Cars and Tilt-A-Whirl. The Kiddie rides are the Dizzy Dragons, Mini Enterprise, Willie the Whale, Fire Engines, Pony Carts, Jets, Free Fall, Boats, Carousel, Flying Elephants, Jumping Motorcycles, Pirate’s Pond, Red Baron Airplanes, Big Foot Trucks, Rio Grande Train and Sea Serpent Roller Coaster.

Mangels Pony Cart Ride at Deno's Kiddie Park, Coney Island. Photo © me-myself-i/ Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

McCullough’s Kiddie Park has 12 kiddie rides on the Bowery at 12th Street. The rides are the Bumblebeez, Ferris Wheel, Carousel, Swings, Motorcycles, Yellow Submarine, Dizzy Dragons, Himalaya, Ladybug, Frog Hopper, Circus Train and Tug Boat.

Thor Equities new “Dreamland Park” (former Astroland property) has 10 rides. Adult rides are the Himalaya, Spin Out, Ring of Fire, Scrambler, Trabant and Star Dancer. Kiddie rides are the Carousel, Dragon Wagon, Kid Country and Drive In.

The world famous Cyclone Roller Coaster is a city owned landmark and continues to be operated by the Alberts, the former owners of Astroland Park (Surf Avenue at 10th St)

Erik Knapp, the Cyclone's first rider on opening day, April 5, 2009. Photo (c) Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

The one and only Eldorado Skooters is a family owned business at Surf Ave between Stillwell and 12th St.

Eldorado Bumper Car Crew. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Another family business 12th Street Amusements has 4 adult rides including the Polar Express, Bumper Cars, Saturn 6 and Ghost Hole.

The Polar Express. Photo © me-myself-i/ Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

AUG 5 2009 UPDATE: Coney Island Has 56 Rides and 33 More Days of Summer!

Memorial Day Weekend Mania: What Rides Are Open in Coney Island?

Posted in Amusement ride, tagged Coney Island, Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, Dreamland, Memorial Day 2009, rides, Thor Equities on May 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

“What rides are open in Coney Island?” This question is one of the search terms being used to arrive at ATZ. Since Astroland closed last year, people continue to be uncertain about what rides have remained here and are open. Last weekend’s postponement of Thor Equities much advertised “Festival by the Sea” due to “threat of bad weather”on a sunny day and no show rides was a slap in the face to the “Coney Island is Really Fun. Really Open” campaign. Here’s the Memorial Day Weekend ride count…

Kiddie helicopter ride at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park in Coney Island. Deno’s has 22 rides including the world famous Wonder Wheel. Photo by me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

~~More than 35~~ 40 rides owned and operated by Coney Island’s veteran ride operators have been open since April 5th. Come out and enjoy the Cyclone Roller Coaster, Wonder Wheel, Eldorado Skooters, the Polar Express, Saturn 6 and kiddie rides such as the Bumblebeez and the Sea Serpent Coaster.

Coney Island Cyclone, Second Ride of the Season. Photo by Pablo57 via flickr

photo via pablo57, flickr

At Thor Equities “Dreamland Amusement Park” (on the former Astroland site aka Sittland East) the Georgia-based Geren carnival’s Ring of Fire, Himalaya and Scrambler were set up and open for business for the first time on Saturday. You may remember these rides from Thor’s “Summer of Hope” carnival on Stillwell last season. Geren’s rides left in mid July to play the carnival’s Southern fair route. Will they stay till Labor Day this year or be switched out with other rides? Geren’s Spin-Out was also open for biz on Saturday.

Georgia-based Geren Rides Spin-Out at Thor Equities "Dreamland Park" in Coney Island. Photo by me-myself-i

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Five additional carnival rides–one thrill ride, a merry-go-round, three other kiddie rides– were being set up at Joe Sitt’s park-in-progress on Saturday but were not yet ready to open. ATZ will be posting updates and analysis of the Memorial Day Weekend and will have more to say about Joey Coney Island’s shortcomings as an amusement park tycoon. I mean what kind of a 21st century amusement park developer fails to have his “upwards of 25 rides” in place and ready for action on the first big weekend of summer?

The title of my post “Memorial Day Weekend Mania” is dedicated to Bob Guskind of Gowanus Lounge, whose coverage of all things Coney inspired me to launch ATZ. If Bob were still here, he would undoubtedly be covering this story and I would be at the beach.

MEMORIAL DAY UPDATE…On Monday, eight of the nine rides at Sitt’s Dreamland were operational and open for business. The carousel was under construction.

JUNE 4, 2009 UPDATE> ..“What rides are open at Coney Island?”
Coney Island Ride Count

AUGUST 5, 2009 UPDATE…“Coney Island Has 56 Rides and 33 More Days of Summer!”

Merry Go Round Set up at Thor’s amusement park-in-progress on Memorial day Weekend. Photo by me-myself-i/Tricia Vita via flickr

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Joe Sitt’s No Show Rides

Posted in Amusement ride, Coney Island, News, tagged Astroland, Coney Island, Dreamland, Joe Sitt, rides, Thor Equities on May 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Wonder Wheel, Eldorado Skooters and more than two dozen independent rides owned by local operators have been open for business in Coney Island since Palm Sunday. Coney’s Only No Shows are Joe Sitt’s promised 25 Rides. Here’s what Sittland East (the former Astroland site) aka Thor Equities so-called “Dreamland Amusement Park” looked like on May 15, the day of its long planned grand opening.

Where are "Some" or "Half" of the 25 Rides?

photo via me-myself-i, flickr

Contrary to the misinformation given out to the media on Thursday by Thor’s pr tools that anywhere from “some” to “half” of the 25 promised rides were being set up at Thor’s “amusement park,” there wasn’t a single new ride set up by Saturday. The Brooklyn Paper, metro, and the NY Post dutifully reported what they were told by Thor’s pr about the rides being set up and it is ABSOLUTELY FALSE.

As of Saturday, May 16, everything that is operating on Sittland East has been there for the past few weeks–the Batman inflate, the largest rat & headless woman sideshows, a few games. The equipment was moved around to open up a midway for the anticipated rides. But where are the rides? ONLY 3 rides have arrived in recent days and ALL 3 are still sitting disassembled on trailers.

The word on the street is the DOB’s safety requirements do not allow the operators to set up the rides on the property as long as the other attractions—the sideshows and games– are open for business. That means we don’t expect them to start setting up the 3 rides until Monday at the earliest.

The three rides are sitting on trailers belonging to Georgia-based Geren Rides. They appear to be the Ring of Fire, Scrambler and Himalaya, which played Sitt’s Summer of Hope on Stillwell (Sittland West) last year and left in the middle of July to play fairs in Tennessee. Thor’s long-running ad posted on usedrides.com says “If you need to leave in Aug for fair season that is not a problem.” I expect to see quite a bit of coming and going, that is if the promised “dozens of amusement rides” ever get here…

On April 5, the Opening Day for Coney Island's Cyclone, Wonder Wheel and Other Rides and Attractions, Thor 's Dreamland was nothing more than a "Coming Soon" sign

Joe Sitt evicted Astroland Park months ago and had plenty of time to arrange for replacements for Astroland’s 11 adult rides, 14 kiddie rides, 3 arcades and about a dozen games. He should have had them in place, ready and open for business on Palm Sunday, and then every weekend after that till Memorial day. Then full blast, 7 days a week. May 15 is late by both Coney Island and carnival standards, and yet he can’t even keep that promise.

The grand opening of Thor Equities’ Festival by the Sea and Dreamland Park was postponed till next weekend because the tents weren’t up to code and the rides hadn’t arrived. Obviously Joe Sitt doesn’t have a clue about anything having to do with running an amusement park. He should sell the land to the city and get the #%$@ out of the Coney Island!

But don’t let the above photos of Thor’s empty lot deter you from coming to Coney Island! Please come out and patronize the longtime amusement operators who have been open since April 5th, Coney Island’s traditional opening day of the season. The Cyclone Roller Coaster, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement park with 25 rides, Eldorado Skooters and arcade, McCullough’s Kiddie Park, Coney Island Arcade, Bowery and Jones Walk games, The Coney Island Sideshow, the Coney Island Museum, The Polar Express and 12th St Amusements and much much more…

AUGUST 5, 2009 UPDATE…”Coney Island Has 56 Rides and 33 More Days of Summer!”

JUNE 4, 2009 UPDATE…“What rides are open at Coney Island?”
Coney Island Ride Count