[NYguy]

http://online.wsj.com/articles/metro...alk-1416605667

Metro Money: Coney Island, Beyond the Boardwalk
The Beachfront Is Enjoying a Renaissance. But What About the Surrounding Neighborhood?






By ANNE KADET
Nov. 21, 2014

Jim and Angie Haprian of Akron, Ohio, aren’t your typical tourists. After a stroll along the Coney Island boardwalk earlier this month, the couple decided to venture into the peninsula’s interior—a section seldom seen by outsiders.

“We’re guessing it will be a little funky, but that doesn’t bother us,” said Mr. Haprian.

A few days later, I called Mr. Haprian to hear his impressions. He didn’t sound impressed.

“There’s nothing to do,” he said. “It’s just a bunch of auto-repair shops and the biggest liquor store I’ve ever seen in my life.”

There were no galleries or museums, he said. Even the Starbucks was just a drive-through, with no seating. “We didn’t hang out too long,” he said.

No one denies that Coney Island’s famous beachfront is enjoying a renaissance. The amusement zone just recorded its best season in recent memory: 1.5 million visitors. Summer turnstile count at the area’s two train stations, meanwhile, topped 3.2 million—a 68% jump from a decade ago.

So far, so good. The question now is whether the boardwalk boom will lift the surrounding neighborhood, with its roughly 50,000 residents.

This is not a sure thing. Just look at Atlantic City.

.....Business owners I met with seem, on the whole, to be pleased with the area’s progress. Peter Agrapides, owner of Williams Candy, said he’s seeing more tourists, even in November. “They always ask me how come the rides are closed,” he said. “They’re crazy.”

At Gargiulo’s, a fancy Italian restaurant that is legendary for being legendary—not to mention for the baked clams— Nino Russo, who runs the place with his brothers, said he’s seeing guests from France, England and Holland.

The 70% drop in crime over the past two decades hasn’t hurt. Mr. Russo said that one reason Gargiulo’s survived the neighborhood’s dark years was the fact that it offered valet parking.

“People were afraid to come to Coney Island,” he said. “That’s not the case any more.”

.....Urban renewal over the past five decades brought a heavy concentration of low-income housing, said Mr. Bliss. And until recently, zoning laws curtailed retail businesses, hotels and sit-down restaurants.

“The city has a responsibility to address some of the missteps of a generation ago,” said Mr. Bliss.

With the boardwalk area revived, the city has turned its focus inland—starting with basics, he said.

Parts of the peninsula still lack proper storm sewers, for instance. A $320 million upgrade will accommodate new residential and retail development.

That’s good news for the folks strolling Mermaid Avenue, the neighborhood’s inland retail strip.

After superstorm Sandy, many store owners shuttered their shops and never returned. Perhaps a third of the area’s storefronts are vacant, often with hand-lettered “For Rent” signs in the window.

“There’s no place to buy clothes,” said Veronica Paul, herding her four kids around the crowded local library.