Coney Island has long held a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers. The Brooklyn seaside neighborhood is a deranged jumble of janky retro amusements, circus performers, the OG Nathan’s Famous (of hot dog restaurant and annual eating contest notoriety), and an iconic boardwalk where Puerto Rican and former Eastern Bloc families jostle and mix.
Though no longer technically an island (parts of the creek have been filled in with landfill), it retains the idiosyncratic vibe of a place totally disconnected from any other—as captured here by French NYC-based photographer Vincent Pflieger, aka Streetadelic. Wanting to get to the heart of the people and the place, we spoke to Streetadelic to find out more.
VICE: What do you make of Coney Island?
Streetadelic: It’s like an all-authentic, kind of dusty, Mad Max-looking old neighborhood in New York. New York is New York; it’s rare to find a nice neighborhood that’s not totally fucked up by mass tourism or globalization now. Everywhere tends to look the same. Everywhere has a Zara, a Starbucks—all the same stores. If you think about Williamsburg or the Lower East Side, they have their own culture. It was very artistic. But it’s been totally changed by the money and the people living there. It’s gentrified as hell, and that’s the danger these big cities encounter.
Coney Island is completely different in that way. It has this culture, this authenticity, this spirit. Though it’s still pretty touristy, it’s kind of an escape world for New Yorkers. You come here for hot dogs, burgers, and if you don’t like it, you get the fuck out. There are none of these weird-ass coffee shops that you find everywhere, or all these fancy barbershops. It’s always the same. Coney Island doesn’t change.
“Coney Island doesn’t change”
What about the people there?
There’s a great mix between the Puerto Rican community in Coney Island, and the Uzbeks, Georgians, Russians, and Ukrainians over in Brighton Beach. The Mexicans come a lot during the summer also. They come to the beach and bring the whole house with them; the kitchen, the living room, the playground with the kids, the toys. They bring dozens of cases of Modelo, and all these little groups mix and have fun.
And the fits?
All New Yorkers like wearing whatever they want to wear, you know? They’re not wearing an outfit for an algorithm, they really don’t care.
Are there a lot of mad characters?
You don’t have a “freak show” anymore, but you still have the culture around it a bit. Everyone acts like a bit of a freak there. There’s also big events, like The Mermaid Parade [an annual nautical-themed art parade], or the Polar Bear Club New Year’s Day plunge, where everyone swims in weird costumes and stuff. So it’s always been a place to wear a disguise, to be crazy, to be the way you are.
“You come here for hot dogs, burgers, and if you don’t like it, you get the fuck out”
What does Coney Island mean to New Yorkers? Do they see it as a vacation spot?
It’s a bit of everything. It’s definitely an escape from the inner city. In Manhattan, surrounded by big skyscrapers, you almost never see the sky. Then you ride the subway for an hour and arrive at a wide open beach where everything is made for you to stay all day and have fun. It’s super easy to bring the kids, it’s not expensive, you don’t have to drive or whatever. It’s just a giant amusement park, and it still has this authenticity. The roller coasters are so old you feel like they could break under your feet. You almost have this sense of like, ‘shit, man, I’m riding history!’
Anything else?
What is good is that the tourists also play the game. If you go to Coney Island, you have to want to go to Coney Island. It’s further out of the city, so the tourists that come here come for a reason, you know? They come to embrace the weird.
All photos by Vincent Pflieger, processed and scanned by Nice Film Club in NYC
Follow Nick Thompson on Instagram.
The post Coney Island Is a Paradise appeared first on VICE.
