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UNAMUSED
CONEY AMUSEMENT PARK DELAYS OPENING DUE TO CORONAVIRUS
A man sits by himself at a closed beach shop during coronavirus outbreak. Photo by Todd Maisel
BY ROSE ADAMS
The Coney Island amusement
park will postpone its
opening because of the coronavirus
outbreak, offi cials
announced.
“In response to the evolving
circumstances around
COVID-19 and in an effort to
slow the spread of the virus,
we at Luna Park in Coney Island
have made the decision
to postpone our opening day
until further notice,” said
representatives at Central
Amusement International,
Inc., a corporation that operates
Luna Park, the Scream
Zone, the Cyclone, and many
surrounding shops.
Deno’s Wonder Wheel
Amusement Park will also delay
its April 4 opening — dealing
a tough blow to its owners,
who were planning to
celebrate the Wonder Wheel’s
100th anniversary.
“We saw the writing on the
wall a couple of weeks ago,”
said Dennis Vourderis, who
owns and operates the wheel
and its adjacent amusement
park with his brother, Steve.
“Of course, we have to take
into consideration what’s going
on in the world. It’s not
about us right now.”
The indefi nite closure of
the amusement district will
inevitably hurt the seasonal
businesses in the area that
rely on the park’s attractions
for revenue, said a local business
advocate.
“The consequences of not
being able to make the amount
of money that stores in Coney
Island make from April onward
is going to be detrimental
to the community,” said
Alexandra Silversmith, executive
director of the Alliance
for Coney Island.
The postponement comes
as many Coney Island businesses
are already struggling
to survive due to the area’s
seasonal economy and rising
rents. The People’s Playground
has double the average
New York City vacancy
rate, with nearly 16-percent of
storefronts sitting empty, according
to a city report.
To make matters worse,
the MTA announced last
month that it would suspend F
train service between Church
and Stillwell Avenues on
most weekends this summer
and through the end of 2020,
COVID-19
INFECTS
BKLYN
Confi rmed cases
surpass 4,000
BY BEN VERDE
Confi rmed cases of the
novel coronavirus in Kings
County shot into the thousands
this week, as New York
City has become the epicenter
of the outbreak in the United
States.
Out of over 17,000 cases
within the fi ve boroughs, over
4,000 are in Brooklyn, which
is second only to Queens in
the number of confi rmed
cases per borough. Citywide,
over 200 people have been
killed.
Fifty-eight percent of the
cases within New York State
are in New York City, and
one-third of the cases nationwide
are in New York State.
“I don’t want to be the epicenter,
but we are the epicenter,”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said
at a briefi ng on March 24.
Statewide, offi cials say
they are unprepared for the
massive swell of cases all at
once, and that the rate of infection
is doubling roughly
every three days.
“We haven’t fl attened the
curve,” Governor Andrew
Cuomo said March 24. “And
the curve is actually increasing.”
Local offi cials’ pleas to
the federal government have
grown more urgent day by
day — and have started to see
small results, such as the delivery
of 4,000 badly needed
respirators to New York State,
2,000 of which will go to New
York City.
Mayor de Blasio cautioned
that this was still nowhere
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