Daily News from New York, New York • 311

40 wilier?" -r: -ijt -i A3 4 lllitiiiSIB lr V- US 4 j-. -t Costa Mantis (1.) of Coney Island U.S.A. holds antique drum. Right, Dick Zigun offers Gena Queue (I.) and Mona Stark a ride. Parachute Jump may return.

A ANTHONY PESCATORE DAILY NEWS Island A plan to bring back Coney By ALAN MIRABELLA DN 1965, TWO ELDERLY sun seekers sat on the Coney Island Boardwalk mourning the recent closing of Steeplechase Park. "It's dead around here now the woman said. "There's nights you look out over Steeplechase and there's only darkness where those lights used to be and it feels like an old friend is gone." A glimmer in his eye, her husband said: "Nothing has changed much that a real showman couldn't cure what's ailing Coney." In the Daily News story about the playland, the two Brooklynites (who weren't named) uttered words that are still true to this day. Darkness still looms over the 21 choice waterfront acres of parkland that once made up what most people knew as the greatest of amusement parks, one that could be brought back by a real showman. That showman could be Horace Bullard, a developer and owner of the Kansas Fried Chicken fast-food chain.

Bullard has a $20 million plan to recreate Steeplechase Park. And his plan has fueled a new perception of hope for the future of Coney Island. "We are planning to build a new Steeplechase Park and make it bigger and better than it ever was before," said Bullard, a developer who has "We're fully expecting to celebrate the reopening of Steeplechase Park next summer," said a spokesman for Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden. "We think Coney Island is going to get a real shot in the arm with his plan." The plan is bringing hope to an area that has seen more than its share of hard times: The decline of Coney Island began in 1965, when the family of George C. Tilyou, who had founded Steeplechase in 1897, closed the vast 21-acre enterprise that stretches between 16th and 19th Sts.

and sold the property to Brooklyn real estate developer Fred C. Trump for $2.5 million. While various ideas were proposed for the land, including a state park, the city never acted on any of them, instead condemning the land to prevent Trump from building apartments there. It wasn't until 1981, however, that the city actually gained the area as parkland, settling 13 years of court suits with a tenant who refused to vacate the land. Still, the years of red tape almost killed Coney Island.

Steeplechase had been the economic magnet of the community. Its bright lights and sounds brought people there from miles away. And when Steeplechase closed, the crowds were never the same. Business slowed and merchants closed shops. Fires and crime increased in the area and the community's image declined even further.

The new hope has even resulted in the creation in 1981 of a Coney Island "Hysterical" Society by Richard Eagan and Philomena Morana, two Brooklynites who returned to Coney Island in 1980 and saw that the "feeling was gone." "We both felt a hysterical need to save Coney Island," said Eagan. The two the formed the organization, which is dedicated to revitalizing the historic and cultural uniqueness of Coney Island. "Coney Island for me was part of a whole feeling," said Eagan. "I spent a tremendous amount of time here. And then I remember going to the end of the (Steeplechase) pier in 1980, looking back and seeing nothing.

"My earliest memories from my childhood were from here," says Morana. "There was the beauty, the smells. And there it was Steeplechase closed down. ''We then began to rotate our own art and work around this place," said Eagan. "We became so dedicated making a change here." Both then became actively involved in the community.

They painted a mural, worked on restoring original art work on some rides and worked with the Chamber of Commerce. Their enthusiasm has spread to the tune of 400 new members. In addition, the society has backed a number of successful events. jODAY, THE most important I I project the renovation of the LJ old Spookhouse behind Nathan's is under way with the assistance of that restaurant With a group of local artists, Eagan and Morana are redesigning the Spookhouse, adding hand-painted cars and with gore put at a minimum. ''Creative minds are really starting to come together in the community," said Kenneth Handwerker, vice-president of Nathan's.

''What made Coney Island successful was that the people had great imaginations. And that's what's certainly happening now. It's hard to deny that Coney Island is on the way ment is sponsoring the construction of 407 single-family homes throughout Coney Island that will be available to moderate-income families at discount mortgages. The Parks Department is maintaining and restoring a number of areas. The work includes rebuilding historic Steeplechase Pier, an ongoing project of repairing and reconstructing the Boardwalk, and redesigning the Abe Stark Skating Rink.

In addition, a group of artists is putting down roots in the area and helping to revitalize it. ICK ZIGUN, a playwright, has I I succeeded in bringing live en-f -J tertainment back to the Boardwalk for the first time in recent memory in the form of a new museum and theater, called Sideshows by the Seashore, in a former penny arcade, mixing art and amusement with nostalgia. "We're a real sideshow," says Zigun, artistic director of Coney Island U.S.A, a nonprofit group dedicated to Coney Island traditions and which runs the new space. "But we plan to grow into a serious museum and theater company." With admission fee of 99 cents, you can get a look at original Coney Island memorabilia as well as contemporary art, all designed to -bring back the memories of fantasy that Coney Island once offered. Zigun began his project after he returned to Coney Island for an art show and recognized little of the area he had once known.

Since then he has taken an artistic and entreprenurial plunge by organizing Coney Island U.S.A. 'I was shocked by what I saw," he said. "This was the original entertainment district of New York City, and there it was, down the drain. Now we're really trying to make a statement that this area can be improved." is not really Manhattan and it's not really Brooklyn," says Rick Russo, artistic director of the rest dent theater company at Sideshows. 'It's really fresh ground.

Most people around here have never seen what WAS SAD, very sad," said May Timpano, a longtime rest dent who lives in a home right I been named by the city to revitalize the area. "We want to create a very exciting park. There are plans to bring back the Steeplechase horses and the Parachute jump. "We're really trying to bring back the spirit to Coney Island," says Bullard. "I think it's going to be a major, major boost to this area.

It's a tremendous opportunity to do something significant and secure in the area in an elaborate way." While area residents say they've heard this all before, Bullard's plan appears to be solid. Both the Parks Department, which will oversee the project, and the borough president's office support Bullard, who hopes to have the park open by next summer. under the Thunderbolt roller coaster operated by her family, which had watched Steeplechase rise and fall. "When Steeplechase went down, everything went with it," she says. "It was such a great place." But bitter memories are being replaced with hope.

A number of planned improvements in the area should finally give the weathered community a chance to bounce back. The New York City Department of Housing. Preservation and Develop..