AFP, published on Saturday April 10, 2021 at 8:19 a.m.
After 2020 canceled due to a pandemic, the famous Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn celebrated its reopening on Friday, to the delight of ride operators and dozens of families.
Black mask on the nose, the Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, 59, marked the event by taking a ride on the “Cyclone”, the wooden roller coaster whose tremors echo throughout the neighborhood, posting a photo of him on his Twitter account.
He confirmed that the neighborhood’s large beaches, often crowded in summer, would reopen, as usual, for the Memorial Day long holiday weekend at the end of May, when their reopening had been postponed until early July by the coronavirus. last year.
Like many New York tourist attractions, Coney Island and its rides, established 150 years ago, have suffered a closure that has deprived many businesses located along the beachfront promenade of income.
With such a long shutdown, “the challenges are insurmountable,” Dennis “Deno” Vourderis, owner of the “Wonder Wheel”, the park’s big wheel, already with 100 seasons behind it, told AFP.
“I really missed the kids running around the attractions,” he says.
For now, the attractions are limited to a capacity of 33%, or 1,000 people maximum at a time in its case, and masks and physical distancing are required.
But that did not take anything away from the joy of Maritsa Mansuroglu, who came with her two boys to find a place she has frequented since her childhood.
“I took them everywhere,” to all the open New York attractions, but “Coney Island is the biggest New York attraction, so it was really important for me to be there today,” she says. , delighted.
While cinemas and theaters have started to reopen, against the backdrop of an accelerated vaccination campaign.
“I think it’s all picking up slowly, I just hope everyone is acting cautiously,” she said.
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