(New York) 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.
Posted on April 9, 2021 at 5:50 p.m.
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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,” said Dennis “Deno” Vourderis, owner of the “Wonder Wheel”, the big wheel of the park, with already 100 seasons behind it.
“I really missed the kids running around the attractions,” he says.
For now, attractions are limited to a 33% capacity, or 1,000 people maximum at a time, 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 everything is slowly picking up, I just hope everyone is acting cautiously,” she said.
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