Coney Island: Leg 1 — Sea Gate to the New York Aquarium
Sea "Chain-link Fence" Gate (Southwest side)
(distance covered: 1.41 miles; total distance logged: 6.1 miles)
1. First failure
It never occurred to me that going to Sea Gate, the exclusive neighborhood at the western end of Coney Island where I was start my barriers walk, might involve getting through actual gates. I figured that I could just park on a random street in the neighborhood, head to the Coney Island Lighthouse on Norton Point at the western tip, and continue in the southeasterly direction on the beach (ocean on the right) and cruise down to the boardwalk to the New York Aquarium before turning around (ocean on the left) to head back to my car. Check that off. First leg complete. Wrong.
The tipoff came on closer examination of Google maps for Sea Gate, which I now know is a gated community, true to its name. Ok, I’ll just park outside the gates and walk around and get into Sea Gate on the beach (as if no one else had ever thought of that). Nope. Fences. Serious fences. Chain-link fences right up to the shoreline and to the edge of the jetty, along with several no-nonsense "No Trepassing" signs that I would discover later. I need another plan.
Why not just drive up to the gate? I'll tell the Sea Gate police officer (yes, they have their own police department) at the gatehouse that I just want to take a quick look at the lighthouse. He'll let me in, right?
As I drove up to the entrance, I immediately sensed that this wasn't going to go well. The cop, who bore a passing resemblance to Vladimir Putin, looked up from his phone but there was not even the slightest upward curve to the corners of his mouth. If he had been wearing glasses, he would have looked at me over the top of them. It took what felt like 30 seconds for him to slide open the window to the gatehouse. He said nothing.
"Good morning, Officer. I was hoping to take a quick look at the lighthouse, if that's possible."
"It's private, lady."
"Ok, then is it possible for me to just park outside of the gates and walk in? I won't be long."
" No. You can't. It's private. Cops will stop you down there."
So, now I'm in front of the gate that Officer Vlad refuses to open and there is an impatient Sea Gate resident pulled in behind me, boxing me in.
"So, I guess I should just pull out?"
He waves to the guy behind to back up and I back out into traffic. No farewells were exchanged.
2. Turtle at the Creek
Increasingly sure that getting into Sea Gate was not in the cards for the day, I thought a trip to the North side of Coney Island was at least worth the effort. I parked easily on Seagate Avenue at the corner of Bayview Avenue (more chain-link fences and warning signs bordering Sea Gate. Wait, is that razor wire?) I entered Coney Island Creek Park.
Entrance to Coney Island Creek Park
I expected to see at least a few other humans out and about, given the sunshine and relative warmth of this November Saturday. I did not, at least not at first. The beach here has lovely soft light-colored sand.
Nowhere to go from here
It has impressive views of the Manhattan skyline to the northeast and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge to the northwest. It also has a lot of trash. Not everywhere exactly, but in little clusters that say a picnic happened here or someone's kite crashed there and no one thought to take back out with them that which they no longer needed. As I approach the shoreline, I did see some fishermen off to the left and then I spied the remains of a large sea turtle, its body perpendicular to the shoreline, its beak pointing squarely away from the water. It appeared to have been there for awhile, although not long enough for the flies to have completely given up on it.
The giant and clearly man-made pile of sand and the many "No Trepassing" signs made it clear that I wasn't heading to the lighthouse in Sea Gate from here either.
Time to head to the boardwalk.
3. Za zdorovye!
I parked on W 27th Street by the Poseidon Playground toward the western end of the 2.7 mile-long Reigelmann Boardwalk that runs along the south side of Coney Island, facing Coney Island Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Again, it was a lovely day so it was not surprising that many people were out walking. If Officer Vlad were actually Russian (I'm pretty sure he's not), he might feel quite at home here since, other than some English and an occasional word of Spanish, Russian was pretty much the language of the boardwalk. A little further east on the boardwalk past the New York Aquarium, you will find Brighton Beach, where so many Russians and Ukrainians, especially Ashkenazi Jews, began emigrating in the 1970s that the area has been known as both Little Odessa and Little Russia.
W 27 Street Entrance to the Boardwalk
4. Loud and Clear
The concept of headphones doesn't seem to have made its way to Coney Island. Blasting music from your personal speakers is the thing to do. A small group of folks with folding chairs set up under an awning flew two Puerto Rican flags on the boardwalk. They played Latin music from an impressive audio setup aimed at New Jersey. A man who appeared to be in his 60s was clearly very fond of 60s rock. He thought to share that love with the rest of us as he walked up and down the boardwalk.
I was getting hungry and none of the restaurants on the boardwalk were open. I headed past Maimomides Park to the Nathan's on Surf Avenue, which is open pretty much all the time. The stadium is home to the New York Mets' farm team, the Brooklyn Cyclones, named for the iconic wooden roller coaster that has been in near continuous operation for the better part of a century (not a selling point in my opinion). The stadium opened in 2000 on the site of the former Steeplechase Park.
A trio of starlings: my lunch companions
Famous for a reason
In 2021, the ballpark hosted the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (moved here from its usual location for crowd control due to COVID-19 restrictions). The winner, Joey Chestnut, whose job title on Wikipedia is listed as "Competitive Eater," broke his own record from the previous year and downed an astounding 76 hot dogs and buns in something like 10 minutes. The prize for this achievement is $10K and something called the Nathan's "Mustard Belt." I forego the hot dog and order the cheese fries and a very large vat of root beer.
5. Kestrel on a Streetlight
I wasn't intending to do any birdwatching on Coney Island, but I couldn't help it. In addition to the expected fleet of seagulls, there were birds everywhere. I noticed a group of people looking up at a small tree behind a storage structure off the north side of the boardwalk. They were looking at a juvenile red-tailed hawk. A woman stood holding a paper plate, heaving under the weight of the contents of too many cans of cat food, all in various shades of yesterday's regular coffee. She looked distressed and asked me if I knew what that bird was up in that tree. She was trying to feed her colony of cats and the bird seemed to scare her. She told me that she was now battling with so many rats that the cats can no longer control them and she can't feed the cats. I told her what the bird was and it was probably attracted by the rats and would likely eat at least a few of them.
"Did you hear that?! This lady says that bird will eat the rats!”
This was the second time in a day that someone called me "lady." At least she was more polite about it than Sea Gate Booth Cop. She wanted to know how that big bird would get down from the tree to get them; how such a big bird could fly in such a small space.
"He'll figure it out, I'm sure. Maybe he'll bring some friends along."
She laughed out loud. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she should probably stop feeding the cats. It was clear what she was really feeding and they weren't leaving anytime soon, especially since they didn't scram when a large raptor was eyeing them from 6 feet above. At the woman's urging, I took a look around the corner of the structure. I wish I hadn't. She thanked me for the information and left me with a hearty "God Bless You."
As I continued down the boardwalk, a flash of blue and burnt orange caught my eye. An American Kestrel landed on a streetlight. I had never seen this small, colorful falcon in person before. It sat on top of the light for awhile, flicking its tail in my direction. No one else looked up and no one noticed me looking up.
It took off, heading east toward Luna Park, when a bike flew by below.
The Thunderbolt at Luna Park from W 15 St and Surf Avenue
towards Maimonides Park and the Parachute Jump Check out this aerial timelapse of Coney Island from Google Earth Engine. Thanks to my colleague Adam Alsamadisi for introducing me to this tool.