Image Coney -submit your ideas

It's time to hear your ideas for Coney Island. Coney Island was once the most astonishing place on earth – from the minarets and lights of Luna Park to the water chute rides and freakish sideshows of Dreamland. It was a place of extraordinary spectacle, inventiveness and fun. Over the last several decades, Coney Island has declined – but survived. Millions still visit the beach, the boardwalk and its remaining attractions each year. But the area needs revitalization. How can we restore Coney Island to be one of the world’s most exciting and original entertainment and amusement destinations once again?

MAS has launched ImagineConey, a new initiative to develop new ideas for Coney Island's future. The goal is to see Coney Island restored to its place as one of the world's great entertainment and amusement destinations - the "world's playground." On that day, we brought together a world-class team of designers, engineers, producers and economists at Brooklyn Borough Hall to listen to presentations from key stakeholders (click here to see photographs from the day and here to watch a NY1 broadcast).

The team will return for a two-day "charrette" - an intense design workshop - on November 13 and November 14 and present their initial ideas to the public on November 17.

But first, it's time for architecture and planning professionals and Coney Island fans everywhere to fire up their imaginations and weigh in. We need your ideas for Coney Island's future: for events and activities, for new amusement rides, for the design of new structures and even for interim activities that could happen as early as the summer of 2009.

Here's how to submit your ideas. 1) Visit our new website ImagineConey.com. You can submit ideas as text (less than 150 words) on the website or as graphics which can be emailed to us at imagineconey@mas.org. 2) Attend a workshop next Monday, November 10 (in Coney Island) or next Wednesday, November 12 (at Brooklyn Public Library). For more information about the workshops, click here.

All of the ideas will be displayed online at ImagineConey.com and also at an exhibit that will open in January 2009 here at MAS. The deadline for submission is December 15, and ideas submitted before November 12 will also be considered by the team for potential inclusion in their presentation on November 17.