CONEY ISLAND AND THE NEOLIBERAL IMAGINATIONCompleted in fulfillment of the requirements of undergraduate honors in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University, this thesis examines the nature of historic place in Coney Island through the highly contentious rezoning plan passed in 2009 by the Bloomberg administration. The history of place in Coney Island is presented to organize a framework through which the rezoning is assessed, and a chronology of significant redevelopment projects related to the rezoning is discussed. From this, the Childs Restaurant and Shore Theater rehabilitation projects and the Neptune/Sixth high- rise project are cited for their positive precedents in preserving the nature of historic place in Coney Island while perpetuating much-needed economic development, and caution is assigned to the tendency of contemporary redevelopment efforts to commoditize historic imagery while simultaneously destroying historic fabric.
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