Fancy and Fake
Reading about Coney Island through the lens of Koolhaas gave
me a new perspective on the park. I knew of the horseback ‘ride’ but did not
know the area had previously had live horses. Learning about the Inexhaustible Cow,
nighttime bathing/swimming, and the ‘Barrels of Love’ made me think about how fake
Coney Island is. Everything is artificial and seems to be replacing what was
naturally there before. In class, it was said that Coney Island is now for the elite,
but before, it was for the working class. Was everything replaced so that it could
keep up with the changes in admission or did the elite come because they saw ‘improvements?
If only working-class locals continued to be the patrons, what would Coney
Island look like today?
It is interesting to think about the what ifs of a site. I firmly believe that every place has a mixture of different economic classes, cultures and more. It always comes down to money to determine the forefront nature of an area. Coney Island is one for amusement of all kinds of people... specifically mocking and reflecting on higher class activities. However, I agree with your idea on determining if this can be deemed as an improvement. My gut feeling is to say no but we will have to loop back to the what ifs...
ReplyDeleteI think those are really interesting points and questions, especially the thought of how Coney Island used to be for the middle class and now is mostly for the elite. One thing that was mentioned during class that poses another question is the thought that Coney Island, and other amusement parks, were a way for people to escape their day-to-day lives. I wonder if there was a shift at some point where the middle class learned how to escape the monotony of their lives on their own (ie spending more time with family or picking up hobbies) where the elite have to rely on someone providing that escape for them?
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