After more than 20 years, Coney Island brings back holiday lights along Mermaid Avenue
Photo courtesy of the Alliance for Coney Island
For the first time in more than 20 years, Coney Island’s Mermaid Avenue, its main retail corridor, will light up for the holidays. Alexandra Silversmith, the Alliance for Coney Island‘s executive director, told us that the snowflake-themed display “invites shoppers to visit Mermaid Avenue and support our local merchants while simultaneously welcoming residents home.”
As Silversmith explained to amNY, “Mermaid Avenue is a corridor that is under a lot of construction and it’s not very pleasant to walk down…We see the lights as beneficial to businesses — to make people feel welcome to shop there — and at night to brighten up the corridor — improving the quality of life by brightening up people’s faces.” She also noted the lack of a business improvement district, and thereby a lack of funding, which is why the display has been put off for two decades. This year, however, Queens-based developer the Arker Companies made a $20,000 donation for the lights. Arker is constructing an affordable housing project nearby.
A lighting ceremony was held last night, at which the stretch of Mermaid Avenue from Stillwell Avenue to West 33rd Street was lit up with thousands of LED lights, a snowflake on each block, and a Welcome to Mermaid Avenue sign at West 15th Street.
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