The first Mermaid Parade came to Coney Island back in 1903.  The 2008 edition took place this past Saturday.  Was it the last?  Joe Sitt of Thor Equities hopes so.

With the promise of bringing in a world class water park, he's spent the past 4 years buying both, Coney's amusement area, and support from local politicos like Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Councilman Domenic Recchia.

Now however, Sitt's is more focussed on rezoning and redeveloping this amusement empire which dates back to the 1870's.  Described by PBS as an Electric Eden; America's first playground; home to the world's first roller coaster, hotdog, and (believe it or not) incubators!    

Sitt is looking to use all but 9 (out of a total of 61 acres) acres of land to build high rise condos, hotels, and time shares.  Even the 9 sparred acres will be rezoned for amusement and "entertainment retail" meaning the Coney Island Tower could soon be replaced by a Nike Town or a super sized Starbucks.  This is only part of what will be missed if Joe Sitt wins:

Mardi Gras by the Sea comes to Coney Island, USA tomorrow, Saturday afternoon (2:00PM) in the name of the 26th annual Mermaid Day Parade.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

The parade's roots actually go back to 1903, a yearly event which lasted until 1954.  The combo of city neglect, public housing to Coney on what once was amusement area, and White Flight brought a quiet end to the parade's first run.  Thankfully, in 1983 Dick Zigun started a second run of parades, and the event  has grown in numbers every single year since.

Just a short diary to let everyone know that Jim Mckay passed away earlier today.  For those too young to know, McKay was the classiest, most intelligent, articulate, soft-spoken, honest sports voice of all time.  Think of Fox' "Best Damn Sports Show" and now think the exact opposite of that. Think of the most annoying, "me-me-me" ESPN "booyah" type reporting, and now again, think the opposite.  

I was thinking of starting my own open thread and simply adding the necessary links. But I was too dumb to figure out how to start an open thread, so now, after 4 years here, my very foist diary entry!  

I will add one link (an up beat song-n-dance number with a great groove that we can all dance too) followed by the article itself, in it's entirety.

Enjoy the sweet-assed link:

http://www.youtube.com/...

Oh yeah, and if you can, please throw in a comment on the video before Ron Paul's peeps completely over run it!