Alicia Angello

As a teenager in the 2000s, Alicia Angello lived in Marlboro Houses in Gravesend, which was walking distance to Coney Island. She shares memories of coming here with her friends every Friday night and sometimes every day in the summer. The Polar Express, the Eldorado Bumper Cars, and the Breakdance ride at Astroland were their favorite hangouts to listen to the music and to ride. "It was kind of like you were getting dressed up to go to the club," she says. "Everybody from all the neighborhoods in Coney Island would be there." Angello also shares childhood memories of going to Coney with her grandparents in the '90s and her grandmother's stories of riding the Parachute Jump and having nickel hot dogs at Nathan's.