1980 - 1989

On growing up in Coney Island and founding the nonprofit Urban Neighborhood Services
Mathylde Frontus grew up in Coney Island as the eldest child of Haitian immigrant parents who instilled a love of learning and community service. In 2004, she founded Urban Neighborhood Services (UNS), a small multi-service agency on Mermaid Avenue...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island during the Great Depression and 55 years practicing law
Charles Berkman, who was 88 when this interview was recorded and turned 90 on July 2, 2018, grew up on West 29th Street in Coney Island during the Great Depression.  The youngest of nine children of a hard-working orphan immigrant from Poland,...
Content type: Oral History Item
A Coney Island native's memories of running amusement games
Eliot Wofse grew up in Luna Park Houses across the street from the amusement area, which he calls his playground. His elder brothers worked as game agents and regularly sent him off to play, for free, at Steeplechase Park and Playland Arcade. At...
Content type: Oral History Item
Lifelong Coney Island resident and author of Living Life Like It's Golden
Dionne Brown, who has lived in Coney Island all her life, also works here.  She grew up in Surfside Gardens and attended Surfside School (PS 329), Bay Academy, Lincoln High School, and Kingsborough Community College.  A love of reading was instilled...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in Coney Island in the 1970s and '80s and coming back to photograph it
Barry Yanowitz grew up in Coney Island where he could see the Cyclone and hear the screams of riders from his window. "The Cyclone was it," he recalls. "The secret thing that me and friends of mine had who lived in the area that I felt like the rest...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of working as a police officer in Coney Island in the 1980s and '90s
Gravesend native Donna Bianco became a police officer at age 22 after a female cop, one of the few she knew, registered her for the test and she scored well. She was assigned to Coney Island from 1986 through 1993, when the neighborhood was crime-...
Content type: Oral History Item
Storyteller, cartoonist and designer whose graphic novel Prince of Cats is partly set in 1980's Coney Island
Brooklyn resident Ronald Wimberly  is a storyteller, cartoonist and designer whose graphic novel Prince of Cats is partly set in Coney Island.  His retelling of Romeo and Juliet mixes comics, hip-hop and Shakespearian poetry. Wimberly describes the...
Content type: Oral History Item
Co-owner and operator of Gregory & Paul's for more than 50 years
Gregory Bitetzakis and his partner, Paul Georgoulakos, have operated a half dozen restaurants in Coney Island for more than half a century. Although they are best known for their two stands on West 8th Street at Surf Avenue and on the Boardwalk,...
Content type: Oral History Item
Homeowner and community activist in Coney Island's West End for almost 30 years
Grace Lo and her family moved from Chinatown to Coney Island's West 35th Street in 1989 when they bought one of the homes built by Astella Development. Lo was elected Vice President of the West End Residents Association, which covers West 32nd to ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Artist and Coney Island resident recalls growing up on Mermaid Avenue above Carolina Restaurant
Artist Johanna Gargiulo Sherman grew up in Coney Island, where her family lived on Mermaid Avenue in a cold water flat above Carolina Restaurant. Her father Joe "Carolina" Gargiulo led a musical trio and was one of the partners in this popular ...
Content type: Oral History Item