Memories of living in Coney Island from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s
Born in 1940, Jerry Omanoff lived in Coney Island from the late 1940s to the mid-60s. His family lived first in a bungalow on West 32nd Street, then in an apartment in a three-story house on West 33rd Street, and finally in Sea Gate. He shares...
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island in the 1940s and going back four times a year
Stanley Shapiro and his family lived at 2841 West 20th Street in Coney Island when he was a boy in the 1940s. "My heart is in Coney Island," says Shapiro, who goes back four times a year to walk the length of the Boardwalk and have a Nathan's hot...
Content type: Oral History Item
An actor's memories of growing up in Sea Rise apartments and a souvenir of the Wonder Wheel
Born in Brooklyn in 1988, Emmanuel Elpenord is an actor who grew up in the Sea Rise apartments in Coney Island's West End. He describes the unique design of the high rise building, where he played games with boys from his floor on the terrace...
Content type: Oral History Item
Twenty-five years at Gregory & Paul's and Paul's Daughter on the Coney Island Boardwalk
This interview was conducted and recorded in Spanish by Mónica Cordero Sancho. Read Mary Conlon's transcript and English translation below.
Gabriel Valencia lives in Coney Island, where he has worked at Gregory & Paul's eatery, now called Paul...
Content type: Oral History Item
Coney Island homeowner for 19 years enjoys organic gardening and walking on the boardwalk
This interview was conducted and recorded in Mandarin Chinese. Read Yolanda Zhang's transcript and translation below:
本采访以国语进行并记录下来。以下请阅读张月恒的笔录和翻译。
Linda Zhang was born in 1967 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province of the People's Republic of China....
Content type: Oral History Item
Memories of growing up in Coney Island Houses in the 1980s and '90s
Crystal Isley recalls the excitement of moving to Coney Island Houses from Williamsburg with her family on the day before her fifth birthday. With her bedroom window overlooking the beach and the sounds of the ocean lulling her to sleep, "I felt it...
Content type: Oral History Item
Moscow-born Coney Island resident, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, and professor of English
Natasha Lvovich is a Coney Island resident, a writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, and a Professor of English at CUNY Kingsborough. Originally from Moscow, her family of Refuseniks experienced what she describes as "the very hard path" to...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up in the Russian community in Coney Island and Brighton Beach
Born in 1986, Brooklynite Sam Shlivko grew up in the Russian community in Coney Island and has lived here ever since. His parents met in Brighton Beach after emigrating from Ukraine and Belarus in the late '70s and Russian was his first language. ...
Content type: Oral History Item
Growing up Latina in Brighton Beach with a special connection to nature and the ocean
Abby Jordan is a Brighton Beach native whose Salvadorean immigrant parents have been homeowners in the community for over 35 years. After graduating from CUNY Hunter, she worked as a paralegal for an immigration project in the Bronx, a long commute...
Content type: Oral History Item
Environmental justice organizer who was born in Coney Island and raised here in the 1960s and '70s
Born in Coney Island in 1963, Karen Dawn Blondel shares memories of the 1960's, '70s and '80s. Family members, including both sets of grandparents, aunts, and cousins lived in the community in bungalows, apartments, and public housing, and after her...
Content type: Oral History Item