A ride to the end of an era...and pizza

Sept 7, 2008: When Wade mentioned his interest in making the ride to Coney Island, it sounded like a nice way to spend the Sunday. I didn't realize that this ride would show me the many burrows of Brooklyn and end at the closing of an icon.

On one of the most beautiful Sunday's I have ever seen in New York (following a day of Hurricane Hanna), I took the train from Wall Street over to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Checking out Wade's new single-speed, we began our voyage down to the bottom of the island. I had always enjoyed Brooklyn for the many free-pizza-with-a-beer bars, even despite the overwhelming population of hipsters in uniform. But I had never ventured beyond 7 blocks in Greenpoint.

Riding along the new bike lanes, providing a nice (false) sense of security, we left Wade's Polish neighborhood, soon entering a conservative Jewish region. It felt like we had ridden into a new country. Our next landmark was Prospect Park. The 583acre park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux (after they finished that other big park) feels like Central Park (surprisingly..) but with a more wilderness, solitary sense to it. Arriving at Prospect Park, I felt like we were riding through a Eruopean town, with the similar Arc de Triomphe and big round-abouts. If I ever lived in Brooklyn, I feel like I would never leave this park. Riding through the park, we identified another rider slowly creeping up on us. We, of course, had to crush him. We picked up the pace, and even though he tried to match us, we crushed him!

After a brief fear that we were taking the on-ramp to an expressway, our ride now became the long stretch along Ocean Parkway. Along this stretch I discovered that suburbia does exists within the city! A second goal for the ride was food. We had long heard of tales about a pizza place run by a man for 4 decades. Nestled inside a Jewish neighborhood where every food joint totes a kosher classification (have you ever seen a kosher Subway?) we spotted an establishment swelling with people of all ages but unified by a lack of yamika. We had arrived at Di Fara's pizza and not a moment too soon because we were parched and ravished, good thing it was only about a 30-40minutes wait for a slice of pie.... The scene inside is crowded and subtly tense as everyone is politely elbowing forward for the next available $25+ pie. OK, the place has a great story, a "cozy," old school, simple feel inside, and the fresh basil is fantastic. But, for $4 per slice of cheese (someone bought a $35 pie before us, which I could have found for $15 back in Ohio), the pizza was good, but a little greasy (a la a healthy pour of olive oil) and not as mind-blowing that I thought a 40min wait would produce.

"Soon" we were back on our bikes, on our way to reaching the final destination. All I had ever known about Coney Island was its iconic namesake and an image of boardwalk, ocean, and an occasional genie wish machine (Big). With that fresh smell of rotting ocean life, I soon saw the boardwalk. Knowing it did, I still felt surprised that the boardwalk really existed. How much wood did it take to build that thing? Riding along the boardwalk, humming Drifters songs, I really enjoyed the whole scene. From a distance the beach and ocean looked fantastic, people weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, a diverse crowd were playing handball, and there was the strange juxtaposition of beach and roller-coasters in the foreground. There were also the characteristics that made the experience uniquely Coney Island: Shoot the Freak, Nathan's Hotdog (with way too long of a line, don't people know they sell them in malls and grocery stores?) and the Wonder Wheel (take one ferris wheel and add 10times more sweetness and you get one Wonder Wheel).

As we headed home, Wade mentioned that we had experienced the last day of Coney Island. The following day it will be closed down and a casino built. While we were crushing another biker trying to pass us, I thought about a world without Coney Island. Does this make Cincinnati's Coney Island the "real" Coney Island? Where will I go for that magic genie machine that will make my life totally sweet? Where will The Freak go for work? Who gets the Wonder Wheel and how do I become friends with him? Will business at Nathan's located in malls suddenly pick up? Will people still be "falling in love under the boardwalk"?

This was no normal bike ride. In a mere 30miles I rode through Polish, conservative Jewish, rich Jewish, Kenyan, European-like, and wilderness worlds. Other than crushing other slow riders, I also got to see the last day of Coney Island. What a Sunday! I should have taken more pictures.