First Brooklyn beach day of 2024
This week, I had my first Brooklyn beach day of 2024 at Coney Island! Since moving from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn almost a year ago, I’ve discovered a number of new joys in New York City. One of the biggest has been Coney Island — named one of the best 25 beaches in the U.S. in 2024 by Travel+Leisure Magazine. Coney Island is a 20-minute subway ride from my apartment. In addition to the beach, there’s a boardwalk loaded with delicious food and drinks, rides, games, a minor league baseball stadium, fun street art, music, city park land, and a load of characters from every walk of life. I look forward to spending many days here this summer.
Fun Coney Island and NYC beach facts:
- How Coney Island got its name is widely disputed. Some theories: (1) an Irish boat captain named Peter O’Connor sailed to New York from Ireland in the late 1700s, and named Coney Island after Ireland’s Coney Island, which was and remains a mile from O’Connor’s home in County Sligo and looks remarkably similar to Brooklyn’s Coney Island save for the fact that the island in Ireland is nearly deserted and Brooklyn’s Coney Island is a magnet for locals and tourists alike. (2) The Dutch settled Manhattan in 1624 and inhabited Coney Island soon afterward. It was home to a large population of wild rabbits and the Dutch word for rabbit is “konijn”. (3) The areas was once inhabited by the Konoh, or Bear, tribe. Records from all these times are spotty or non-existent so we may never know exactly how Coney Island got its name.
- NYC has 8 public beaches, a total of 14 miles.
- NYC’s waters are inhabited by an abundance of wildlife includes dolphins, porpoises, seals, and 6 species of whales. Organizations such as Gotham Whale offer boat trips into New York Bay and Hudson Canyon.
- NYC was once the oyster capital of the world. Unfortunately they were harvested to near extinction. Now projects such as Billion Oyster Project are repopulating our waters with oysters.
If you get the chance, whether you’re a local New Yorker or visiting, I highly encourage a trip to Coney Island, a unique NYC experience. All photos below taken by me.
