Score One for the Boardwalk? Coney Island Development Corporation Names Dick Zigun to Board

More signs of life at the Coney Island Development Corporation, which has announced that Dick Zigun, the founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow and Artistic Director of Coney Island USA, is joining the group's Board of Directors. It's significant in that Zigun is both the unofficial "Mayor of Coney Island" and the first person associated with the boardwalk amusement area to join the CIDC Board. There has been some sentiment in the past that the CIDC, which is overseeing the redevelopment of Coney Island, is not fully open to leaving the area south of Surf Avenue as a zone that is reserved largely for amusements.

Zigun--who holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama--began the Coney Island Circus Sideshow in 1983. Zigun and Coney Island USA produce the Mermaid Parade (which takes place this Saturday, 6/24) and host the Coney Island Film Festival.

Zigun says he intends to serve as a "voice of the arts and the amusement industry on the CIDC Board."