Save Coney Island Protest Rocks City Hall

The Save Coney Island protest arrived on the steps of City Hall this afternoon with costumes, music, speeches and an awful lot of cameras. "Coney Island is more than an amusment park," said author Charles Denson, who noted that he had originally favored developer Joe Sitt's redevelopment plan, but said he'd turned against it as he found that leaned heavily on condos in the amusement zone. "Thor is trying to undermine" the plan for Coney Island that calls for an amusement district running from Keyspan Park to the New York Aquarium. He attacked the proposals to build what he terms "a 40-story monstrosity" and to rezone for housing. "There is no such thing as one condo," he said. "As soon a it's rezoned, they will sprout like mushrooms."

Other speakers called on preserving Coney Island as a "resort of the poor and the working-class."

A seven-year-old speaker said, "When I was two years old my father used to take me there. It means so much to me. I don't want to lose it."

We will have more on the protest and remarks tomorrow. For now, a few photos.