W 16 - W 23 Sts (Coney Island)

For all the long walks from East New York back toward Prospect Park, summer time means the beach and Coney Island. There are plenty of streets closer to home that I needed to walk, and what better time to walk in Coney Island than early on a summer morning (before it gets too hot!)?

There are times when I take photos of street signs, particularly with short one-block side streets, so I can sort out the photos. This is one of those times when I wished I'd done that. The first few photos are so generic, I can't place them. And worse, because of all the construction, the pictures don't match up with Google Maps street view either. However, I do remember which way I went.

I started off walking west on Mermaid Ave and taking a left down W 17 Street. There was plenty of construction. I remember wanting to get a picture of the stadium and the Parachute Jump in the distance but I was in the way of vehicles that needed to move around.

Handing a right on Surf Ave and then back up W 19 Street. Where is West 18 Street? I don't know. There isn't any room on the map for it to have ever been there. The city planners just skipped it. A quick check of the Internet shows that the streets were continued south from the other side of Coney Island Creek, but the streets north of the creek that ran at an angle, instead of north-south, weren't continued. You'd have to find old maps of Brooklyn to see this because everything between W17 and W22 Streets were destroyed to make the space that houses the Home Depot. (A lot of Bay streets were eliminated as well.)

And that's today's history lesson. Moving on.

West 20 Street had a surprise for me. I crossed Surf Ave and kept going, not realizing that this portion of the street was not on my map from six years ago. Apparently, the street was extended along the side of the stadium parking lot. Another surprise occurred just before I got to the corner. There was a fence across the sidewalk which pretty much told me not to go any farther. I couldn't walk to the corner, which was ANOTHER STREET THAT ISN'T ON MY MAP. In fact, I just checked Google Maps to double check the name of that street, and IT STILL ISN'T ON THE MAP!

So I backtracked, and walked over to West 21 Street, which was the original plan. A lot of construction, no surprise, and the reason that the other street was closed. I took a picture of that new street, which is closed off, probably for safety reasons, and then walked down to the Boardwalk. Silly me, it didn't occur to me that the theater would be two blocks wide and I'd end up on West 23rd intsead of West 22nd. I walked through some of the park before continuing.

I followed West 23rd Street all the way past Neptune Ave to Coney Island Creek. There was no path available, so I had to take Neptune Ave to West 22nd Street and made my way again to the creek before doing an about-face and heading back to the amphitheater.

I took that new street, which once again, is NOT on Google maps, and walked up West 21 Street back to Neptune Ave where I head east back to a block of W16 Street that I'd missed before.

And that's it for this trip. Come back soon. I'm almost up to AUGUST! I hope to get there before November!

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