Last October, MAS launched ImagineConey, an initiative to develop bold new ideas for the future of Coney Island. Since then, more than 500 New Yorkers and an international team of experts have contributed their ideas through a “charrette” (an intense design workshop), two public workshops and a website, ImagineConey.

In January 2009, an exhibit displaying all of these ideas will open at the Municipal Art Society, and the deadline for submission of ideas has recently been extended from December 15, 2008, until January 15, 2009. So, if you have an idea for the future of Coney Island you want to submit for inclusion in the exhibit, please visit ImagineConey.com and upload it before the deadline.

Over 200 ideas have been submitted thus far and can be viewed in the gallery at ImagineConey.com. The ideas fall into eight categories: general principles, planning concepts, programming ideas, new structures, rides, art and culture suggestions, sustainability and energy concepts, and ideas for new events. The following are some of the ideas submitted and the first in a series of posts that will describe the ImagineConey submissions.

• Make Coney Island a showcase for innovative ideas for sustainable transit, including transit-oriented businesses such as bike & skate rentals, rickshaws, golf carts, red caps, etc.
• Create a Sushi Skate Park. Build an expansive skate park with a takeout sushi restaurant that caters to skaters, onlookers and pedestrians.
• Build a science and technology research center and museum that would research tidal energy, flooding, and climate change.
• Build a zipline that would facilitate travel between the eastern and western part of Coney that started on a gigantic artificially-made sand dune.
• Create a Giant Lollipop Art Installation to express Coney’s unique culture with public art.
• Hold an annual pumpkin chucking contest. Awards would be given to longest distance and possibly best splatter.

If you haven’t yet, let your creativity run free and submit your ideas imaged for Coney now at http://imagineconey.com and click on “submit idea” button.