Astroland reluctantly prepares for its last season

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Workers at Coney Island's Astroland did over the weekend what they do every spring: clean up the ticket booths and prepare the rides for the April 1 opening. This year was different in that the opening will be the last of the annual rituals at Coney Island's only remaining true amusement park. A developer, Thor Equities, founded by Joseph Sitt, intends to shut it down in the fall to make room for a total overhaul of the area. The owner of Astroland, Carol Hill Albert, who also owns the Cyclone roller coaster, sold the site to Thor in the fall for $30 million, property records indicate, a deal she said she was reluctant to make. "I couldn't risk going out of business," she said, contending that years of anticipated construction on Thor's property presented a large obstacle.

Read more from The NY Sun.