Off Season

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Coney Island has only ever existed in one of two discrete states-as either the rococo, wedding-cake parks of the Steeplechase, Dreamland and Luna Park, or the more recent quasi-sleaze of the Sideshow and Shoot the Freak. But from just the right vantage point, when the sun is low and the light rakes the structures, if you squint your eyes and let the shadows swallow the razor wire and chain-link fences, it's still possible to see the silhouette of some earlier transitional state, all circles and curves and sweeping roller-coaster lines. If not exactly Dreamland, perhaps you can glimpse some phantom Coney Island that flashed in and out of existence in the wink of an eye.