Due to webmaster’s error, yesterday’s post did not make it up until about 9pm Eastern, so please check it out if you missed it. This is Bowery Street, which is really more of an alley. If you look closely, you can notice several details that I featured in individual images.

Bowery was named for the more famous street in Manhattan. It began as a alleyway/plank street created by a developer who wanted people to have a shortcut to reach his establishment, the Surf Theater. Other businesses soon grew up along its six block length. Today it is largely vacant, and this single block is probably the only active stretch.

Many people blame greedy developers for Coney Island’s current state, but we need to ask ourselves what has changed in the last century. 100 years ago developers built Bowery Street out of nothing.  What prevents them from doing so today? Why have they bought up so many lots and buildings only to leave them unimproved? I certainly have my theories, but this is a photo blog, not a blog about politics or land use, so I’ll spare you. But it is not just one simple thing, and it is certainly not just greed.