It’s been just about forever since anyone built anything new in Coney Island (this doesn’t count), so little wonder everyone seemed so excited today to attend a press conference announcing actual new stuff this summer:

In what’s becoming a bit of a Coney Island tradition, City Hall officials shlepped out to Brooklyn in a slushstorm today to make the long-rumored announcement that the Italian firm Zamperla has been tapped to open a new amusement park in Coney to replace the dearly departed Astroland. Actually, two new amusement parks: Luna Park (named in part to honor the classic Coney park that burned down in 1946, in part because that’s what they’re all called in Italy) will open on the old Astroland site this summer, and the less-historically-monikered “Scream Zone” will follow in 2011.[read more]