Coney Island may be New York City’s playground, but it’s also a community of more than 50,000 full-time residents. In 2009, the city passed a comprehensive rezoning plan for Coney Island that hopes to turn the area into a “year round, 27-acre urban amusement and entertainment district.”

Rezoning Area Boundary. Photo by NYC.gov

But what about what’s already there? Few visitors take the time stroll down Mermaid Avenue, a streets that’s lined with community-oriented organizations such as Astella, Amethyst Women’s Project and Urban Neighborhood Services–all located within the rezoning district.

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism alumn Uche Abanobi looked at the people beyond the boardwalk in this piece for Brooklyn Independent Television, and spoke with the creators of the new Coney Island documentary, City Story: Voices Beyond the Boardwalk.

What would you like to see stay or go as Coney Island reimagines its future?