A grifter's paradise

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Coney Island was a con man's dream: The water, the women, and the freedom to play the three-card monte openly, without hassle, on the beach. Just beautiful. Eventually, like everywhere else, these grifters were no longer welcome there. Today you have to go down to Canal Street to see them taking down suckers with the same game, now always on the ready to run.

For any place that's been around for over a hundred years, Coney Island has done its share of changing. The video link below, found on Kinetic Carnival, a Coney Island blog, does a good job of questioning how much a place can change before it's really not there anymore.

Click to watch "Endangered Coney Island."