Relive 1980s Coney Island Through These Tax Photos

The 1980s weren’t a pretty time for Coney Island. Both the residential and amusement portions of the neighborhood were wracked with poverty and property disinvestment. Indeed, the People’s Playground became scarier for its crime rates and abandoned buildings than for its horror attractions.

Looking back now, though, photos of Coney Island in the 1980s make it clear just how far Coney and Brooklyn have come in the past three decades.

See for yourself.

(Recommended listening while you enjoy the pictures: Lou Reed’s “Coney Island Baby” or Joe Walsh’s “In The City“, from The Warriors soundtrack.)