AstroTower’s Swaying Above Raises Doubts on Holiday Business Below

Jabin Botsford/The New York Times Concerns about the stability of the AstroTower kept other Coney Island attractions closed on Wednesday.

Nostalgia often comes in the form of a memory - real, faded or invented from lore.

On Coney Island, however, the past is ever-present. Whether it is the rumble of the Cyclone, the smell of Nathan’s hot dogs or the sight of Deno’s Wonder Wheel, for all that has changed, there are reminders of other storied periods there.

On Tuesday evening, one of those relics, the hulking 270-foot-high AstroTower, long dormant as a ride, managed to offer a bit of an unintended thrill as it swayedominously above the Boardwalk.

Nearby rides were closed as building inspectors worked to see if the structure was sound.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, much of Luna Park, including where the AstroTower and the Cyclone are, remained closed, as were the Wonder Wheel and the shops along the Boardwalk from West 10th Street to West 12th Street.

Officials from the New York City Buildings Department said that area of the park would remain closed Wednesday night but they were hopeful that it and surrounding buildings and attractions could reopen in time for Fourth of July festivities. A final decision will probably not be made until Thursday morning, they said.

The tower has been observed swaying up to 18 inches, officials said, adding that construction work to remove elevator equipment had been going on at the tower and may have contributed to the increased swaying.

“If anyone’s ever been in Coney Island, we all know that it moves,” said Robert LiMandri, the city’s b! uildings commissioner. “However, if you’ve been in Coney Island for a very long time, you know it’s moving more than normal.”

For hundreds of business owners, ride operators and merchants who rushed to be ready for the summer crush after suffering damage from Hurricane Sandy, there was concern that having the shops and rides closed on the holiday would be a tough blow.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought to reassure them that the city was doing all it could to resolve the situation.

“We want to make sure that Coney’s open to everybody, but safety is, obviously, everybody’s first priority,” he said on Wednesday at City Hall, where he was weighing in contestants for Nathan’s annual hot dog eating contest, which brings thousands of people to the Boardwalk each July 4.

Longtime Coney Island hands said spotting a little movement in the tower on windy days was not unusual, but city officials were taking no chances.

Many people went to Coney Island on Wednesday hoping o be whipped about on the Cyclone, only to be left staring up at the rusting tower that spoiled the fun.

Neil Furman, 77, and Judy Furman, 74, from Forest Hills, Queens, took their grandson, Luke Furman, 11, to the Boardwalk and were surprised to see police tape blocking the rides.

Told what was happening, they looked up at the AstroTower.

“Am I crazy or do I see it swaying?” Ms. Furman asked.

“I think it’s just the clouds moving,” Luke replied.

Coney Island has long marched to its own offbeat, sometimes freaky drummer. But this year, it is a place like so many others along the New York and New Jersey shoreline, hoping to make up for lost time and business after the fall hurricane.

Dennis Vourderis, whose family has run Deno’s Amusement Park for decades, said that they incurred $500,000 in uninsured damage from the storm.

Normally, the off-season is a time to relax, Mr. Vourderis said, but not this year. The last six months have been a sprint to g! et ready.!

“This summer is a special one,” he said. “Everyone is enthusiastic about making money and repaying bills.”

Deno’s Wonder Wheel, which he runs, did not spin on Wednesday, but he was confident that it would be running again soon.

The shutdown came just as people were starting to feel they had turned a corner in their recovery efforts. The Vourderis family has worked along the Boardwalk since starting as food merchants in 1966. The sound of screaming - the good, excited kind - has been a part of Dennis Vourderis’s Fourth for as long as he can remember, and he expects nothing less this year.

“Coney Island has never looked better,” he said.

Dick D. Zigun, the “unofficial mayor” of Coney Island and founder of Coney Island USA, an advocacy group, said “people thinking they are going to come to Coney Island and be heartbroken by seeing destruction are mistaken.”

From the new light display on the parachute jump to the restored B&B Carousell, he said, Cone Island is larger and more vibrant than it has been in years.

“There is more old Coney Island in the new Coney Island than people realize,” Mr. Zigun said.

The golden age of Coney Island is often thought of as taking place at the turn of the last century, when three amusement parks were operating along the Boardwalk. After the last of those parks - Steeplechase - closed in the 1960s, Astroland filled the void, opening in 1962. For years, even during the period of heightened crime and sagging family attendance, it managed to hold on.

Astroland’s AstroTower ride provided a stunning perch to take in the whole sweep of the Brooklyn shoreline.

After the tower was abandoned as an attraction five years ago, it was kept standing as a visible connection with the past.

In recent years, a plan emerged to install a light display similar to the one on the parachute jump, although the AstroTower’s stability has now cast that in doubt.