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Despite bad publicity connected to the city's beach waste crisis, the news from the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce was that business has been good.
Unlike nearby Brighton Beach, where beachfront businesses depend on beachgoers, disappointed swimmers at Coney Island have a myriad of rides, games and street food to choose from even if the water is off limits.
"The biggest difference is the people used to wait until leaving the beach to come to the arcades and rides," said Matthew Kennedy, the chamber's executive director. "Now they're coming in around three or four in the afternoon, so we're actually doing quite well."
Amusement park owners at a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting, held at the 81-year-old Gargiulo's restaurant on West 15th Street, agreed.
"It's been the best summer," Denos Vourderis, owner of Denos Wonder Wheel Park, said at the meeting.
But because this is Coney Island - where feuds and arguing are as endemic as the joyful screams that emanate from...