In RPA’s earliest days, Coney Island and beaches like it were seen as endangered places, threatened not by development or the herds of people shown in the photo above from RPA’s First Regional Plan published in 1929, but by water pollution.

“One of the greatest problems in the metropolitan area is that of removing or lessening the pollution of the water areas. This applies both to the tidal waters and the inland rivers. Until this is done the recreational value of the waters and waterfronts cannot be obtained.” (RPA, First Regional Plan, p.391, 1929)