Such talk was about a Coney Island of the Mind that did not match the reality of a shrunken and forlorn stretch of boardwalk concession stands and down-at-the-heels amusement rides.

The study showed that crowds have spread west from the square's center to the once forlorn stretch of Eighth Avenue between 44th Street and 50th Street.

A rezoning plan approved last month will allow much of this forlorn stretch to be remade by waterfront high-rises.

They provide a visual anchor and a sense of protection for what would otherwise be a somewhat forlorn stretch of windswept pavement.

Once these approvals have been obtained, development can move forward in what remains a largely forlorn stretch of 19th-century industrial buildings and crumbling warehouses.

For decades, the Harlem River Rail Yard has been abandoned, a forlorn stretch of rickety tracks in Port Morris that once teemed with freight cars transporting coal, lumber and other cargo.

"No Junk Fusion," proclaims a sign at the weedy curbside of a forlorn stretch of Route 23 in Little Falls.

When people driving through this forlorn stretch of Main Street come upon the great glass menorah windows on two sides of this huge new concrete and steel building, they stop in their tracks.

At the end of the month, Mr. McDonald, 51, will permanently close his gallery, which he opened seven years ago on a forlorn (now fashionable) stretch of Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district.

It is a predominantly African-American community, a neighborhood of aging, brick, single-family houses and apartment buildings on a forlorn stretch of land just a 15-minute drive west of downtown.