They want Coney Island’s next big attraction to be The Full Monty.
The American Association for Nude Recreation says “The People’s Playground” is one of the top places in America that they’d like to see offer a designated nude beach.
“Coney Island would be great because it’s so easy to get to by mass transit, and it would certainly attract more Europeans and out-of-state tourists to New York, because they would finally have a convenient place to sunbathe nude,” said the nudie group’s spokesman, Tom Mulhall.
But city officials say they have no desire to attract tourists seeking “nakations” or making nude sunbathing part of its ongoing revitalization plans for Coney Island.
The closest nude beaches to the city are long drives away in Sandy Hook, NJ, and at Fire Island, LI.
However, ladies seeking to expose their breasts at city beaches are legally allowed to do so.
The state courts have ruled that women can go topless in public, just as men can, provided it’s not for any commercial enterprise.
Mulhall, who operates a nudist spa in Palm Springs, Calif., said that he believes a nude sunbathing area would work perfectly well “slightly away” from Coney Island’s amusement district.
Coney Island historian Charles Denson said that nude sunbathers swarmed to the Brooklyn seaside as late as the 1970s, although sections were separated by gender.
“There were bathhouses that had nude sunbathing decks where you could let it all hang out,” he said. “You couldn’t see it from the boardwalk, but you could see it from the rides, and that became an added attraction.”
He said the best location for bringing back nude sunbathing is an isolated area near West 37th Street, adding, “It might become quite an attraction.”
Beachgoers yesterday were split on whether exposed buns in Coney Island should extend beyond Nathan’s.
“People should be able to do what they want to do, but I don’t know if I’d pick Coney Island to do that,” said Lauren Irizarry, 29, a bartender from Bensonhurst.
“There are a lot of creeps around the beach.”
But Simone Bazus, a 23-year-old Harlem writer, said she’s ready to take it all off in Coney Island.
“It’s a good idea,” she said. “It would break the beach up, because it gets so crowded here. It sounds entertaining, and I’d go there.”