The American Association for Nude Recreation is lobbying for the creation of a nude beach near Coney Island, but the city of New York - home to Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Wiener and (at least for now) Dominique Strauss Kahn - isn't quite ready to drop trow.
The AANR, which is run out of a (wait for it) strip mall in Kissimmee, Florida, (Call 1-800-TRY-NUDE!) lobbies on behalf of what it describes as the $400 million global nude recreation industry. According to the AANR, there are 270 clothes-free resorts in the US - those are hotels and RV parks, not beaches. (Click here to find out what the best nude beaches are in the world.)
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.
