Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, NY. Located on western Long Island and an independent distinct city until its consolidation into New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents. Southern Brooklyn was once the premier resort destination for New York City NY. Coney Island developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s, when wealthy New Yorkers would bet on horses at the Gravesend or Sheepshead Bay Race Track and dined at high-class restaurants and seaside hotels. The introduction of the subway made Coney Island a vacation destination for the masses, and it evolved into one of America's first amusement grounds. Coney Island went into decline in the 1970s, but is undergoing a renaissance. The annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade is a hipster costume-and-float parade which honored David Byrne, pre-punk music guru, as the head merman in 1998. Coney Island also hosts the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.