March 22, 2008 / GO Brooklyn / Bay Ridge

Coney Isle’s roller girl

Bailey Photography

By Adam Rathe

The Brooklyn Paper

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Wheels — whether a bike, a car or the Wonder Wheel — have always made a trip to Coney Island a bit more exciting. And beginning on March 22, that tradition will get even stronger when Lola Staar’s Dreamland Roller Rink, a retro rink sponsored by Glamour magazine and Tommy Hilfiger, opens.

“My dream was to take a vacant lot in Coney Island and transform it into a roller rink,” said Dianna Carlin. “I created the Save Coney Island organization to save the spirit of Coney Island, and [the rink] will do that and bring something positive to the community.”

Carlin, who adopted the Lola Staar moniker — a nickname from her youth — when she began her fashion design business, has had a lifelong passion for roller-skating.

“I used to roller skate around my parents’ basement when I was 7 years old,” the Ditmas Park resident said, “and that’s the environment that I want to create, to bring people into this other world, where their dreams will come true.”

On Saturday, the rink will open with live music, a performance from the Gotham Girls Roller Derby, an appearance by Edward R. Murrow HS grad Marisa Tomei and, according to Carlin, “all of the Coney Island characters.”

“You are transported into another world,” said Carlin, “and that is what Coney Island is all about.”

©2008 Community Newspaper Group