The New York City Economy Tracker is a joint project between Investopedia and , usin▨g publicly available data to evaluate the economic health of the city across a variety of metrics.

For the week of July 24, 2023, we’re looking at subway travel to New York City's summer hot spots such as Coney Island, Rockaway Beach, and baseball games compared to last summer.

New Yorkers Skip Rockaway for Coney I𒀰sland and Baseball Games

It may be a hot, humid summer in NYC, but according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, travel to Rockaway Beach is down this season. Subway ridership to the Rockaway Beach stations on the A train is still down by almost 6% from June 12th to July 10th of 2023 compared to the same time period in 2022. Vehicle travel over the Marine Parkway and Cross Bay Veterans Memorial to get over Jamaica Bay to the Rockaways is also down 5.4% over the same time period.

Where are New🐻 Yorkers going instead? Transit data suggest they’re spending time going to Coney Islan🐻d and baseball games.

While Rockaway Beach may be seeing less subway traffic this summer, visits to the Coney Island station are up by 5.7%♏ from June 12th to July 10th of this year, compared to 2022. 

Increased Attendance at Mets and Yankees Games

It looks like NYC may have swapped beach balls for baseballs this summer. MTA subway usage data shows entrances and exits at the stations th🌠at serve both Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Citi Field in Queens are up a combined 12.5% from June 12th to July 10th of 2023 compared to the same time last year.

According to data from Baseball Reference, average per-game attendance at Yankee Stadium is up from 37,28💖1 in 2022 to 40,489 in 2023—an 8.6% increase for games through July 23rd in this season. The Mets’ Citi Field has seen an even greater increase in attendance from last season to this season, a 12.2% increase from 29,844 to 33,499.

Although beach travel is still lower this year, substantial increases in traffic and attendance✃ to Coney Island and baseball games point to the 🍃potential for general growth in leisure activity and spending in the city throughout the typically busy summer season.