Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Sandy won't slow down big wheel

From the NY Post:

While New York City grapples with rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy, developers are pressing ahead with plans to build the world's largest Ferris wheel on the shoreline of storm-torn Staten Island.

Sandy's flooding spurred some changes to the nearly $500 million project, which includes an outlet mall and hotel. But developers haven't slowed it or scaled it back.

Supporters say Staten Island needs the boost now more than ever.

Some residents have asked whether it makes sense to push ahead with a tourist attraction, set partly in a flood zone, before officials take a comprehensive look at how to build smarter after Sandy.

Wheel developer Richard Marin says the project stands to provide a one-of-a-kind boon that Staten Island "would have no other way of getting right now."


I know a few folks from Staten Island. Not once have I heard any of them say that what their borough really needs is the world's largest Ferris wheel on the waterfront.

The Washington Post has more.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Foolishness! If it's in a flood zone they must be made aware of it in a public hearing in which the caveat to the developer is no assistance or City $$ help in building it or recovery from damage in the event of a flooding disaster. Clearly they would be proving their own private insurance coverage for that purpose.

Anonymous said...

There was a HUGE ferris wheel once located in Clason Point (Ferry Point Park).

It was blown down by a fierce wind (I believe in the 1920s). Many people were killed.



Jerry Rotondi said...

It's nice to know, that in our rapidly changing times, we can depend upon the stability of poor prioritizing and corruption in New York City!

The wheel of fortune (for land grabbers and crooked pols) keeps on spinning:

"Round and round she goes--and where it stops-- nobody knows"!

Anonymous said...

What a waste.
It will be swept out to sea come the next Sandy.

Anonymous said...

You voted for em, and you will get what you "deserve" as a result of it.


ITS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, ALL POLITICIANS ARE CROOKS.

Anonymous said...

Greetings from SI! We hear this project will create jobs: yeah, right... ticket takers and retail clerks, jobs that once upon a time were suitable for high-school students. The construction? We have YET to see any, ANY Staten Island development performed by Staten Island-based firms. Our Ferry terminal ramps (which will be a waste of money if the Wheel Deal goes through), a federal stimulus project, is done by a NJ firm; likewise out new Courthouse and a library project...

The final plans will leave us with a roughly two-story high wall blocking our view of the waterfront - so, as usual, we are losing one of our few amenities so other people can get rich. We will get crap jobs at minimum wage - and if current trends prevail, they won't even be full-time. Crappy, I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is colonial extraction in the classic sense of the term.

Oh - my bad: they DID say they would build us a playground (snort.)

Anonymous said...

Sort of like Vallone taking the $3 million for the Steinway Mansion and using it for concrete (yo, Mario, ya seen me on ma bike?) to make a theater blocked by a diving board that features 90 degree seating and about 40 feet from the largest public pool in the city.

Our next boro president ladies and gents!

Joe said...

What a bunch of dopes !!
Who the hell is going to dive to Staten island, pay $$$ bridge and amusement fees to look at oil refinery's and a rotting ship graveyard ?

Clason Point isn't exactly Westminster, Big Ben & London bridge.
Perhaps this is a joke ??
Does anybody know 1 person to goes to vacation on Staten Island ?

Anonymous said...

Clason Point is in the Bronx, Joe, not SI.

Anonymous said...

Some of the locals will ride the wheel once. No one will consider this a "destination attraction" and it will fail and cost the taxpayers millions. Don't bother...