The cost of the New York Wheel project on Staten Island is nearing $600 million, more than $300 million over its original estimate.
The opening of the 630-foot Ferris wheel on the St. George waterfront, initially slated for early next year, is now scheduled for 2018.
Problems getting funding for what is expected to be the world’s tallest Ferris wheel and a major tourist attraction contributed to the delays, said a source familiar with the project.
18 comments:
The next Sandy superstorm would easily wipe that dilly Ferris wheel off the map. What were city planners thinking??
I'm really going to travel ALL THE WAY to Staten island just so I can use a ferris wheel. I won't even go on this thing while living in queens, let alone if I was a tourist. Tourists usually do the usual tourist things, see a Broadway play, go to central park, look in our museums, see the statue of liberty. ....not take a ferry ALL the way to Staten island to just ride a ferris wheel. The tourists who come here probably have nicer ferris wheels in their own home states anyway which doesnt cost a trillion dollars to ride on (which we all know this one will cost)
Is that still a shitty part of the island?
A Bloomberg era boondoggle that should have been killed, its money absorbed back into the capital budget, and repurposed. How much desperately needed infrastructure and housing could have been built for $600 million?
Hmmm....somebody is spinning their wheels in the mud at taxpayers' expense.
Cede Staten Island over to New Jersey and be done with it.
Four worthy boroughs is better than including a fifth throwback.
And Congresswoman wants to bring pandas to NY....yeah right. Get your priorities straight lady.
Sounds like the Wollman Rink.
Best view of the World's largest garbage dump...
'Eric Kaufman, who co-founded the Ferris-wheel project, had contended that the effort lacked a coherent business plan and that there were “cost overruns without explanation."'... Isn't that true of every project the City gets involved in?
Certain people, especially people responsible for money that doesn't belong to them, will never learn.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/fe/19/0d/fe190dbdcdd46590792878f327b11ed5.jpg
This would make sense in Great Adventure. Not in a local park. But it goes with the former fun size mayor's, as continued unabated by Mayor Big Slow, to turn the 5 boroughs into a theme park, literally with rides.
I'm not from St. George, but did that park ever threw carnies or fairs, events that would have ferris wheels of their own?
Can someone explain what the EDC is and does? This wheel is paid for by the taxpayer? A government owned ferris wheel? Why? When was I, a taxpayer, asked if I wanted to pay for this with my taxes?
Exactly what was missing from Staten Island. NOT!
“cost overruns without explanation."
Just imagine going to your boss in the private sector with that analysis.
This was such a huge failure in London, who the fuck thought it would work here?
I never even heard of this before. This is actually coming out of City tax dollars?
This is a completely idiotic project. This will NOT be anything like the London Eye, with its commanding views of Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Central London. The Staten Island wheel is too far away from downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty. The best views will be the container port terminal and oil tank farms of Bayonne. You'll be able to see the Verrazano Bridge on a clear day - whoop-de-doo. It might have made sense to build this thing on Governors Island. Nobody is going to go to Staten Island and pay lotsa money to look at some oil tanks and a bridge.
They should call it the "Let's Gentrify Staten Island Wheel"
Patrons will be able to rent binoculars so they can see Manhattan from the Wheel. Ka-ching.
The money could have been used for restoring the North Shore Line, abandoned since 1953. But a wheel developer had friends in City Hall.
Who the hell wants to pay $$ to go up and look at the shores of Staten Island & Brooklyn of 2018 ? You wont be able to board or even hold any decent power binoculars steady enough to see Manhattan.
The view of Manhattan from Verrazano bridge sucks you can hardly make out the Statue of Liberty. The developer is gonna go bankrupt
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