Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Carousel operator not keen on landmarking

From DNA Info:

The historic Forest Park Carousel, which reopened last May after years of neglect, may become a city landmark, although the current operator is worried that the designation might interfere with his ability to maintain it.

The attraction, which is more than 100 years old, has been in the park since the 1970s. After a five-year hiatus for repairs, the ride reopened last summer.

The hand-carved carousel, with its 36 jumping horses and 13 standing horses, has been drawing many families since the new operator, NY Carousel, took over last summer.

The company, which also operates the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park carousel, signed a 15-year lease with the city to operate the ride and plans to add more attractions to the area, Abramson said.
Ami Abramson, director of NY Carousel, said the attraction has been a big success and last year it sold about 30,000 rides.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember going to the Forest Park carousel with my sisters and dad when I was about 6 or 7, which was in 1958 and 1959.

Anonymous said...

Once again Queens looks like its filled with out of touch nitwits to the outside world.

Of course community preservation efforts are very selective in this city.

Note how HDC is making a complete inventory of historic buildings in midtown .... while all but ignoring Queens outside of a few token words for a community here and there - just enough to put in a grant that they serve all the boroughs.

Anonymous said...

Great , The operator is an idiot.
He knows he will not be able to manipulate the structure and change it,s integrity .
Landmark status would protect it from being butcher.
Greed will win and Queens will look foolish.
His only concern is about his profit and has no concern about the future of the carousel .

Anonymous said...

Nobody (but the noble among us) ever wants to do the work req'd. to landmark. Ugly people without the balls to do the right thing. the thing that will preserve beauty for all time. Cowards.

Anonymous said...

If the carousel is such a success as the article says, you would think that the operators would show some enthusiasm to have it landmarked. Wouldn't being a landmarked structure help the carousel draw even more people?

Anonymous said...

It's time to get real people.

Put in a replica
and move those priceless Muller steeds to a folk museum.

The day to day wear and tear on those hand carved wooden animals will undue any landmark effort to preserve them.

I wouldn't want to be burdened with the overpriced cost of maintaining a landmark for the benefit of neighborhood brats taking a ride.

Let them mount fiberglass reproductions instead.

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