York City – Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the public artwork by Olafur Eliasson that put four waterfalls in the East River and New York Harbor brought in an estimated $69 million for New York City, exceeding initial expectations of $55 million. The work drew 1.4 million visitors from June 26 to Oct. 13 to view the installation off Manhattan’s East Side.
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“People didn’t buy tickets or pass through a turnstile to experience the `Waterfalls,’ but this exhibition brought people to areas of the city they might not otherwise ever have visited,” the mayor said in a statement. “We’ve always understood that we have to encourage big, bold projects that set our city apart, and this will be increasingly important while areas of our economy are struggling from the turmoil on Wall Street.”
The project was not without its problems. It generated complaints from some neighborhood groups and businesses that said salty mist from the manmade cataracts was damaging waterfront plantings along Brooklyn Heights’ popular promenade. In response, the Public Art Fund in September cut the exhibit’s weekly hours in half.
Ranging from 90 to 120 feet tall, the waterfalls together spurted about 35,000 gallons of water per minute.
The project was the city’s largest public art endeavor since 2005, when artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, festooned 23 miles of Central Park’s footpaths with thousands of saffron drapes hung from specially designed frames.
More than 5 million people saw “The Gates,” including about 1.5 million out-of-town visitors. That installation was credited with injecting about $254 million into the local economy.
bologny, this is all lies just to cover up for the stupidity of the government
I don’t know what’s more ridiculous – those stupid “waterfalls” or the claim that 1.4 million fools spent $55M to see them
what a looser mike move on
part of his mayoral run
mayor mike bloomberg is the master of distraction – the waterfalls didnt bring in any new tourists and most didnt come to look at them unless they already were in a place where they were visible. but the city is making up numbers on this and everything else; crime is up and everyone knows it but commissioner kelly keeps telling people it is down – if you repeat a lie enough times you begin to belive it yourself.
this is such barbra streisand’s initials. there is NOT A CHANCE IN HECK that anyone would purposely go to look at that junk.
And how about about the millions of dollars to taxpayers that had to foot the bills of idiots slamming on the brakes to take pictures while driving and causing rear end accidents? How about the few hundred people that ended up in a hospital because of these dumb water falls?
You want to see a real waterfall then drive to niagra.
I would like to know how many of these 1.5 million people felt duped after looking at this piece of junk. I personaly thought I would se some type of miniture Niagra Falls. After seeing this “art” i can’t belive anyone came back for seconds. Poor me has to look at it every day on the BQE and again on the FDR.
To annanimus #6 , Mike will tel you that people spending on hospital bills and car collitions, is also a good help for the oconamy
Thanks for stopping the waterfall..Now the PIGEONS can rest on those beautiful steel structured and SIMCH FELDER will not have to worry about Brooklyn people feeding the PIGEONS….Go Simche..Maybe in your third term with Bloomberg you will get those Pigeons to sit on those Beams…
How on earth was this estimate obtained? And if people were just going from one part of the city to another, then how did it help the city’s economy?
of course its another example of them cooking the books to push their agenda down the throats of us downbeat citizens!!!!! they had no clue what our financial institutions were doing behind our backs, and they can extrapulate what people spent while looking at what “attraction”???
and they want us to believe that people comming from outside NY where there are “real- natural” waterfalls to see some leaking scaffolds?!?!?!
im also wondering if the 69 mill. excludes the 5 million a piece it cost the city to obtain these “artistic” gems????
but now when Bloomberg sees the city coffers dwindling, he’ll raise property taxes, water rates, ticket rates, and warn that he’ll have to cut services like police and sanitation, all cause he wanted to pander to the art community, on our wallet!!!!!!!!!!
what a dictator!!!!!