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At a press conference in June, Mayor Bloomberg, seen here with artist Olafur Eliasson, predicted the exhibition would result in $55 million in additional revenue for the city.
As crews begin dismantling Olafur Eliasson's four arboricidal waterfall scaffolds, the mayor's office has released a report asserting that the economic impact of the installation was better than expected. When the waterfalls were turned on back in June, Bloomberg predicted the city would see some $55 million in revenue from the exhibition. A study commissioned by the city’s Economic Development Corporation says that the NYC Waterfalls generated an estimated $69 million for the city. According to City Room, that figure breaks down like so:
- $15.5 million in direct spending on the exhibition’s total presentation, including building materials, construction, operation, disassembly and promotional and educational materials.
- An estimated $26.3 million in incremental spending by the 1.4 million visitors to the show.
- An estimated $26.8 million in “indirect spending from these expenditures.”
At a press conference today, Bloomberg told reporters, "We always knew the waterfalls [exhibition] was going to reinvigorate our city's waterfront—but its actual impact has exceeded our expectations. 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." A company called Audience Research & Analysis conducted visitor counts and surveys throughout the summer and determined that 1.4 million people visited. 79,200 of them were visitors to the city who, were it not for the waterfalls, would not have visited or extended their visit.
Of course, there are skeptics. Carol O’Cleireacain, a former New York City budget director and expert on urban economics, tells the Times, "As in many economic models, it all depends on the assumptions you make. If you make generous assumptions, you’ll come up with generous results."
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surpassed expectations in killing nearby trees! yahoo!!
Does this mayor think of *everything* in terms of money? Jeeez.
those waterfalls got me to go to the south street seaport, and i hate that fucking place.
still do.
I happened to see them in my travels, but didn't make any special trips to just see them.
If you want to reinvigorate the city's waterfront try spending $15 million on parks or port infrastructure improvements - stuff that lasts!
I want to know where they get these numbers, especially the percentage of tourists who came to NYC only because the Waterfalls were here.
It's laughable that they included the $15.5 million that the falls cost. They could have just handed that money directly to City Hall instead. Eliasson has a lot of gall showing his face again. Should have just imploded the damn things. That would have brought even more tourists, right?
Just think if we had given a grant to
a New York artist how much more we would
have had in tax revenue from that artist.
Let's hire our own ,next time.
It amazes me that the city gave the amount of press that it did to this project when there are many others that are a lot more interesting and a lot less of an environmental waste than this project (I still can't believe that the mayor gave it a green award). The only time that these falls looked good was at night and they kept shutting them down early because of the problems with the trees. It was an interesting idea but a very poorly executed one.
Bloomberg and Olafur, 2 assholes NYC doesn't need.
Assumptions like all the cars that crossed the Brooklyn Bridge were doing it to see the falls. Assumptions like all the passengers on the QE2 came to see the falls. Assumptions like all the riders on the Ikea ferry were actually going to see the falls... etc. etc.
He makes me ill. What a bore. Thanks for helping to drive the artists out Mike.
I call bullshit on this one. Sounds like he is covering his dumb ass.
Bloomberg has no ethics. Damn, get out Bloomberg. What a bull shiter
When Barclays officers flew into New York to take posession of Lehman Bros., what they were really coming for were the waterfalls.
Expectation was that the waterfalls would not harm any trees. And of course mention of the whole mess in Gothamist generated just over $16.36 in revenues for the city. In that sense it did surpass expectation.
Actually, how many people provably came to see these waterfalls? A couple of dozen?
total bs
What waterfalls?