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July 6, 2009
Closing Bell: River Cafe Sues City Over Falls Project
Last year's public art project known as The Waterfalls was a huge success in terms of publicity and tourism but it didn't work out so well for the owner of one Brooklyn institution that had the misfortune to be located right next to one of the four installations by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. River Cafe owner Buzzt O'Keeffe is suing the city's Public Art Fund and Eliasson for $3 million in damages for the corrosive effect it says the spray from the falls under the Brooklyn Bridge had on the River Cafe restaurant and its surrounding gardens. The litany of problems cited by O'Keefe includes electrical problems, damaged aluminum and steel parts and destroyed plant life.
River Cafe Sues Over Alleged Waterfalls Damage [NY Post]
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Comments
Aren't the trees in fact owned by the city? The River Cafe is just a barge parked under the Brooklyn Bridge. The trees are part of city property.
Posted by: tomgee at July 6, 2009 4:27 PM
These ridiculous water features were meant to be viewed from Manhattan or from a boat or yacht on the East River. They turned their backs to Brooklyn, and to add injury to insult they produced salt mist that damged our gardens, our ironwork and our windows.
Many gardens, including mine, were adversely effected by the salt spray. Some plants didn't mind, but others just shrivelled up and at first I thought it was a bug or something bad in the fertilizer -but no, it was the Mayor's money-making artwork. The clueless artist should now, that in Brooklyn he is a class-A jerk.
I would love to see one of these exquisite works of public art re-erected near the mayor's house in Bermuda.
Posted by: Minard Lafever at July 6, 2009 4:28 PM
Useless, ugly, and damaging! These stupid waterfalls make the The Gates look good!
Posted by: IronMaiden at July 6, 2009 4:42 PM
Don't love the fact that it killed trees and plants, but you gotta love the ignorance of people who blame every single thing that goes wrong in this city on the Mayor. He's a mayor, not the the Wizard of Oz.
Yes, this was all Bloomberg's fault. And I'm also sure that it was the artists intention to kill trees and plants. He hates them, I heard. He also hates Brooklynites.
Posted by: 11217 at July 6, 2009 4:47 PM
I hope they get every penny they are asking for.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 6, 2009 4:47 PM
salt kills green spaces? hmm... very good to know >:p
hahhaha im totally kidding
*rob*
Posted by: PitbullNYC at July 6, 2009 5:01 PM
I hope the self-entitled asshats on the barge get what they deserve...
.
.
.
.
Nothing!
Why aren't they also blaming the Mayor personally for the slippery sidewalk after it rains, and the cold, wet snow in the winter "ruining" all the trees and the hot, scalding sun burning the tree's leaves in the summer and the homeless guy pissing behind every garbage dump?
Clueless and greedy on the barge.
Posted by: CookieCutterBrownstone at July 6, 2009 5:02 PM
You can get new trees at Home Depot for $39.99.
And you want 3 million dollars for that SHACK and a couple of new plants?
Don't think so.
Posted by: 11217 at July 6, 2009 5:13 PM
If the artist was not able to figure out that the water in the East River was salt rather than fresh water prior to the installation of his artwork, he should at least have publicly apologized and asked that the city shut off the waterfalls once it became apparent that the mist was killing greenery and damaging property in Brooklyn and on Goveror's Island. He said nothing; he is a jerk.
It was plain arrogance and willfulness on the mayor's part to refuse to shut off the waterfalls. In the end they did shut them off a week or so earlier than planned. My neighbors and I are not going to let this pass without a pushback come the elections.
Posted by: Minard Lafever at July 6, 2009 5:15 PM
"Who wants to die for art?"
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CF1kOT3Mek
Posted by: DitmasSnark at July 6, 2009 5:16 PM
Dopey waterfalls. The falling water was pretty, but the structures themselves were hideous, and the whole exercise was twee and pointless: the "well-lookit-that" school of postmodern something-or-other. Hope they get their damage paid for. Speaking of "art"'s ability to make life miserable, yesterday we biked around the southern tip of Governor's Island, a gorgeous picnic spot with heart-stopping harbor views that was oppressed by the caterwauling of a heavily miked "sound installation" from some narcissistic grant-funded nitwit. I would have enjoyed seeing a "transgressive" "counter-installation" in which we took BB guns and shot out the loudspeakers.
Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at July 6, 2009 5:18 PM
Weak. Looked like garden hoses strung over a scaffold. A pale imitation of "art."
Posted by: East New York at July 6, 2009 5:58 PM
One can only wonder where Waterfalls damage figures in Bloomberg's Million Trees campaign. No small irony for the City to have championed the falls as waterfront revitalization when salt spray damage to plantlife is a known issue for any seaside community. For example, see: http://www.treelink.org/joa/1999/july/05appleton.pdf
$3 million in damages would be minor restitution considering the City's negligence, denial and own declaration of positive economic impact (PR-418-08, October 21, 2008): http://tinyurl.com/lxudxu
Posted by: vinca at July 6, 2009 6:10 PM
but the owner of the Barge/Restaurant is not entitled any money for the trees dying. The trees are the city's trees on city property. So the city can plant new ones on its property.
Posted by: tomgee at July 6, 2009 6:27 PM
The property is leased to the River Cafe. Its his trees. He maintains the property. The waterfalls were ended early because of the problem with the falls. They also turned them off if the wind was blowing a certain way. I never saw the beauty in them(although I did like the gates in Central park which were passive). the waterfalls killed the trees and caused property damage to others because of the spray and their design and construction. Obviously there was an attempt to settle this and they couldn't. Buzzy has to prove him measure of damages. I don't know how much it is. I am sure its less than 3 million but more than 1 dollar....and either a jury will decide or they will settle.
Posted by: smeyer418 at July 6, 2009 10:17 PM
BTW of the about 13.5 million raised for the waterfalls. 2 million came from the Lower Manhattan Development corp(a public benefit corporation), 300,000 from the Mayors Fund for the City and a single donation of $5,000,000 which I assume was either Mr. Bloomberg personally or someone on his behalf(I don't know for sure this is my opinion) Its in the 2007 and 2008 filings.
http://bartlett.oag.state.ny.us/Char_Forms/show_details.jsp?id={48C9454D-D114-4C60-8B60-5B4EEE864D25}
Posted by: smeyer418 at July 6, 2009 10:49 PM
they were pretty
suck it up whino
Posted by: dutchman at July 7, 2009 7:46 AM
I thought looking at the Falls last year from an overcrowded, hot B train filled me with anger. The city could find millions of dollars for public art but packs us in train cars tighter than cattle. I don't care if Bloomberg takes his stupid PR subway ride evry morning... it's propaganda. The man doesn't like (non-Billionaire) Brooklynites. He tolerates the middle class and uses the poor for voted by buying off their leaders.
Posted by: Joe from Brooklyn at July 7, 2009 9:39 AM
This was Art with a capital "A". And whether we liked it or not, the effort made to help integrate art into the community is sound. What is not sound, is the fact that once this Art started to affect the environment, they didn't alter the falls in anyway or end the exhibition short. This just produces an angry public that doesn't want to help support the arts - a definite worst case scenario!
Posted by: promenade at July 7, 2009 9:42 AM
Daveinbedstuy,
Who do you think will pay for this? The answer is...... taxpayers.
Either you are not a taxpayer or you are not very bright.
If this art installation caused so much damage, where are the pictures?
Posted by: Brownstonebabe at July 7, 2009 10:09 AM
The Public Art Fund obtained a $5,000,000 insurance policy.
Posted by: smeyer418 at July 7, 2009 7:18 PM
and I saw that they did alter it after it became clear it was doing damage. It was turned off when the wind was blowing in certain directions but by then the damage had been done.
Posted by: smeyer418 at July 7, 2009 7:20 PM
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