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…
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]
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
Weak. Looked like garden hoses strung over a scaffold. A pale imitation of “art.”
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.
“Who wants to die for art?”
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CF1kOT3Mek
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.
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.
I hope the self-entitled asshats on the barge get what they deserve…
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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.
salt kills green spaces? hmm… very good to know >:p
hahhaha im totally kidding
*rob*
I hope they get every penny they are asking for.