[NYguy]

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf...sland_fer.html

Bloomberg on Staten Island Ferris wheel: 'This would be great'




June 29, 2012
By Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance Staten Island Advance

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is along for the ride. On his radio show today, Bloomberg climbed on board with plans to build the world's biggest Ferris wheel on the North Shore of Staten Island. "This would be great," Bloomberg said during his weekly WOR Radio program with host John Gambling. "It sounds like a good idea." Said Bloomberg, "Hopefully, it gets done."

The city Economic Development Corp. is in negotiations to build the 600-foot Ferris wheel, which will look to replicate the success of the London Eye and the Singapore Flyer as top world-class tourist attractions. Island and city officials for years have struggled with finding a way to draw some of the two million annual visitors off the Staten Island Ferry and keep them spending time and money in the borough.

The Ferris wheel, which would rise just north of the Richmond Country Bank Ballpark and which for now is known as The New York Wheel, could be the answer.

"It's going to be done with private money," Bloomberg said on the radio. "There's land there for it. The one in London is phenomenally successful." Bloomberg has long touted the charms of the free ferry and the St. George waterfront. "(The) price is right and at night it's very romantic and that sort of thing," Bloomberg said. "There is a small minor league baseball stadium there ... and that's nice."