Staten Island To See World's Largest Ferris Wheel; But What About Transit?

Staten Island will soon become home to the world's largest Ferris Wheel, when a 625 foot tall wheel will be installed adjacent to the Richmond County Ballpark (home to the Staten Island Yankees) in St. George. Accompanying the amusement ride will be new retail development, plus a hotel. The location is ideally located for tourism and visitors will be treated to stunning views of New York Bay, including the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan, and the rest of the New York City metro region.

The New York Wheel is coming to Staten Island, along with a retail and hotel complex featuring designer outlet shops that will pump nearly $500 million in private investment into the St. George waterfront and spur economic development, tourism and job growth into the future.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday is set to announce that the world's tallest observation wheel and an outlet mall will be built on 14 acres next to the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George, transforming the North Shore waterfront.

"Our administration has made major investments all along the North Shore of Staten Island, because we know this area is full of potential for economic growth," Bloomberg said. "But this newest plan is the most exciting of all -- it's a once-in-a-generation opportunity for economic development."

At 625 feet, the $230 million New York Wheel will exceed the height of the Singapore Flyer, currently the world's tallest observation wheel, and will also eclipse the London Eye and a "High Roller" wheel planned for the Las Vegas Strip.

The ride is also expected to exceed a wheel planned for the New Jersey Meadowlands Xanadu/American Dream project. Critics are busy blasting the plan because of a lack of transit options - and most notably a lack of parking.

The new plan would clear existing parking lots to make way for the amusement ride, and there's no clear indication of where those spots would be relocated (if at all). The lots are used by commuters who park there because of a lack of transit options to commute to Manhattan by means other than the Staten Island ferry or express buses.

Staten Island has long been a backwater when it comes to transit options, and a new MTA plan to build a park-n-ride and new station in Tottenville isn't going to solve the problems either. The new station will be ADA compliant and have intermodal links with a bus stop, but it will replace two nearby stations that will be shuttered.

Staten Islanders need more transit options, and bus rapid transit is seen as one option, but more must be done to make commuting to Manhattan and the rest of the city easier. That would include more subway access, or light rail - particularly over the Bayonne Bridge to link up with the Hudson-Bergen light rail that includes a terminus at Hoboken (with links to PATH and ferries). It's not exactly a one-seat ride, but it would better integrate Staten Island transit options with the rest of the region and reduce pressure on the already overcrowded bridges.

Sadly, the Bayonne Bridge reconstruction to permit bigger ships to pass will not include a light rail option, and the construction has been expedited to make sure the Arthur Kill channel is ready for super Panamax shipping. Transit options take a back seat to other projects.

Some local residents are complaining about the lack of transit options and increased vehicle traffic that would result from the new amusement ride, but with most visitors expecting to arrive by ferry, the impact is seen as being minimal. The problem will be what to do with those cars hoping to park near the ferry terminal for their daily commute and there's no easy answer for that.

UPDATE:
A map of the area:


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The Toughest Ticket in Town

The toughest ticket in NYC looks like it will be at the 9/11 memorial. The 9/11 Memorial set up a ticketing/reservation system to limit the number of people at any one time to 1,500 people on site due to the ongoing construction throughout the surrounding area, but they've quickly run out; and multiple tour companies have swooped in to obtain many of the time slots - and they're charging for access as part of their tours or as standalone items.

New York tour companies are offering the hard-to-get memorial tickets as part of larger sightseeing packages starting Sept. 12, the day the memorial opens to the public for the first time.

New York Water Taxi, for example, will offer timed passes to the 9/11 memorial to customers who buy a $27.50 Hop-On/Hop-Off ticket.

These paid tours, being offered by five companies, are now the only way for visitors to see the 9/11 memorial in the first 10 days it is open because all of the free online tickets for those days have already been snapped up.

The free tickets disappeared quickly after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened online reservations on July 11. More than 25,000 people reserved passes on the first day alone, a memorial spokesman said.

The reason the memorial gave some of the free passes to private tour companies, rather than opening more of them up for public reservations, is that the companies have agreed to follow the city's plan for reducing bus traffic in lower Manhattan after the memorial opens, the spokesman said.

The tour companies have agreed to only park in designated bus spaces and to limit their drop-off and layover times, according to the Department of Transportation's new rules.

Private companies are prohibited from directly charging for the memorial passes, which are always free, the memorial spokesman said.

Other companies that are offering the tour packages include New York Waterway, which is offering 9/11 memorial passes in conjunction with its $4 East River ferry service and slightly more expensive Hudson River ferry service, and Big Taxi Tours, which is giving away memorial passes to anyone who buys a $32 downtown bus tour ticket.

Statue Cruises and Gray Line will also offer packages but have not announced them yet and did not respond to requests for comment.

This goes against the very spirit of the memorial and these companies are charging for access to the site at a time when the memorial and museum are complaining that they need millions of dollars to secure the opening and for operating costs for years to come. Some of the tour companies got the tickets in a deal to reduce traffic and congestion around Lower Manhattan - to reduce dwell times at stops, and other efforts to reduce pollution and traffic, but it means that if you want to see the memorial, your best option now appears to be buying a ticket through one of these outfits, rather than directly getting the tickets for free.

So, while these companies aren't directly charging fees, you can't obtain the free tickets unless you're plunking down money for other parts of their tours. They are violating the spirit of the free memorial access.

Destroying the Tourism Industry One Tax and Fee at a Time

States and localities have long thought that they had a sure way that they could raise revenues without incurring the wrath of their constituents. They'd simply tax the bejeebus out of anyone coming to visit from out of town.

They'd impose taxes on airport access, car rentals, meals, and hotel stays, to cover operating costs, or to fund new projects.

Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino is pushing to do just this in to the teeth of a recession all while the hotel and tourism industry is reeling as people stay home instead of traveling.

Currently, the meals tax is 5 percent. Beginning Aug. 1, the tax jumps to 6.25 percent. Under the mayor's proposal, an additional hike would bring the tax to 7 percent, effective Oct. 1.

As for hotel taxes, the current rate is 12.45 percent. If the plan is approved, the tax will jump to 14.45 percent.

Wisconsin just raised its car rental taxes significantly - from $2 to $18, to fund the construction of a rail link.

All over the country, states and localities are raising taxes and fees to balance their budgets, or to pay for new projects:

Popular tourist destinations were hit especially hard. Among places where taxes rose:

•Hawaii. The hotel room tax increased from 7.25% to 8.25% on Wednesday and will rise to 9.25% in July 2010.

•Nevada. The room tax will increase up to 3 percentage points, to a maximum of 12%. In Las Vegas, the hotel tax jumps from 9% to 12%. Reno's tax was already 12% and is not scheduled to change.

•New Hampshire. The tax on rooms and restaurant meals rose from 8% to 9% and was extended to include recreational vehicles at campgrounds.

•Massachusetts. Cities were given authority to raise the hotel tax from 4% to 6%, in addition to the state tax of 5.7%. Taxes on eating out will rise from 5% to 6.25% statewide, plus another 0.75% if cities choose.

•New York City. The city, which raised its hotel tax March 1 to 14.25%, not counting other fees, will start charging more for Internet reservations.

It that adds up to a significant chunk of the cost for a typical trip.

I take regular trips every year for leisure and have found that 30% of the costs to rent a car take the form of taxes and fees not imposed by the rental company but by the locality or state. It's insane. These localities are taxing me for the privilege of coming to their localities to spend my money on businesses and enterprises in their areas for a period of time before returning home.

I'm not alone in finding this situation infuriating. The recession is leading car rental companies to reduce their inventories, pushing the prices for the car rentals up, which only adds to the taxes owed on said rentals, and increasing the overall cost for a vacation.

There I was, going over a pending car-rental reservation and grumbling over the profusion of fees and taxes that increased my base rate by another 42 percent.

There was, of course, state tax (8 percent), county tax (1.5 percent) and city tax (1.5 percent). There were also the usual-suspect add-on fees, including an airport concession recovery fee (11.11 percent), customer facility charge ($3.50 per day) and vehicle licensing fee ($.20 per day), all of which were unavoidable as there was no convenient non-airport location.

There is one way I've found that can help reduce the overall cost of car rentals, and that is to buy Entertainment books annually. Since I take trips every year and make other purchases from the books, they more than make up for the $30-40 the books can cost. In fact, the Entertainment book more than pays for itself when booking car rentals. They have special rates that can save anywhere from $40-100 for a car rental over what you might find using Kayak, Orbitz, or any of the other travel websites, including Priceline. You have to play around with the various coupon codes offered, and might find that a 2-car class upgrade does better than 10% or 15% off for a weekly rental or vice versa, depending on which rental company you go with.

Still, those taxes and fees are unavoidable, and they mean that I have less money to spend on trinkets or restaurants or other items during the course of my stay.

So, while Boston looks to raise its taxes, it has a ways to go to being the highest tax burdened jurisdiction for travelers. That distinction goes to Chicago, which imposes more than $40 in taxes per day on tourists.

Crowning Achievement

Nearly eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior are ready to reopen the crown of the Statue of Liberty. It was closed because of security concerns. The crown is accessible only by climbing a 168 step spiral staircase, and if there's an emergency, those in the crown could easily be cut off.

The entire statue was off limits for three years following the 9/11 attacks, until the NPS and Department of the Interior reopened the pedestal and lower observation deck to the public in 2004.

The crown will be reopened to the public on July 4.

The statue regularly received millions of visitors annually and has been a top tourist attraction for New York City. The reopening will likely spur a boost in tourism to see the Statue.