The Gates - Take That, You...Barbarians !

http://citizengene.blogspot.com ^ | 02/14/05 | vanity

[genefromjersey]

The New York Media are all a-twitter over The Gates : a massive "art project" in Central Park,which resembles nothing so much as une homage to Le Home Depot.

(Click on link for rest of nasty comments.)

[NonValueAdded]

Nice blog writeup, Gene. Home Depot! LOL

Let's not forget that this $20M of private money was spent in times of trouble around the world. The inauguration was at least a celebration of the peaceful democratic transition of power. But this money was spent for what?

[KwasiOwusu]

"But this money was spent for what?"

I go to Central Park every day.
Love the place.
Watched them put this "thing" up.
I gotta say it kinda left me scratching my head a bit.
Maybe I am just not sophisticated enough to see it great artistic significance.
Sigh.

[NonValueAdded]

Make sure to keep us up to date on Gene's grafitti prediction.

[Proud2BeRight]

Where is the outrage on the left? One small piece of nature within urban concrete and it gets covered in man-made junk. Enormous amounts of energy and iron ore is consumed to make steel structure. Significant oil is consumed to produce vinyl. Construction consumes huge natural resources to transport, erect and disassemble the structures. Local birds are likely disturbed by the waving and flapping obnoxious colored vinyl, possibly disrupting their feeding and spring nesting. And finally, millions of dollars are wasted on useless art.

[bikepacker67]

If you can fake it there, you'll fake it anywhere [caution: strong language]

[genefromjersey]

That was hilarious !

[Captain Peter Blood]

One thing you have to keep in mind about that $20 Million is that by doing what he did Christo's $20 Million with a factor of ten created a ripple effect in the economy of about $200 Million and in the process created some jobs in the materials he bought, assembly and putting it up.
That is pure Capitalism at work with no government money involved.
Just another way to look at it.

[NonValueAdded]

Oh, absolutely. I agree and felt the same way about the inaugural. I was kinda shocked that the DC unions weren't all over the RATs like ugly on a Kennedy for trying to squash the inaugural. I just thought the silence was deafening about Christos' particular expenditure.

[eastsider]

No taxpayer money involved? The security bill alone is going to run a small fortune. The park entrances are blocked with squad cars and paddy wagons, there's a heavy police presence on Fifth Avenue, both foot patrols and traffic cops -- that's a lot of OT, times about six weeks if you add the set-up and tear-down time to the 16-day exhibit.

The people who are going to benefit the most are those who are going to see their personal investments in Christo projects appreciate. (People like Mayor Mike, for example?) Perhaps they should foot the security bill ...

[Captain Peter Blood]

I was referring to the money Christo and his wife put up for the Gates, nothing more.

[spetznaz]

Not only did that couple pay a little over 20 million from their own pockets for this, they also paid for the workers who put it up, and for the cops that were watching over the project. Honestly i have to give them their due - they at least had the good sense to pay for the stuff themselves.

And there was something nice about it all. It is abstract yes, but for some reason it looked 'nice.' Hard to explain in words.

But the impressive thing is they did not shunt the bill to the gov, and they actually generated money for the city from the people who came to see it.

[eastsider]

NYC is still cutting the checks for the NYPD, not Christo and Jeanne Claude, and the $3 million that the two charlatans threw in is spit compared to the actual cost to the taxpayers. Take a good look at the number of paddy wagons, patrol cars, and the like at just one entrance, multiply that by all the entrances on the perimeter; then throw in the number of NYPD inside the Park and multiply that by at least four weeks ... Bloomberg sold the freepin' city out, is what he did.

The cheddar drapes are the emperor's new clothes. Their only redeeming quality is their ephemerality.