Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Lipstick on a pig?

From the Daily News:

A rusting World's Fair icon in Queens is getting a $3 million paint job — for free, the Daily News has learned.

Bridge and steel painters will donate their time in a bid to turn back the clock on the New York State Pavilion, which was built more than 50 years ago for the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Parks Department officials said the paint job will “restore the original luster and beauty” of the pavilion while “protecting its bones.” It is the first such work to be done on the building since it was constructed.

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver is expected to make the announcement Wednesday outside the pavilion with the New York Structural Steel Painting Contractors Association and union officials.

The donated work will be done through a training program for apprentice painters, officials said.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nothing in life is free. Just who exactly will be paying the $3million cost? That's a lot of dough.

Anonymous said...

1. Who is paying for the paint?

2. The apprentice painters still need to be supervised. Who is paying for that?

3. Who is paying for the insurance to cover the people doing the work in the case they get injured?

Lots of questions. Typical Daily News article. Just puppet back the line fed to you by the city official. Doesn't anyone there remember what investigative reporting and journalism are supposed to be?

No wonder they are losing readership and running in the red.

Anonymous said...

Prediction: Apprentice falls and the politicians call for the Pavillion to be torn down.

Anonymous said...

Nice touch , but there are more pressing issues with the structure itself , and far more pressing issues in Queens.
It does wash Melinda Katz's anti preservation image a bit.
Isn't public relations mending what this is all about?

How come the beep isn't screaming for the statue of Civic Virtue to be returned after its supposed restoration in Greenwood Cemetery?

Now, that's a horse of a different color.

Anonymous said...

So, there IS a free lunch, after all!

Anonymous said...

Thats going to be a LOT of work and paint but its going to be some sight to see when done and lit with LEDs. Party in the park with fireworks its about time !!

JQ said...

Katz is really obsessed with this blighted pile of rust. She must be hearing mouth breathing voices in her head telling her that the masses will come when its painted.

The more I read about this fills me with disgust. Those structures should have been maintained in the first place. In fact they could have been operable and used for concerts and such if they started in the 90's when the economy was recovering, hell mayor fun size could have spent to have it fixed himself. But now it's just preposterous to even bother, especially since it's been invaded by friggin' children, which shows how much the parks dept. cared about the site by securing it with locks bought at the 99c store.

And 3 million, I wonder what it would have cost in the 70's if that's the estimate these painters came up with.

Anonymous said...

Some sight? Put an Armani trench coat on a naked politician and underneath you have still got a oervert flasher. Of all the pressing problems in Queens this is a very minor victory. It is a major public relations coupe for beep Katz. She's hoping it washes her anti preservation Image clean. Beep Katz is the poster child for taking mucho money from the developers who have been destroying Queens. Wake up fella. Painting, lighting and fireworks is like handing a bandaid to a patient with a rupture aorta!

Anonymous said...

poster 1: the union's paying. Read much?

poster 2: see above.

poster 3: just dumb.

poster 4: the pavilion's more important than the statue, which is a lost cause. forget it.

you all just keep complaining as the restoration is slowly made. your help isn't needed to get the work done.

Queens Crapper said...

The point is that without a MAJOR overhaul, this latest "restoration" will be in vain. The metal is crumbling and the thing is going to fall down.

Anonymous said...

Crapper, absolutely, but you gotta start somewhere. Just as was said a couple weeks back in another thread about this, if Katz went to city hall and asked for $80 million now for this thing, they'd laugh in her face.

How much funding was there for fixing the pavilion before she took office? Zero. Now it's $5.8 million plus $3 million in-kind. Did you (readers) prefer zero?

The prevailing wisdom is Melinda's an evil genius all about the money, right? So wouldn't it stand to reason that she knows how to get what she wants? She wants this. And don't forget Catsimatidis.

Anonymous said...

Yes, she wants to preserve this, something that is probably too far gone to save at this point, but sits in a public park that is mostly protected from development. What is she doing for preservation of neighborhoods and individual landmarks?

JQ said...

this latest "restoration" will be in vain. The metal is crumbling and the thing is going to fall down.

http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2014/03/public-access-to-pavilion-on-april-22.html

It's a good thing I regularly read this blog. Let's hope they set aside some cash for hardhats.