Youngstown Ohio Group Visits Jane’s Carousel or Wonder If They Paid the Two Bucks to Ride

By on September 22, 2011 11:52 pm in Brooklyn Heights

It’s $2 to ride the pretty merry-go-round known as Jane’s Carousel in its new home in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The amusement ride, famously restored by Jane Walentas and encased in a brightly lit glass building, is originally from Youngstown, Ohio. Today, a group of residents from that humble town visited the antique ponies encased in glass and we hope they got free rides! They were led by Joan Yanchick, who DUMBONYC reports was so moved by a CBS Sunday Morning piece on that she rallied 100 neighbors to take a long bus trip to check it out.

This is not the first time Yanchick has come to DUMBO to revisit the carousel of her youth. The Youngstown folks visited in 2008 as well.

DUMBONYC: The current building doesn’t allow for regular rides due to space restrictions. But the Youngstown residents were given a ride on the carousel and were overcome with pure joy and nostalgia back in time when the carousel was in their ‘backyard’. That’s something we don’t see too often in NYC. Jane’s hope is to give the kids in NYC the carousel in their own ‘backyard’, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, with the same look of pure joy someday. Unrelated to the visit, The Jane’s Carousel’s new website was just launched at janescarousel.com.

Photo: DUMBONYC

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  • Karl Junkersfeld

    Why the consternation over the $2.00 ride?

    How much do you think it costs to ride the Central Park Carousel?

  • nabeguy

    I think he was joking, Karl.

  • Eddyenergizer

    Central Park Carousel $2.50 a ride. I’m surprised Jane isn’t charging five bucks a spin… well we’ll wait and see.

  • monty

    That’s adorable.

  • Livingston

    Like the nostalgia and happy the folks from Youngstown appreciate Jane’s restoration efforts (unlike many in this neck of the woods, per recent responses).

    But what’s with the snarky title? You guys usually have more class.

  • Master Of Middagh

    $2.00? Are you kidding me? It’s for kids! That might out price some of the less advantaged children in the DUMBO area and that would be pretty unfair. Kids should get to ride for a cool quarter, if you ask me.

    I can understand charging two bucks if an adult wants to ride the horsies, but in this neighborhood, most will probably invest that two dollars in a single buckwheat pancake. ;)

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    nabeguy,

    Homer may have been kidding, though many a truth is said in jest, but many in the neighborhood are bewildered at the cost. For example, the post prior to mine.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Buckwheat? You little rascal, you.

  • nabeguy

    I’m likely to be the first to carp about the Walentas merry-go-round (or, as I call it, the jerk circle) but complaining about the $2.00 fee seems rather petty.

  • Master Of Middagh

    @nabeguy- It isn’t petty of me to suggest that children should have a high amount of access to the carousel, and you don’t know me well enough to insult me so..

    I can understand a $2.00 price tag at Central Park. After all, it’s a prime tourist location and one would expect a bit of a steep price. But THIS is a neighborhood carousel in a neighborhood park. Sure, we’ll get some tourists, but that carousel should be for the enjoyment of all the children in the area, not the wealthy few.

    It is very true that there are projects located nearby (The Farragutt Houses) and those kids are going to want to go for a ride, or two, or three, or ten. Let those poor kids ride to their hearts’ content, rather than have them jealously watch the kids whose parents can afford $2,00 a ride.

  • Eddyenergizer

    Master Of Middagh, $2.00 is the new “cool quarter”. I’ll bet most of the parents from the projects can afford to pay two bucks for their kids ride. This isn’t a third world country (at least not yet) and two dollars is’t a huge sum even for the poor.

  • Master Of Middagh

    You may have a point Eddyenergizer. Economics isn’t my strongest subject, so I’m not entirely certain what the poor can and cannot afford. I would like to hear more thoughts on that.

    But I will say this- it’s better to have a carousel full of children who hardly paid anything (or not at all) than to have a half-full carousel with the other children staring at it with hungry eyes. After all, pleasing children is the point of having a carousel in your park, not making money.

  • Eddyenergizer

    The carousel is bound to be a popular attraction, there will probably be lines waiting to ride on summer days. I doubt $2 is going to keep anyone away. If the price was a quarter it might as well be free (a quarter was what a ride like that cost when I was a kid, 40 years ago). If it was that cheap you would have some kids spending hours there endlessly re-riding it, thus creating longer lines that might turn some people away. Besides, the fare at least helps pay for running the contraption.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    “Not making money.” ???????? Yes, economics isn’t your strong point.

    The money paid by parents for a carousel ride doesn’t go into someone’s bank account. It goes toward the maintenance of the surrounding environment, you know, the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

    Surely I don’t have to remind some that:

    “The carousel will be maintained and operated by Friends of Jane’s Carousel, a not-for-profit entity, which is guaranteeing the carousel’s upkeep for a period of up to thirty years.”

    Needless to say, this is a hefty sum, easily in the millions.

    Those under 3 or under 42 inches, ride for free.

  • Livingston

    Oh please, $2 is nothing these days. I see the little rugrats ponying up more than that at Starbucks.

  • Eddyenergizer

    Karl, realistically the money collected will only help pay for the upkeep of the carousel. I doubt a nickel will make it to the ” the surrounding environment”.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    You’re probably correct. I was under the assumption that the “Friends of Jane’s Carousel” would foot the bill for the maintenance of the carousel in its entirety and the $2 charge would go to the park. I definitely could be mistaken.

  • T.K. Small

    Unfortunately I have not been down there yet as I have been under the weather for the past month or so. From the various pictures and videos of the carousel, I cannot exactly tell whether it is accessible to a person in a wheelchair. On at least two sides there are steps, but at least one side looks fairly level. Hopefully this weekend I can swing by and take a look, but in the meantime, if people have any answers, that would be fantastic.

  • Elmer Fudd

    Maybe the $2 fare helped to pay for the Youngstown, Ohio bus ride too?

  • epc

    TK: this is entirely from memory but I’ll walk over and double check. The sides facing the water do indeed have steps (maybe four-five low, wide steps, not that you’d want to wheel up/down them but they’re not steep stairs). The sides facing the warehouse and park are level with the ground and the paths leading to/from them are pretty gradual.

    Same pebble surface on the paths as on Pier 1 and the “new” park.

  • Master Of Middagh

    I think I understand it fairly well. The upkeep of the carousel has already been paid for over the next thirty years. And whether the park itself needs to generate revenue for its’ own upkeep is a matter of some controversy as I understand it, despite what some may claim. So the notion of a reduced price or even having the rides be free doesn’t appear totally out of the question here.

    Perhaps the $2.00 could be a “suggested donation” like they have at museums. That way, people can pay what they can afford and it would still raise some money. Heck, if it’s a suggested donation, there’s no problem making it $3.00 even, I imagine.

    As for the question of making sure all of the children get turns if it’s so cheap to ride, you can always have the kids get off and get back in line at the end of each session. Line in on one side of the wheel, and line out on the other.

    That might work…

  • Claire

    20% of New Yorkers now live in poverty (as officially defined, so this doesn’t include all the working poor). $2 per ride/per kid is not at all insignificant to this population.

  • T.K. Small

    Thanks epc for the info and offer. Your description confirms what I thought was the situation. By the way, please don’t make a special trip on my behalf. I should be able to get down there soon and take a look for myself.

  • epc

    No worries…I walk by it daily.

  • Sad Neighbor

    What happened to the Carousel in Coney Island?

  • Willow St. Neighbor

    Master of Middagh,
    When my two girls were small, money was very tight. They are now adults with their own children. I guarantee you that I did not take my two little girls to places that we could not afford. Why would any parent with a heart take a child to see a carousel if they could not afford the $2 for a ride. My children did not look upon anything that we could not afford “with hungry eyes”. There were plenty of ways to amuse children thirty years ago without having to spend lots of money.
    As Karl said, children under 3 years of age and under 42 inches ride free. That seems fair to me.

  • epc

    TK: I think you’ll be fine, go in along the Dock Street entrance (the Main Street entrance would be fine as well, just longer and more gravelly). There’s a gravel ramp/path on the water side (sort of between the carousel housing and BK Bridge).

  • T.K. Small

    epc: I am not all that interested in the carousel for myself, but I know that there are a lot of kids with disabilities that might get some enjoyment. I am more interested in the open green space that was lost in finding a home for the carousel. Unfortunately, that is a consideration which was long ago decided. I have always liked this location even when it was kind of run down and derelict. The area definitely had a raw and borderline feeling. Now, definitely not so much…

  • Master Of Middagh

    @Willow St. Neighbor- So, the poor children should be kept out of the public park because we don’t want them desiring a carousel they don’t deserve? Help me out here, I’m having trouble understanding this…

  • epc

    Much of the remaining green space is fenced off (I assume to give the grass a shot at growing in before winter). Am disappointed that the path that winds under the bridge is now fenced off (was open when the park opened). Guessing that’s due to the ongoing painting work.

    One thing I noticed with the removal of the green space is that as far as I know there are no spaces now in BBP with a flat green space. The remaining space in Empire Fulton Ferry (what do we call this section now?) is sculpted. The spaces on Pier 1 are sculpted. I know that there’s some playing fields planned for pier 4 or 5 but they’re not under development yet.

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