The Ferris wheel that's been spinning next to Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse for three years is relocating to the more heavily touristed Fisherman's Wharf, and will reopen in two weeks.
The company that operates the ride, SkyView Partners, announced on its website that the final rides in Golden Gate Park were on Sunday, October 22, and the wheel will now move and start turning again November 10. Anyone with tickets for the coming two weeks can redeem them when it reopens.
SFGate reported the news today, a month after we first heard that SF Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin was pushing to get the ride moved to the Wharf, which is in his district.
City Hall followers and SFist readers may recall how Peskin was a vocal foe of the Ferris wheel before it first opened, arguing that the Parks Alliance, which had arranged for the ride's arrival for Golden Gate Park's sesquicentennial celebrations, had overstepped, and that the city wasn't reaping enough financial benefit from the wheel operators.
When the Ferris wheel's permit was coming up for an extension in 2021, Peskin and Supervisor Connie Chan pushed back again, citing complaints from neighbors and environmental groups, and suggesting that proper approvals had never been received from two thirds of the Board, as required under the City Charter.
"We are trying to get it out of the park, where it never belonged, and to the wharf, where it is a perfect fit," Peskin said last month.
And so it shall be.
Kat Anderson, president of the Rec and Parks Commission, told the Chronicle last month, "If [the observation wheel] moves, it will attract visitors and provide a fresh view of our beautiful city."
It's still not clear who is footing the bill for the disassembly, move, and reassembly of the wheel. And under the terms of the wheel's extended permit, the city is only getting 3% of revenues from it.
The wheel will now live, presumably through 2025, in the triangle parking lot next to Boudin Bakery, and it will be open just before 20,000+ attendees of the APEC summit arrive in town.
Previously: Supervisor Peskin Proposes Moving the Golden Gate Ferris Wheel to His District, at Fisherman’s Wharf