Ferris wheel leaves Golden Gate Park

Teams have begun dismantling a giant Ferris wheel in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

SAN FRANCISCO – Teams have begun dismantling a giant Ferris wheel in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

The Ferris wheel that stood in the center of San Francisco is getting a new home.

The 150-foot-tall SkyStar Ferris Wheel has always been a popular attraction for those seeking breathtaking views, and now it's moving to the city's waterfront.

Although the bike has only been an attraction in Golden Gate Park for a relatively short time, many residents already fondly remember its rides.

“Absolutely fantastic,” said Coral LeBlanc. “It was right after they set it up, two grandkids, a daughter and a dog, and we were able to get on with it, it was really cool.”

The Ferris wheel was originally brought to Golden Gate Park three years ago.

“So the Ferris wheel came in 2020 as part of the park’s 150th anniversary,” said Daniel Montes of the San Francisco Department of Recreation and Parks. “So it was a really exciting time for us. Three years later it leaves us and we are sad to see it go. But the good thing is that it will stay in the city.”

The bike's final ride took place last weekend, and crews have been working overnight dismantling it to prepare it for its move across the city.

The wheel will be rebuilt at Fisherman's Wharf, where the Port of San Francisco will work with SkyStar to place it in a parking lot near Boudin Bakery ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.

In its new waterfront location, the Wheel offers breathtaking panoramic views of the bay and downtown from an entirely new perspective, a view that visitors find enticing.

Jake Abbott of Muskegon, Michigan expressed his excitement: “Yes, absolutely, a way to see the bay and all the sights in one go. It would be cool to see her on a Ferris wheel.”

Jillene Abbott also shared her excitement: “If there was a view of this beautiful ocean, I would definitely go out and see it if I could ride the Ferris wheel.”

As for the length of time the wheel will stay at Fisherman's Wharf, the port is anticipating a six-month time frame, but remains open to extensions.

SkyStar has stated its commitment to remain in the city until March 2025.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The giant Ferris wheel at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is officially moving over to the Fisherman’s Wharf waterfront.

Operators aim to get wheel up and running in time for the APEC conference happening in mid-November.

MORE: How intense APEC Summit security will impact SF roads, public transportation, and tourism

The 150 feet tall SkyStar Observation Wheel will be set-up at a triangular shaped parking lot right next to Pier 39.

Workers are wasting no time getting the ride ready for moving.

On Monday, the gondolas were already taken down.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

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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

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Golden Gate Park’s Ferris wheel is set to move to Fisherman’s Wharf after almost three years of delivering riders 150 feet into the air over the Music Concourse between the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Science.

The Ferris wheel—technically, the “SkyStar Observation Wheel”—was installed in 2020 over considerable opposition due to its bright lights, potential impacts on wildlife and $18 ticket price for a 12-minute ride. After almost three years in operation, it will relocate to a triangular-shaped parcel near Pier 39 known as Lot 301 in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, or APEC.

What exactly is APEC, and why is San Francisco hosting part of it this year? KQED journalist and APEC Host Committee Press Ambassador Priya David Clemens explains.

The Port of San Francisco did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

As The Standard previously reported, discussions between the Port and other city and state agencies have been underway ahead of the conference, which is expected to bring thousands of visitors to San Francisco in mid-November.

Indeed, SkyStar’s days in the park are already over, as the website said it closed to riders on Sunday and will reopen near Fisherman’s Wharf on Nov. 10. 

In a statement to The Standard, San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department spokesperson Daniel Montes said more than 650,000 people have ridden SkyStar.

“Since 2021, Rec and Park distributed 13,650 free tickets to kids and families through its partnership with schools, camps, and 100+ community organizations assisting underserved San Franciscans,” Montes said.

How the Ferris wheel will be transported and whether it will return to the park after the conference concludes is unclear.

SkyStar was installed as part of Golden Gate Park’s 150th anniversary celebration and claims to be the first such Ferris wheel in the park since the 1890s. It’s set to remain in San Francisco through 2025. The wheel and its 36 gondolas have 1 million lights and weigh nearly half a million pounds.

Fisherman’s Wharf has seen a number of long-term restaurants close in recent months over nonpayment of rent, although a proposal is in the works to turn Pier 45 into a recreation complex with an events center, museum and pedestrian promenade.

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San Francisco is trying to move Golden Gate Park’s 150-foot SkyStar Ferris wheel to Fisherman’s Wharf for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

The plans were discussed at the Port of San Francisco’s Northern Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday evening, with Kirsten Southey—the San Francisco Port’s special projects, communications and engagement manager—saying the agency received a short-term special event application to explore the possibility of relocating the Ferris wheel to the waterfront.

READ MORE: Get Ready for San Francisco’s APEC Summit Marketing Blitz

“Ideally, this move would take place before the APEC gathering in November,” she said. “While discussions are preliminary and logistic hurdles exist, both agencies are committed, and we want to pursue this opportunity.”

Fisherman’s Wharf business leaders, like Boudin Bakery Chief Financial Officer Bill Dozier, said they were excited about the prospect of the ride taking a spin on the waterfront.

“As you know, we operate our flagship location there at Fisherman’s Wharf, as well as running the chowder hut at Pier 39,” he said. “Obviously, post-pandemic, there’s a number of vacant storefronts in the area. We believe that the attraction will help generate excitement and provide an activity destination, which will benefit all the tenants of the wharf with guests who want to eat, drink and shop.”

SkyStar Wheel looms over Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. | Source: Isaac Ceja/The Standard

David Beaupre, deputy director of planning and environment for the port, said the agency is working with city planners, the state and SkyStar engineers to figure out the best location for the wheel.

“The proposal is for the Ferris wheel to go in the triangle parking lot, also known as Lot 301,” he explained. “We’re also working with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission to get the necessary permits. Our goal is to get it by APEC. It’s an aggressive schedule, but with the cooperation of other agencies, we think we can make it.”

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department did not respond to a request for comment.

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Bishop Megan Rohrer speaks about Golden Gate Park, healthy resolutions and blessing the city for 2022

January 21, 2022

Heather Knight/The Chronicle

New to podcasts? Here’s how you listen.

Total SF hosts Peter Hartlaub and Heather Knight meet with Bishop Megan Rohrer and record a podcast episode in their most unusual location yet — the Ferris wheel at the Music Hall in Golden Gate Park.

Rohrer talks about staying positive in 2022 and when resolutions can lead to unnecessary guilt and shame. They also give a blessing to San Francisco and talk about the city’s potential — even in frustrating times.

This is Rohrer’s third appearance on Total SF and the first since his confirmation as the first transgender bishop in the Lutheran Church. Hartlaub and Knight have recorded at the base of Sutro Tower, on several slow streets, and on top of a drag club, but never in a moving vehicle.

A culture podcast from San Francisco featuring celebrity guests, non-celebrity guests, personalities from the San Francisco Chronicle and a celebration of life in the Bay Area. Hosted by cultural critic Peter Hartlaub in the Chronicle basement historical photo archive, with frequent appearances by his #TotalSF partner, columnist Heather Knight. Hartlaub, who was the Chronicle’s newsboy from 1983 to 1985, began writing for the publication in 2000. Hartlaub writes stories about Bay Area culture, produces podcasts, and browses the Chronicle archives for his work as an author of the Our San Francisco history column. He lives in Alameda.

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A rider cares for his elbow and pride after a fall. Cycling was rough in the beginning – but this gentleman was lucky. He could have been at the Tour de France, where competitors broke their bikes on broken glass thrown by loud fans. Library of Congress hide caption

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Library of Congress

A rider cares for his elbow and pride after a fall. Cycling was rough in the beginning – but this gentleman was lucky. He could have been at the Tour de France, where competitors broke their bikes on broken glass thrown by loud fans.

Library of Congress

This week the Tour de France riders spent three strenuous days in the Pyrenees. Once again you have made the curious decision not to just get off your bike and get on the bus like sensible people.

Anyway, the Alps are yet to come, and there is still a lot to pedal before they sprint to Paris on July 26th.

So while fans are waiting for the triumphant return home, there’s no better time to turn to know-it-all journalist AJ Jacobs. He takes NPR’s Scott Simon on his own tour and talks about fun facts with a little bit of cycling knowledge.

Interview highlights

In the scandalous first Tour de France in 1903 and the dangerous second

The 1903 winner was a former chimney sweep named Maurice Garin. And during the race, Garin is said to have crashed a rival’s bike. And then Garin got off his own bike and stomped on the poor guy’s back wheel until it was destroyed. So not quite as subtle as Lance Armstrong. …

The next year was worse. The fans were hooligans, and they threw broken glass and nails on the street to hand out tires they didn’t like. The leader of the race was actually attacked by four masked men. There was riots, broken fingers, gunfire in the air, racing drivers secretly taking trains. …

I’m sure it was very entertaining not to get shot.

With the early bike models that were a little less comfortable

The first bicycles in the 1860s were called boneshakers. So they had an iron frame, iron tires. They weighed over 40 pounds. And you rode her over cobblestones. So it wasn’t for the faint of heart or, as they said at the time, for the faint of heart.

On the role of the bicycle in the women’s movement

Cycling was actually a big part of the women’s movement. And Susan B. Anthony said that cycling has done more to empower women than anything else in the world because it gives them freedom of movement. And it helped them get rid of those huge, flowing dresses.

But there were men who thought it was a serious threat to women’s sexual purity. And so they designed the so-called “hygienic saddle”, an uncomfortable seat that would keep women really chaste. So we can thank these guys for saving western civilization.

About Annie Londonderry, one of the first female cycling superstars

She was a Jewish mother of three from Boston. And in 1894, based on a bet, she decided to ride a bike around the world in 15 months. And she went with a pearl-handled revolver, a change of underwear.

She did it. She was thrown in the Korean prison [but] she did it. There is a wonderful book about it called Around the World on Two Wheels.

She also became a big focal point for women’s rights because she ended up wearing men’s clothes. Apparently a bystander saw her in pants and ran away screaming.

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Antoine Mabrey heard about a free Mother’s Day promotion on the radio when he was home in Hayward, but he kept it to himself when he packed up his wife Alisha and daughters Ari, 6 and Amaya, 3, and drove them to the Golden on Sunday morning Gate Park.

At 9 a.m. they looked at the SkyStar observation wheel, which rose 150 feet into the sky. At this point, Alisha knew that her surprising Mother’s Day present shouldn’t be brunch. It was three trips on the ferris wheel. The tickets were free for mothers, which meant a saving of US $ 18 – “definitely a plus,” said Antoine, not wanting to sound financially motivated on Mother’s Day.

But there were a lot of people because at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before the opening, the line stretched from the ticket office to past the California Academy of Sciences. “I love this thing,” said Erica Spartos, who was there with her daughter Eula, 8.

Spartos admitted that the reason she hadn’t been there was the price. “I think it’s too expensive,” she said, even considering a 15% discount for locals and $ 12 for kids. The trip consists of three full rotations in a closed gondola, which takes about 10 minutes, and that after half an hour of waiting. “It’s starting to spin,” Spartos said as the attraction came to life.

Until then, patience waned. Zion Burdick, 4, had his little brother Maverick, 3, by the hood of his sweatshirt and made a ride of his own by spinning him around in circles. “They’re just alive,” said their mother, Shellie, who shut down the Windsor boys while they left their toddler home with dad, an extra gift.

The SkyStar, owned by a St. Louis-based entertainment company, first arrived in March 2020 as the main attraction for the 150th anniversary of Golden Gate Park on April 4, 2020. The day the wheel joined the skyline was the day of the pandemic stay-home order passed down. The 36 gondolas didn’t make it out of their shipping container until October 21 after the order was canceled, only to close again on November 28 when the virus got caught in a winter flood.

The subsequent reopening on March 4 became controversial when it became known that the Department of Recreation and Parks was looking to extend the original one-year contract by four years. Park purists opposed it, but the expansion was approved after a campaign highlighting the ferris wheel as the engine of economic recovery that could attract tourists and help Richmond District merchants survive the financial struggle of the pandemic.

“It’s ridiculous to fight for a ferris wheel,” said Shellie Burdick. “If we care about things, why don’t we care about climate change?”

The SkyStar spins under the lights day and night, which was another point of criticism. But it was an average of 30,000 passengers a month.

It can run with just six gondolas if there isn’t much demand, with the weather being a deciding factor. On a Sunday, a rainstorm caused an LED light on top of the bike to short-circuit and set off a spark. The people who drove in the six cars were evacuated. Half an hour later, according to the manager, the journey continued without any problems.

Under the sunny Mother’s Day skies, all 36 cars were in operation and the line was moving faster after San Francisco made enough progress against the coronavirus that the ride doesn’t capture the temperatures of all passengers before boarding. They were allowed to go straight to the photo booth that shows the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Grant Haggerty, 7, who lives in the Sunset District, was scared to ride it, but once on board with his parents Tom and Alayne Haggerty he was able to enjoy his mother pointing out UCSF Parnassus, where Grant was born. His father pointed to his own birthplace, St. Mary’s Hospital, though that was of limited interest to Grant.

Erica Spartos described the ride as “a complete thrill”. The living green roof of the Academy of Sciences had given it hope against climate change. “It gives you a perspective that you don’t get every day.”

Zion and Maverick Burdick went looking for hot dogs. and Alisha Mabrey left with a cardboard frame that contained photos of her with her husband and daughters, including one that gives the effect of being taken on a skycam while they were in the air.

The framed photos were $ 36.95, which was double the savings on Mother’s Day, but Antoine didn’t want to argue with that. “It was definitely the best Mother’s Day,” said Alisha, “because it was a surprise.”

Sam Whiting is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF

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