Casino Pier, Seaside Heights

Carousel is getting shut down this weekend, plans right now are for it to be relocated...

Story here

Wow, that’s honestly really sad. Shame it got caught in a political land swap. Hope it operates again.

I agree its a bit fishy. They found enough value in it to swap land but not enough to keep it operating on site unless relocating it was part of the deal. but the carousel seems to be in good shape s not sure how much rehab it really needs.

The owner was going to sell it (maint $ too high for years) and it could have been lost to the area forever. The city stepped up to "buy" it but had no money. So they swapped city land for the carousel. The land is now where Hydrus is which helped draw crowds as new coasters almost always do. Now the city has a carousel that needs some work before it can be reopened. Plus it looks like not all the i's were dotted and t's crossed on the land swap. So more issues there too. But if the city didn't move fast the ride would have been scooped up by somebody that probably would have busted it up and made $ by selling horses separately. It has happend so many times before and classic carousels get lost forever. This is kind of similar to the B&B Carousel at Coney Island which has now reopened by the city and is operating when it was just hours from being lost forever.

^ Very good points. Let’s just hope they can get this treasure up and running again at some point in the near future.

I'm glad something was done. I agree too often are these old carousels broken up to sell off the horses.

That park took a double pounding with Sandy in 2012 and even before they could try to get back, a giant fire in 2013. The land swap let them expand on the shore as building on a pier with new regulations is wildly expensive. They built the Hydrus coaster which was the beginning of their true recovery and increased tourism for the entire town. It was a win-win except there are always those that oppose everything. Those folks are making the city jump thru legal hoops but so far the city has won at every level. Those folks preferred to leave the land vacant, have the amusement park fail and close, have all the tourists stay away, have all the other shops fail, and then the town would be nice and quiet for them like it was in 2013 and 2014. Classic NIMBY thinking that parks have to face all the time even though the parks were there first. Once this is all settled the city can turn their attention to opening the carousel in the planned tourist center-museum. That may take a while longer but the long term result is the best scenario possible compared to the other possible outcomes pushed by the opposition.

The idea of a nearby museum with the carousel operating within it sounds nice.