Calculating the Worth Of East River 'Waterfalls'.

Amid all the hoopla over Olafur Eliasson's ''New York City Waterfalls,'' which opened on Thursday along the East River, one might think the city was in for a windfall. When asked whether the public art installation was worth the $15.5 million it cost to erect it, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other ''Waterfalls'' enthusiasts have said the exhibit is expected to generate $55 million in economic activity during its run, which ends in October. That amounts to about 0.09 percent of the $59.1 billion budget city officials agreed upon hours after the water began to cascade under the Brooklyn Bridge on Thursday -- roughly the amount generated by a single World Series game during the Subway Series in 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]