This is what Republicans in Boston have been reduced to

Given that Kathleen Toomey, the organizer, is both planning to serve food, and protest those protesting onerous government regulations, we have to assume that she has followed all of those Governmental Regulations in planning her counter protest.

At a recent public meeting sponsored by Mike Ross a gentleman involved with the Winter Classic hockey at Fenway stood up and said the NHL said they would not be coming back to Boston any time soon. In order to put on public skating, two college games and one pro game the sponsors had to obtain over 80 permits from the city. I know of another organizer trying to put on a local food event that needed 26 separate permits - and this person was a volunteer - stress on WAS. I tried to bring in a commercial shredding truck one time at a neighborhood event so neighbors could come in for $5-$10 and have their private documents shredded. The city told me I had to have a permit and use a bonded company in case they damaged something. We are talking about a truck parked in a public spot. I guess they thought he might break the granite curbstone or something. Absolutely out of control.

Well, she wasn't "serving"

By anon
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 12:25pm

Well, she wasn't "serving" the food...people were bringing the food for a pot-luck style picnic for their group. If someone came up and asked for a sandwich, I'm pretty sure they were willing to hand one out, but it's the same as if I went up to a group of people eating in the Commons and asked for some of their, I don't know, egg salad or hot dogs. Do those people need proof that their hot dogs are Gov't-approved? No, it's just a group of people enjoying food amongst themselves on the Commons.

Not to take the Republican side or anything

By adamg
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 12:54pm

But at least some folks were offering passersby who stopped a spot of tea or something to nibble on.

if Red Mass Group

By Anonymous
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 1:27pm

wanted a serious debate of the issue of over-regulation, they'd be raising it with City Hall not harrassing counter protesters, imo

In fact, they would be

By HenryAlan
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 1:54pm

In fact, they would be supporting the genteel tea party folks' right to convene an event without permits.

real world vs tea bag land

By anon2
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 2:18pm

There's also a difference between using city / public services for a larger scale privately funded events and that of impropto gatherings.

Those of us in the real world see the difference's in what that is, and what laws should be applicable.

There's a difference between the lemonade cart guy out there every day from 10-5 and a little girl's lemonade stand.

TEA PARTY EXPRESS? Show me the Money $$$

By Anonymous
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 9:15pm

Just days after the first widespread tea party demonstrators hit the streets a year ago Thursday, Joe Wierzbicki, a Republican political consultant with the Sacramento firm Russo Marsh + Rogers, made a proposal to his colleagues that he said could “give a boost to our PAC and position us as a growing force/leading force as the 2010 elections come into focus.”

The proposal, obtained by POLITICO, was for a nationwide tea party bus tour, to be called the Tea Party Express, which over the past seven months has become among the most identifiable brands of the tea party movement. Buses emblazoned with the Tea Party Express logo have brought speakers and entertainers to rallies in dozens of small towns and big cities, including one in Boston on Wednesday that will feature former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Aided by campaign-style advance work and event planning, slick ads cut by Russo Marsh, impressive crowds and a savvy media operation, the political action committee run by Wierzbicki, Russo Marsh founder Sal Russo and a handful of other Republican operatives has also emerged as among the prolific fundraising vehicles under the tea party banner. Known as Our Country Deserves Better when it was founded during the 2008 election as a vehicle to oppose Barack Obama’s campaign for president, the PAC saw its fundraising more than quadruple after it took the Tea Party Express public in July, raising nearly $2.7 million in roughly the following six months, compared with less than $600,000 in the preceding six months, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

OMG the winter classic

By nightmoves
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 1:55pm

OMG the winter classic required 80 permits/licenses? did the millions they made off of it make it worth all the hassle of filling out some forms? all the parties involved talked about how they want to do it at fenway every year, you think the permit process is going to stop that?

jon stewart nailed it two nights ago talking about the dopes that threw a frozen turkey off an overpass that prompted the installation of fences on all overpasses, [paraphrasing] 'why cant we have nice things? because govt has to regulate to the worst of us.' so when you use community property for a shredding event the community needs to know not to park in those spots so they won't get towed and the truck company better have insurance because if they screw up, they should get sued, not the city (in effect, the community). if you want a littany of ways a private contractor could screw up, get a torts book, they are limitless.

OMG

By Stevil
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 10:35pm

How does one even address this level of stupidity. You are probably one of those bureacratic morons that sits in some government cubicle thinking up rules that have little to no relevance to the real world. Sorry to threaten your job security. Maybe somebody should regulate you! People have choices and these are the choices that have been made in the real world outside of your cubicle:

1) The NHL is apparently in no rush to come back to Boston because it's ten times harder (and less profitable) to put the event on here than it is elsewhere.
2) The food event mentioned will now only hold it in a place in the biz of serving food because they have the licenses in place so others that want to host it (because it helps their biz) can't. There simply aren't any volunteers willing to go through the maze at city hall to figure out all the necessary paperwork.
3) We just gave up on the shredder because it was a break even, service proposition and wasn't worth the hassle and cost of getting the vehicle bonded. So now we all sit at home unjamming our little waste basket shredders.

Here's a great international example - the British government thought they would show those dastardly bankers a thing or two and start putting an extra tax on high paid bank employees. Somebody ran the numbers at one company and figured out it was cheaper to fly in and out of Paris where there are no such laws to London than to continue operating in London. So they closed up shop and opened up a Paris office. Now the UK, thinking they'd get double the taxes, gets zero. Brilliant!

Reasonable regulations are one thing. The operative word is "reasonable".

get defensive

By nightmoves
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 8:59am

call me stupid and moron. real nice. say it to my face, any time, anyhere. your post is the most moronic thing i've read today. i actually work for the biggest company in boston, come "regulate" me. where do you work?

1) prove that it's harder for the NHL to do boston than chicago, DC, buffalo, pittsburgh. prove it, please. you won't. moron.
2) go to 1 ashburton, fill out a form, get a permit. not a maze. moron.
3) good, i'm glad you failed, no surprise because you're a stupid moron.

way to compare the permit process in boston to taxes on english bankers. a lot of parallels there. How does one even address this level of stupidity?

Back on O

By Stevil
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 9:58am

No - I just call 'em like I see 'em. for the record I work for myself.

in response:

1) a gentleman that was part of the organizing committee said so in a public meeting. I'll take him at his word - seemed people knew who he was. Mike Ross took LOTS of notes
2) You don't go to Ashburton to get city permits (and in point 2 above it took months to round up the 26 permits - you don't just fill them out - you have to round up all kinds of participants, corporate officers and officials to get signatures and info to make them valid)
3) Let's just say we only did the shred thing for one year - we didn't fail -but we determined it did not make sense to spend the resources on that event - I now operate a different event that blew past expectations the first time out this past September. That took one permit (that was reasonable - we let the parks department know that we would be there, they told us the rules and the real reason they needed the permit was so that they could come over and empty the trash the next day which was gone by the time I arrived at 8 am to double check our policing of the park - hats off to Bos Parks and Rec).

as for the bankers - the thread is on the Tea Pary and their stance against EXCESSIVE government regulation and taxes and its effects. the bankers were just an aside to show that when you regulate or tax too much you stifle business operations and/or end up with unintended consequences. Doesn't matter where or at what level of government.

One Question

By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:06am

How does Boston compare to other cities on this? I know that the northeast in general is really bad about requiring people to have permission to do anything - including needing handicap accessible accomodations - but I think it would be constructive and instructive to set up some comparisons.

Not that anybody in government on the Isolated Planet of Boston gives a fark, as they can't see how it possibly has anything to do with their continued ability to stay employed in the patronage system.

exactly

By nightmoves
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:16am

every city and town requires permits and licenses for a myriad of activities. the original post is about sniping over permits (not wall street). every other city that has and will host the winter classic will require permits. this isn't a debatable point. maybe if everyone did what they are supposed to do we wouldn't need these rules and laws, but they don't, so we do. i don't have sympathy for someone that has to get signatures and documents in order to undertake whatever venture we're talking about. don't be a whiner, just do what you have to do and stfu, no one cares.

The problem

By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:27am

Boston really is pretty excessive - did you realize that you can be required to have a demonstration permit if you are hanging out with more than two other people?

Seriously.

That said, there are a lot of "permit needed" situations in MA cities and towns that are totally aimed at keeping jobs for patronage reasons. There is also a whole lot of lack of coordination between departments - like, needing a permit from three places for the same thing. Not that NY or Chicago is much different, but other US cities have far less self-justifying bureacracy and pay more attention to the real safety and health stuff.

All the same, it would be intersting to examine of those permits that were required for the event described and see how much they cost and how many were really related to safety and health. Then it would be interesting to see which other cities would have required them, and what the cost would be. I would wager that there would be far fewer required permits and more consolidated permits in Portland OR or Atlanta or even Calgary than in Boston. I would also bet that a number of them were either spurious "need a permit for each electrical cord that gets plugged in" permits or permits that could and should have been consolidated.

just do what you have to do and stfu, no one cares

By Stevil
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:04pm

Actually people like me and many others who post regularly here do care (even if we don't agree) and we won't stfu until people like you wake up to the insanity of making life almost impossible for people just trying to do nice things like hold interesting, fun and useful events in the city. Of course you need some permits/regulation and laws. Nobody's arguing against all regulation - just excess regulation and your post that 80 plus permits is reasonable because people made money is ludicrous. Even more ludicrous are the 20-odd permits my friend had to get to put on a fundraiser for a local community group. Nobody was in it for the money and the city made her life hell for months by sending her from department to department and then back to all kinds of people for more information.

Here's one more - a few years ago the city handed out the little blue recycling baskets for free. Those for our 7 unit building had been stolen or broken over the years and we needed a few new ones. The city said we couldn't have new ones. As a 7 unit building as opposed to a 6 unit building we needed a "toter" on wheels - like what everyone gets now for free. Only thing was back then we had to buy ours and we were required to have them (so if we were 7 single family houses we could get 14 baskets for free - but as a single building they wouldn't give us the 4 we wanted and could fit in our closet- that was the rule). So we spent $150 to buy two mambo-sized toters. On top of that we had to write a letter to the unit owners informing them of the new toter/recycling law and then write to the city to tell them that we had written the note to the residents. And of course there was somebody on the other end dutifully making my life miserable until I had completed all said steps to be in compliance. All because we were trying to be good citizens and put out our properly separated recycling. See Swrrly's comments elsewhere- Boston is notorious for this crap which is what happens when one guy runs the show for almost 2 decades. At some point you just throw up your hands and say screw it - it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission for things like bonded shredder trucks :-)!

Red Menace

By BlackKat
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 3:33am

How inane. That's like saying you need a health inspection for a party, picnic, or a potluck dinner. Which is essentially what said formal tea party was a combination of. But then what does one expect of a group of people so selfish that they would accuse a kindergarten teacher of being socialist for teaching children about sharing.

Not "would," but "did!"

By eeka
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 4:10pm

I'm not sure whether Neal Boortz actually aligns with the Teabaggers, but I was flipping through his "Somebody's Gotta Say It" when I saw a stack of dozens of them on clearance for 50 cents, and he actually did say this! There's a section about how his child took a bag of candy to child care and was told children can't eat candy if they didn't bring enough for everyone (presumably the child care center also had rules about eating it at appropriate times and places). So he told the child care provider that this was unlawful search and seizure. Seriously. He found it to be "liberal nonsense" that the child care center has standards around manners and safety.

(Never mind that that part of the constitution refers to search and seizure by government bodies and that he had a business relationship with the child care, which would involve his agreeing to their policies. Don't want to let the facts get in the way of a good rant.)

Is it any wonder...

By Lecil
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 7:28am

In another bit of news making the rounds, the adults are trying to figure out what
to do about bullying at school. But really, given how childish the adults are all
behaving towards each other, can we expect kids to behave any different? After all,
they're just modeling behavior they are apparently going to need in adult life.
Bullying seems to be the standard mode of political conversation these days.

Grumph.

Unreal

By nightmoves
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 8:33am

you think any of the vendors shilling chinese made fleaparty swag had hawker/peddler licenses? give me a break. I should have called Tiger Stockbridge on them, now that would have been the height of comedy.

This is what Republicans in Boston have been reduced to

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