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No DIY festival at Ringer Park this year, but city says it will try to find another location
By adamg on Tue, 05/28/2013 - 12:48pm
The city Parks and Recreation Department won't give organizers of the Allston DIY Fest permission for their annual music/arts festival at Ringer Park in Allston this year, citing noise complaints from some neighbors, but issued this statement today:
Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner Antonia Pollak spoke to the DIY organizers this morning during an event at Ringer Park. Commissioner Pollak told the group representatives that she would be happy to meet to discuss alternative locations that would be more appropriate than Ringer Park for a day-long concert with more than two dozen bands. The Commissioner said that due to public safety concerns she would invite the Boston Police Department to attend the meeting.
There's an online petition asking the city to let the festival back into Ringer:
This year's festival--should our permits be approved--will be comprised of neighbors, local musicians and artists, Boston Public School students and their families, as well as local organizations and community based charities. If the community can’t use the park, who can--and what is it there for? This is a petition not just for our festival, but for all events in the park.
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Comments
There should be events at Ringer Park
Ringer Park itself is a beautiful piece of property, but it's poorly maintained and is known to attract some sketchy people. Bringing more people and more attention to Ringer Park as a place to go can only be good for it.
More Festivals = Less Junkies
Have to concur. The only way to make a park less prone to being a site for shooting galleries and muggings is for it to be constantly populated with legitimate recreation.
They should hold community sponsored events there constantly:
musical festivals
craft fairs
carnivals (Brookline just had a great one at Eliot Street funding the Eliot School - why not do something for Jackson-Mann or West End?)
organized basketball or tennis or little league games
As for the complaining neighbors, these events are in the middle of the day. There should be lots of noise that the neighbors of the park hear, happy sounds of people having fun at the park.
Of course Ringer park has another problem which needs to be addressed before it can be well used - proliferate dog poop.
dog poop!
completely agree with that last statement! allston hipsters are too good to clean up after their greyhounds/ pitbulls/ yorkies...
This is utter and complete
This is utter and complete bullshit. When I saw the petition I was angered but felt relieved when I saw the mass amount of signatures supporting the event in Ringer Park. This feels like BU paying off the city to keep everything now cleancut out of the neighborhood... So did the Parks Department just decide to ignore the very people they're supposed to serve? And what for? How do we begin the process of recalling them??
But they're fine with Aerosmith blocking my way to work, thus getting me fired...
Oh Menino...
I don't think it's BU, I
I don't think it's BU, I think its a few neighbors that would rather have a vacant park, however neglected, than one that is active but noisy.
I do wonder about the public safety question, though. Did they get too many people last year for the permit the applied for (i.e. Didn't pay the police enough for the size of the event?
Sigh. I think this is exactly the kind of event we should be having, the kind of thing that gets people involved, makes people think of Allston as a community, not just a place they are passing though, and may even make them think about staying longterm, and Ringer Park was a great venue.
I hope the Parks Department can be convinced to change it's mind.
Not just a few
" I think its a few neighbors that would rather have a vacant park, however neglected, than one that is active but noisy."
Bingo. For all the (justifiable) complaints Allston residents have about Harvard's land banking, when there are proposals to develop their property for housing or a park, abutters oppose it and/or insist on passive use only. I've come to believe that a lot of them like things the way they are, however much they pretend to protest.
Seriously? WTF.
Safety concerns?
You know those DIYers, they get really rowdy with their 3D printers....
Permits...
Hmm. So I read a couple of articles... one of them stated that the organizers claimed (on their permit) that the event would only draw 100 people, an event that had about 1,000 people last year. Those permits are how the police plan for how many extra people they might want to have on hand, how much traffic disruption there's gonna be etc...
I think that this festival should go on, and I think Ringer Park is a great venue for it. I also wish the organizers had been above board when they filled out the permits.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/editorials/2013/05/26/b...
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/05/28...
It's the blatant lies to the
It's the blatant lies to the people of Allston that make me worried about that Boston Magazine article, and I cannot believe the Parks Dept dragged Steve Annear into this because usually his articles are great. This are false flags. Anyone who takes time to look up photos of videos from past events will realize that overcrowding couldn't have been an issue. I was leaving the park last year there were already seven or eight tied up bags of trash. I even recall one cop walking around talking to community members and having what seemed like a good time. It seemed like we were coming together as a neighborhood which made me gleeful for this year. Who is in charge from the Parks Dept?
Is there another park in
Is there another park in allston big enough for three stages? Why not ask Harvard to use some of their land?
Seems like a big stereotype and disservice to the young professionals of Allston.
While it's less convenient,
While it's less convenient, there's plenty of space in the parkland along the river.
Craziness
I have been to the DIYs. They are tremendous. And very respectful. There may be some noise (music!) on the Saturday but, WTF!, this should be totally allowed in our neighborhood. I live close by and have no issue with it. It is quintessential Allston.
Politics are at play here. And we, the residents, suffer for it.
Yeah, I don't understand why
Yeah, I don't understand why JP gets to have a (fantastic and inspiring) community Wake Up the Earth Festival that shuts down roads all day while Allston can't have a small craft fair + music show + educational workshops in an expansive, central, yet out of the way spot like Ringer Park?? No traffic to block, and tons and tons of space. It's one of the few events that's well attended by both families & young hip things, it's free, and it's a really fun celebration of what makes Allston unique and my favorite place to live! Long live DIY fest!!
Councilor Ciommo
Councilor Ciommo should be pitching this. What's his position?
Ciommo's position
Hiding in the corner as he often seems wont to do.
Is there a trend here?
Last week, the Taste of the Beacon Hill was denied city permits for its event because "That's an especially busy day in the city," according to City's director of arts, tourism, and special events. The AIDS Walk, Corrib Road Race and Dorchester Day Parade are the same day.
And now an event in Allston can't take place in a park, because people wanting to use that park are making noise?
I don't buy it. Someone's pulling strings.
Yet we were able to get through this past weekend with Anime Boston, baseball games, and games at The Garden without any trouble.
Ringer Park is for the community
As a longtime resident of Allston/Brighton with children attending Jackson Mann, I am sad to see that the city won't allow DIY to continue it's annual event at Ringer Park. I attended last year and had a great time. What a wonderful way to bring together a community and to use a local park. Not only was there music, but there were workshops and activities for children. I find all the objections rather moot - every event makes noise; there's parking at the school (which supports the DIY events); there were never more than 200 people at any one time. Hopefully the city will relent and let this and other events happen at Ringer Park. It would be really nice if everyone could sit down and try to come to a compromise in how best to move forward in holding this event and future ones.