Hey, there! Log in / Register
Major Boston sporting event cooked up in private with unrealistic expectations
By adamg on Sat, 06/06/2015 - 5:54pm
No, not what you think. David Bernstein takes a look at the recently announced Grand Prix.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Low occupancy on Labor Day
I am suprised that Labor Day is such a quiet weekend, given all the parents dropping kids off for school.
The annual Grand Prix U-Haul truck race
down Storrow Drive.
Flee While You Can
Really. I can confirm that if you live in Allston or many other neighborhoods in Boston Labor Day does not promote a quite weekend. As such I try to make it a point to take a vacation around that period.
This is what happens
..when one of your key advisers was an event producer.
It's the old adage.."If your only tool is a hammer, you'll solve every problem with a nail."
We are seeing a pattern of glib speculation and easy breezy sales jobs marbled with the fat of 'a wishin' and a hopin'.
I guess the interesting question might be how these circuses will contribute to over all quality of life, if at all. It wouldn't hurt to wonder how a quarter of a million people will be shoe horned into the location given that it lacks the advantages of the usual event sites like the Esplanade or the Common.
Can the silver bus handle 250
Can the silver bus handle 250,000 passengers over the weekend or are people being encouraged to drive?
I didn't vote for Walsh
And I won't vote for him next time. This is what happens when you surround yourself with inexperience.
Looks like the 2024/Globe romance is cooling.
I can't remember if Shaughnessy is the sports writer people here despise as I despise sports and the globe in equal measure but this little repudiation landed in my Google News Masshole section.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/06/06/dan-shaughnessy-boston-oly...
The money quote begins with some interesting mealy mouthed double talk from the Mayor.
The translation seems to be that the deal is sliding into oblivion since the thing can't exist without a tax fleece.
It concludes with Globe/Shaughnessy whining about how 2024 bailed on a meeting with the editorial board. Probable translation:"After all that tail wagging and fluffing Leung gave you, you won't even show up for a lousy meeting."
So Lord Henry is steamed, evidently. The thrill is gone... it's over. Can I get a waaah?
Similar sausage making over at 2024.
The AP has an account of the fund raising shell game over at 2024 that echoes Grand Prix.
http://readingeagle.com/article/20150606/AP/306069853
Evidently the 2024 oligarchs rummaged through their couches for change to hand the less flush academic poohbahs they need for cred some fairly fat salaries. It's like a trend.
I used the Reading PA Eagle as it lacks a paywall nag routine and seems thrilled to get a few eyeballs.
Everything looks corrupt
Everything looks corrupt when corruption is what you want to see. Standard mechanism for staging festivals and events is private company designs event, private company files paperwork with city for permitting, etc. This is pretty much the same as the marathon, any parade, First Night, etc. Oh wait, there's a difference: it isn't a cherished tradition, so NIMBY Boston screams bloody murder.
It's not about corruption
..so much as the ham handed slovenliness that seems to mark many of these maneuvers.
Sure a bit of corruption might shake out under scrutiny, but the real noxious aspect of this scheming is how it is sprung on people. There isn't much evidence of prior ascertainment, querying impacted parties or giving feasibility a thorough look. The Mayor and these other schlubs just pull this stuff out of nowhere.
The other things were years in the making with lots of back and forth.
The best surprise is no surprise in these situations.
and also
corruption
Bullshit
If you want to to put on a parade, be my guest to design the event and file paperwork with the city for permits.
If you want to cordon off the streets to setup a race track and then require the city to jump through security, safety, repaving, etc. hoops with the "promise" of lots of revenue from the visitors (who haven't materialized in the past 10 years of racing the race) as "compensation" for the city having to setup the race track for you and make it safe and provide spectating areas, etc.... If you want ME to pay and go above and beyond and assume financial risks for YOU to have a race/Olympics/whatever, then you better show me the most conservative estimate of what it's going to cost and have a plan for what happens if things don't happen according to plan and YOU have to pay extra to get it to go off without a hitch. Otherwise, piss off.
If you want to hold a parade, I don't need to figure out if I'll recover the lost costs based on some pie-in-the-sky attendance figures you want to throw out there. If you want to hold a televised race with big name sponsors and supposedly hundreds of thousands of attendees, then you better be willing to share in the profits and not suddenly turn into a pumpkin the moment you realize you won't have any profits to share because your numbers prior to the event were bullshit.
Heckuva job!
You're doing a heckuva job, One-Term Walsh. Keep it up!