TURD IN THE PUNCHBOWL: WHO PAID CITY EXPENSES FOR FLUGTAG EVENT?
By Bill Pearl
What happens when a major corporate entity stages a promotional event that’s free and fun along the LB shoreline on a warm summer day? About 100,000 people show up.
That’s fine with us, as long as City Hall requires the corporate outfit staging the promotional event to pay its way. More than a few people who attended this past weekend’s Red Bull “Flug Tag” event said they saw city personnel delivering services in large numbers.
This morning, LBReport.com is making a freedom of information (CA Public Records Act) request to find out exactly what arrangements City Hall made with Red Bull for its Flug Tag event.
CONTINUE READING AT LBREPORT.COM
7 Comments
Citizen Journalist Rant of the Day – Double Standards
Regarding LBReport.com’s Perspective – “A Turd in the Punchbowl: LBReport.com Seeks City Hall Records Showing Who Paid City Expenses For Corporate Flug Tag Event,” dated Aug. 23, 2010.
Is the four-letter word “turd” deemed to be appropriate journalism when used by LBReport.com but the four-letter word “crap” deemed to be inappropriate when used by a reader in a comment to LBReport.com?
My assessment of Saturday’s FlugTag event: Watching from a way overcrowded lagoon shoreline as rolling pieces of assembled junk and papier-mache are dumped into the water really wasn’t fun or interesting.
Your time was automatically better spent if you didn’t attend.
Ugh. An interesting inquisitive piece, but harmed by a disgusting headline. At least for those of us out of junior high.
Hello everyone. My name is Piode and I am a Flugtagaholic.
I went to Saturday’s event. It wasn’t the first one.
I admit to being deeply conflicted about Flugtag.
On the one hand, it’s a hoot. If you are a fan of tongue-in-cheek humor, it may be the ultimate example of its kind–”Yeah, I’m going to climb onto this hunk of papermache and 1×2′s and fly to the Queen Mary. Reach an altitude of 7,500 feet on the way. Meet you in the bar.” The inevitability of dueling with personal injury as the combined effect of bravado and gravity is funny. Not sophisticated, mind you– just funny.
On the other hand, destruction as entertainment (with the exception of fireworks and, OK, demolition derbys) is not high on my list. Using up material goods just to get a laugh just seems somehow wrong to some part of me. But, you know, there is that elemental concept of “creative destruction” and all, and if it’s good enough for the bachae, Einstein and Shiva, I figure something important is being served up here.
But the destruction that I think is a little harder to countenance is the destruction of the physical lives of any unlucky participants. I would be greatly relieved to learn that in the 19 years of hosting Flugtag, Red Bull has not paralyzed at least two participant extremities. I would be both greatly relieved–and greatly surprised. On Saturday, we saw people taken from the water on backboards, heads still in helmets but taped into immobility. It is sad to think of lives significantly and permanently altered as a cost of this entertainment.
To the point of Bill Pearl’s story — I assume that participants sign all kinds of disclaimers before they are allowed to launch from the Red Bull ramp, but who pays for the paramedic attention, hospital attention, rehab attention and lost wages and companionship and all? Is the City of Long Beach safely out of reach of anyone being seriously injured and filing a lawsuit?
pearl is an anti taxer who begrudges the city spending money on anything he doesnt consider essential.
It’s an interesting debate: using city services vs. bringing in visitor dollars. It would be nice if you waited until you had some actual information *before* writing something, though.
you ought to give us a link to your blog so we can see how its done…