Our Parks
Chronicle of a Masterful Preemptive Move
And brief, the briefest.
Dozens of Downtown residents had written to Commissioner Carollo and the Bayfront Park Management Trust. The Downtown Neighbors Alliance spearheaded the campaign. Some twenty residents showed up at the stage of Bayfront Park’s amphitheater for the Board meeting (February 14 at noon) and waited more than an hour for the meeting to start as Board members leisurely lunched.
Residents were fired-up and wielded their written notes impatiently. Of course, this being election season for District 2, two candidates showed up ready to ally with the masses — a figure of speech.
Commissioner Carollo Arrived
He motioned to move up the item all were waiting for so that residents didn’t have to wait any longer. And he supported what everyone had asked, that the status quo prevailed. That is, limit event hours at Bayfront Park to 10 pm on weekdays, 11 pm on weekends, and the decision to extend an event to midnight be approved by a special majority vote of the Park Board in a noticed public meeting — not left at the discretion of the Park’s Executive Director. And they discussed the amount of the fine/fee for extending the time limit. It had to be stiff enough to deter. Commissioner Carollo suggested $100,000 per hour would do the trick. The final decision on the fine/fee and other details was deferred to March.
What did the attendees do with their notes?
Did they toss them into the wind? No, no littering. They said what they came prepared to say anyway, unleashing a long-winded back and forth. Half had left as 2 pm approached, including this chronicler.
End of story.
