Mayor Menino Sinks Boston's Tall Ships
"Tall Ships tack in face of city's ire; Organizers to charge fees, invite fewer vessels" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | April 3, 2009
Sail Boston, bowing to pressure from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, said it would dramatically scale back its tall ships extravaganza this summer, a turnaround concession that would reduce one of the city's biggest and most majestic spectacles to a shorter event with fewer vessels, attracting smaller crowds.
The planned reduction would not only slash the number of ships coming to Boston, but reduce the number of docks they will visit and the hours they will remain in port. For the first time, Sail Boston would charge a fee to board the ships and view them up close.
The austere plan is a sharp reversal for Sail Boston, which until yesterday had defied the mayor, saying it would bring the full flotilla of 50 ships from 20 countries, despite missing a city-imposed deadline Tuesday to prove that it could pay for police and cleanup costs....
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Yesterday, city officials, still incensed by the missed deadline and defiant tone, reacted coolly to Sail Boston's latest plan, saying that they would consider it but that they were unsure whether the reductions went far enough....
Sail Boston officials announced the latest plan after a continuing barrage of criticism from the city, which escalated its attacks yesterday and dismissed the event as overhyped.....
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
What HYPOCRITES in the the "HUB!!!"
Of course, THEY ARE RIGHT -- and look who is FRONT-PAGING the HYPE!!!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
No wonder you guys are shutting down, covering garbage like this!!!!!
Julie A. Burns, the city's director of arts, tourism and special events, accused Sail Boston of callously draining the city budget to pay for ships as Boston is being forced to lay off teachers, police, and other city workers. Waterfront businesses, meanwhile, were deeply unsettled by the feud, saying they need the projected 1 million spectators to help them survive the recession.
James Carmody, vice president and general manager of the Seaport Hotel, said the six-day Tall Ships festival will generate $500,000 in business for his hotel. He said he has already sent promotional e-mails, proclaiming: "Come to Boston: you can stop on the Cape, come here for the tall ships, and walk the Freedom Trail."
"It's absolutely huge for us; it would make this summer," Carmody said. "Events like this put us on center stage in the world. . . . If we don't do this, what's going to replace it? How many restaurants are going to be empty? How many hotel suites are going to be empty?"
Alison Nolan, general manager of Boston Harbor Cruises, said she is planning to dispatch her entire fleet of 21 vessels for sightseeing tours and dinner and lunch cruises during Sail Boston week. She is anticipating 50,000 passengers, three times the number during a typical week. Some have already called to make reservations, she said.
Nolan said she told Sail Boston officials yesterday that she would donate one of her company's boats, the Majestic, as well as alcohol and food, for a fund-raiser for the tall ships' public safety costs. "The benefit to our business and businesses like ours is just so great," Nolan said. "We would hate to see the event not take place."
And the Globe must be for it, too; doesn't the article smack of that tone?
The dispute dates to 2000, when Sail Boston last brought the tall ships to the city....
And you are going to LOVE THIS!
It's not just the city that is concerned. Massport, which owns waterfront land where the tall ships will dock and the crowds will gather, said yesterday that it had asked Sail Boston for about $1 million "to cover the anticipated costs for security and guarantees of indemnification." "It is my understanding that so far we have yet to receive either," said Matt Brelis, a Massport spokesman.
Yup, LOOTING MASSPORT has to GET ITS CUT!!
Un-fucking-believable!!!!!
David Choate, project manager for Sail Boston 2009, said Sail Boston had not intended to ignore Tuesday's deadline, but that it had been difficult to raise the $2 million the city demanded. "It's a very tough economy," he said. "They understand the event provides a great economic stimulus for the city, but times are tough."
Yeah, yeah, CRY ME an OCEAN!!!!
Need $2 million from the city (or state reimbursement)?
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
How many times I gotta put them up?
He said that by curtailing the event and charging the public a fee to board the ships, Sail Boston could cover the public safety costs....
Yeah, well, YOU KNOW where you can STUFF YOUR TALL SHIPS, s***ter!
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"Sail Boston sends mixed signals on tall ships festival changes" by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | April 4, 2009
Sail Boston 2009, in an intensifying feud with Mayor Thomas M. Menino over the fate of the beloved tall ships festival this summer, appeared to back off concessions made to the city only a day earlier, sending a letter to supporters saying, "the tall ships are coming, as scheduled."
The letter, from Dusty S. Rhodes, Sail Boston project director, appeared to contradict key elements of a plan presented to city officials on Thursday to dramatically scale back the event: slashing the number of ships coming to Boston for the event and the amount of time they spend in port and, for the first time, charging the public a fee to board them.
"Sail Boston is free of charge, and we are working vigorously to keep it so," Rhodes wrote in the letter. "As we are all affected by the downturn in the economy, the board of Sail Boston feels more strongly than ever that this event must be kept free to the general public."
In a letter to Menino on Thursday, Sail Boston's president and chairman, Patrick B. Moscaritolo, suggested several ways to cut back the event and raise money by charging "a public safety fee, similar to a First Night button, to access the piers where the tall ships are docked."
The volley is the latest in what has become a war of wills between Menino and the tall ships organizers....
At this point, readers, I asked myself WHO REALLY GIVES a CRAP?
WHY am I WASTING YOUR VALUABLE TIME and MINE covering this inane garbage presented as front-section news!?
WTF do I CARE whether Boston has the ships in? I'M NOT GOING!!
Couldn't PAY ME or have wild horses drag me to the smelly-ass piers -- unless it was to DUNK a TARRED-and-FEATHERED POLITICIAN!!!!
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