Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Mass Gatherings
In May, Joe Fierro got a mass gathering permit to shut down Warren Street between Third and Fourth streets for what was expected to be a giant car show. He had obtained a mass gathering permit from the mayor, but his plans to close down the street for most of a Saturday came as a surprise to his commercial neighbors on the block, whose businesses were impacted by the street closure.
This fiasco inspired the Legal Committee of the Common Council to undertake to amend the application process for a mass gathering permit, but some of the proposed changes are drawing criticism, and, according to today's Register-Star, the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee is unhappy with them, too, which seems a bit bizarre since Alderman David Marston (First Ward), who chairs the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee, is a member of the Legal Committee that drafted the changes. John Mason reports what transpired at last Wednesday's AE&T Committee meeting: "Proposed mass gathering rules ruffle feathers."
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It's too bad you weren't present, Carole, perhaps you would have had a better sense of the tone. I'm merely looking for input from a Committee that, as the article quotes former AE&T Chair Ellen Thurston, "advocates for people who do this kind of event".
ReplyDeleteIt’s important that we consider draft laws from each constituency’s perspective, but I certainly wouldn't qualify this as either “ruffled feathers”, like the Register did, or "bizarre", as you have.
Puzzling why the press would expect each committee to operate in a vacuum, and if we don't, it’s a matter of some drama.