Life and Limb

During the takedown of the stage, which took place from midnight to 4:00 am, the worst damage yet was done to one of the trees in the park.  Maybe if the take-down crew had waited to take down the stage when the sun was shining today -- instead of keeping me up all night with their clanging and banging -- further destruction from this event would not have been inflicted on the park's trees :

But does Detroit, like world-class cities across the country, have ordinances on the book protecting city trees from being damaged?  If so, I hope they go after the event's volunteer coordinators and the Lowe's volunteers who helped get rid of the evidence.  If not, then it's just look-the-other-way, business-as-usual at city hall.

Where is the outcry from the city's union foresters or The Greening Of Detroit?

Not A World-Class City?

"We have to be realistic ... We're not a world-class city."
-- George Jackson, DEGC

How do soi-disant "world-class cities" handle event permitting, one might ask?  Let's take a circle-tour around the continent and see how world-class municipalites respond to unreasonable permits:

San Francisco is concerned about the public's safety during large events.

New York City doesn't seem to like large crowds.

And all they wanted to do in Olympia, Washington was baptize one of their faithful, but the state wouldn't have it -- something about church/state separation, or what-not.

In Toronto, city officials seem to be bothered by "issues related to noise, parking, damage to turf, excessive garbage and failure to clean up."

But the prize for best response to city park permit requests goes to Santa Barbara, California, "The American Riviera," where officials demanded $9,000 when extra police were needed to control the previous year's crowd and billed the event organizers an undisclosed amount for damages to city sidewalks.  The city eventually denied one group a permit because of crowd control and parking issues and past event mismanagement.

Considering that damage sometimes happens when one drives 18-wheelers into a park, one has to wonder if Detroit does what Salt Lake City does, if it requires event organizers to be bonded to cover any damage, accidental or otherwise, to city property.

But as George Jackson said, we aren't world-class, folks.