The Bottom Rail by verbal shredwright
Pointed and provocative views on real issues facing locals and visitors across the mountains.
Heads they win… Tails you lose!
Go with the flow… or maybe which ever
way the wind blows? Amazing how stories change when the "right"
people want something… just depends who the "right" people are
and what they want or need. Recently, articles have appeared
about some resort towns investing more into long established
special events that already get significant funding. Why is this
odd you may ask? Good question. Maybe because these events
should already have corporate sponsorships that are paying their
bills, or at least that's what other promoters have been told
when their events seek money… even if they are locals, veterans
or disability owned businesses serving greater community
interests.
Community grants and sponsorships
were often represented as a way to start-up a new event on the
local calendar. The idea was to help fund creative events and
use the local brand name of the destination to attract visitors
and in turn corporate sponsors would see the value in the
presences and associations and take over a bulk of the annual
funding. Then the money would be available to help start the
next events and so on. The guiding principle was supposed to be
putting heads in beds, after all every mountain is a
destination… so destination events are a no brainer. However,
the optics are telling us there's probably more here than meets
the eye. Maybe the smell test too
Who you know and what you already
have always was the key to small town politics and business.
Life's not fair. Fair, as they say, is a place where they judge
pigs… you don't see many pigs beyond the rich ones here getting
fatter and fatter on community funding. It's more important for
the privileged promoters to send their kids to private schools,
live in mansions and take more expensive island vacations. Just
tell the local people they wouldn't understand or that its just
the event or music business. After all what do you expect from
people who take for granted having more than enough? It's like
how billionaires never want to pay their fair share in taxes,
while expecting and trying to justify the local taxpayers fund
their new stadiums. We know this to be true so why wouldn't
local rich people exploit their connections to local politics
and community funding in the very same way?
The idea those who have the
connections and existing relationships somehow are able to be
exempted from the same rules and requirements that prevent other
local promoters from fair and equal consideration and funding is
reprehensible. Keep in mind the playing field is not level when
one promoter is charged a different price for the same
facilities or services. How is that helping the community? Let
alone be able to get additional money when others, including
local, disability and veteran owned businesses are ignored,
denied and excluded is truly shameful intentional or not.
Special event committees are often incapable of separating their
conflict of interests, cronyism and personal relationships to
apply policies and procedures fair and equitably to all event
programs. It appears they forgot... t
Interpretation and application of
such policies are often the excuses used to exclude all kinds of
people, promoters and events… they certainly are not guidelines
on how to include them regardless of local viability, or being
veteran or disability owned. Often good ideas are suddenly and
curiously appropriated, replicated or duplicated by other locals
or "approved" promoters. In other words it's rare for someone
other than the same old… good old boy network to exploit the
names of our mountains and communities for profits for
themselves, their cronies and hand picked businesses over and
over again.
Monopolies, oligopolies and cartels are not good for any sector of a free society or economy, except the richest few profiting from the continued cycle of collusion, exclusion and discrimination… that's what they'd call it if it was being done to them. Let's face it... it's not easy to say no to people you know... and it's much easier to say no to someone you do not. Connecting the most creative and deserving ideas with the funding they need is the path to meaningful change instead of continuing events that have run their course and perpetuate the optics of corruption, backroom deals and business as usual that got us here in the first place. No matter how long you or your family have lived in the community... regardless of how much money you have… there's no monopoly on vision, passion and good ideas!
