I'm still uncomfortable
About Arts, Beats & Eats
The Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Development Authority co-sponsored a show-and-tell hour at Stagecrafters, at which the spokesman for Arts, Beats & Eats used a well-designed Power Point presentation to explain how the event is going to work. He covered everything from shuttles for residents and businesses to accommodate their inconvenience, to where the bands and children's activities will be located; and from the event's footprint, to the cost of exhibits for those local businesses which may want to participate; and from how the parking meters on Main Street will be covered, to how selected non-profits will benefit.

He's done this about a dozen times in Pontiac, so his presentation was upbeat, even when he had to address such matters as having to deny participation by this or that local business, because a long-time AB&E partner has an exclusive. And he put a positive spin on how, if all goes well financially, Royal Oak might be reimbursed the up-front money it is contributing.

I'm still uncomfortable, at two levels. First, readers can count me among those who are certain that AB&E is too large an event to be hosted in Royal Oak and that there will be, not just inconvenience, but disruption of downtown life for several days.

More important, I continue to be uncomfortable about the lack of transparency with which the City agreed to participate. In discussions with both like-minded people and those who think hosting the event is a great idea, here are several shared nagging questions.

• Only a few days after news reports that Pontiac was refusing to subsidize AB&E, as it had apparently done for years, the matter was added to the Royal Oak CITCOM agenda -- after the meeting had begun. This or that official carefully acknowledges having been talked to or written to during those several days. From conversing with those officials, one can justifiably suspect that one or two non-quorum gatherings (or at least round-robin conference calls) took place.
• Then, with less discussion than when CITCOM wants assurance that drinkers in an event's beer tent won't be walking downtown streets with a cup of beer in their hands, the commission approves an event whose very nature is that people will be walking around with beer.
• The city's finances are so stretched that we're "attritioning" staff, including Public Safety, yet we're putting up-front money into an event that apparently cost Pontiac money every year. There's no assurance the contribution will be reimbursed. And, for those who insist "It's all the city's money," it's not an answer that some or all of the contribution is coming from the DDA.
• At the CITCOM meeting where approval was railroaded through, the condition was raised that if the city could not guarantee parking space by January 15, the deal was off. Well, at the January 28 presentation, we heard that the sponsoring group is still working with private owners, the zoo, the community college.
• The promise that Royal Oak will benefit from the publicity, and its reputation as an entertainment destination will be enhanced. Come on, Brooks Patterson chose Royal Oak because it already is an entertainment destination.
• There continues to be talk that an Advisory Committee, including residents, will be established.  A couple of individuals who have been told they will serve on that committee attended the Stagecrafters session. One wondered, "Is this the Advisory Committee?" about the 100 or so people in the auditorium. Too soon for the committee to have useful input? The rest of the process has moved so rapidly that it is not unreasonable to suspect the committee may be called to meet only when it can be presented with a decision already made. Sort of like a Public Hearing is, now and then.

Obviously, some kind of deal has been cut:

-- Those who distrust all government are suggesting that the mayor, the city manager, the commissioners (including those who challenge even such innocent alcohol events as a glass of wine at a beauty parlor), the police chief, the head of the DPS -- all have them have been bribed. An unlikely scenario, but the suspicion is out there.

-- Those who insist it is impossible to think that [name your favorite officials] would accept a bribe scan the political arena, looking for the content of some kind of quid pro quo arrangement with Oakland County. After all, Brooks Patterson is said to have founded AB&E, and he was early, VersagiVoice was told, to assure Royal Oak officials that the very public "leak" that Royal Oak was being considered as Pontiac's replacement was not intended to pressure Pontiac into reversing its decisions not to subsidize this year's festival. Is there some political/procedural exchange of favors?

If newspapers were not so understaffed and financially fragile, this is the kind of situation which would call for old-fashioned investigative reporting by multiple reporters. If, as I expect, there has been no illegal corruption, no bribes of individuals, such an investigation would at least clarify how and why AB&E was moved so quickly through a commission infamous for micromanagement and delay. -- 01 Feb 10

CITCOM was joking, right?
In what came through as a scripted farce, CITCOM approved a proposed contract  with the promoter of Arts, Beats & Eats after the issue was, apparently, added to the agenda at the last minute. I'll wait until next week to comment on how it came to be that three newbies and two congenitally anti-alcohol veterans came to agree to having tens of thousands of people drinking in the streets of downtown Royal Oak for a 4-day festival.

And I'll be ready to admit my error if this afternoon's press conference doesn't confirm my suspicion that the promoter is using Royal Oak as a foil to help push Pontiac into continuing its 12-year subsidy of  the event.

In the meantime, I hope to see the West of West residents' lobby reactivate. -- FJV: 08 Dec 09
 

§ You and I are in total agreement on AB&E.  So many things have not been worked out -- at least, not publicly worked out. . . . Emagine was steamrolled, but not to the extent that Arts, Beats & Eats has been. . . . How could what you call the three newbies vote intelligently on a rushed project? . . . How were they convinced before the meeting? Who convinced them? . . . No once-a-year event can be a magic bullet for bringing customers to downtown businesses. . .  The commission has been bought. . . . Why no Public Hearing? . . . A dozen years of AB&E in Pontiac led to nice downtown places being replaced by sleazy dives. . . . The DDA's up-front $100,000 would be better spent on business recruitment and retention.