I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream. The organizers of the famous Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert have been faced with a bizarre demand from U.S. land managers that the counterculture event supply special lodging, ice cream and other amenities to their staff working at the event. This includes 24-hour access to Chobani Greek Yogurt and a standalone freezer with Drumstick and Choco Taco ice cream for members of the United States Bureau of Land Management. The federal agencies have been steadily tacking on costs on the events and increasing the fees from $1 million in 2011 to an anticipated $5 million this year. The special compound for federal employees have been estimated to cost as much as $1 million.
Members of Congress have complained in letters that the demands are excessive and self-serving. Burning Man is now a major attraction for state businesses, bringing 70,000 people to the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada — with an estimated $35 million to the local economy each year.
The Bureau also demanded a so-called Blue Pit lodging facility that would have restroom trailers with flushable toilets, a washer and dryer room for laundry, and what have been called VIP accommodations in so-called “container apartment” units.
U.S. Representative Mark Amodei, a Republican representing the district, called the demands “the Black Rock Desert version of the Four Seasons hotel.” The Bureau has not responded.
Nick:
“A snapshot as to why so many people have no respect for entitled government employees.”
Exactly. Is the a government behaving as if it is answerable to the people? It needs to be reined in, not keep amassing more power and influence over our day to day lives.
Karen – there have been complaints that the Ninth Circuit seems to have more than its fair share of conventions in Hawaii. And for some reason they don’t seem to convention in Wyoming.
I like Michael Savage’s nickname for them: “The 9th Jerket Court of Schlemiels.”.
bam bam, I agree though I’m not sure that much is required given the relatively short duration of the festival. I don’t agree that the festival should have to arrange for more than the basics for any agency personnel, whether it’s security staff or agency “VIP”s.
I don’t have an issue with the BLM establishing a reasonable minimum for housing for staff who must be present to provide services. After all, they are there as part of their jobs, not because they want to experience whatever “burning man” has become. However, there is no reason they should be required to provide more than that minimum for any member of that staff. I work for a local public entity in a rural area. Various employees of that public entity sometimes have to travel for training as such resources are not available locally. The same rules regarding acceptable expenses (shared hotel rooms when possible and hotel level, expenses for only one vehicle for up to five attending employees, meal cost limits, etc) apply whether you are road yard staff or the chief administrative officer or agency head. Anything above the minimum conditions, the employee or officer arranges and pays for. And we have an auditor who provides a regular expense report to the local paper. Checks and balances-it’s a wonderful thing.
I guess I’m a little confused by this article. Since I am unfamiliar with this festival, could anyone state just how long this event actually lasts? Days? Weeks? Months? If it lasts for any significant period of time and must be staffed 24 hours a day by individuals in the middle of the hot Nevada desert, why is it wrong to require toilets that flush and laundry facilities for the employees who must stay on the property for an extended time period? I’m assuming that the average worker is not commuting to the middle of the Nevada desert and would need to live on the property. An extra 35 million to the local economy would seem to justify the basic amenities, including the free yogurt and ice cream. Big deal over nothing. Hell, I’d throw in some free popsicles if it meant that people required to work in the Nevada desert were kept happy and hydrated. Look for wasteful spending elsewhere. There’s plenty of it.
Dang. didn’t close the bold html again. Sorry 🙁
A snapshot as to why so many people have no respect for entitled government employees.
Exactly. Here is a story about some of those entitled government employees. It is a feel good one. Long but do read.
Where we live there are often forest fires. The most recent fire burned over 60,000 acres in various locations. When there is a big fire crews come from all over and from many agencies. We have Federal, CDF (fondly known as Can’t Deal with Fire), various crews from cities and counties in Ca and from other States, volunteer fire departments and the work crews from the “con camps” consisting of inmates. Arial equipment both government and private. Water tenders. Large equipment, tractors, graders government and other privately owned construction types.
Most of the crews pitch tents at the local Fair Grounds which has large shade trees and a shower facility (mostly used when there is a rodeo for the cowboys). The fire fighters (GOD Bless them!!!!) work all day fighting the fires, cutting down trees, making fire breaks…… and then collapse in their tents where the temperatures during the day can soar into the high 90’s.or even higher (it was 111 yesterday)
There is only ONE large hotel in the immediate vicinity and it is an historical building that has been remodeled. Nevertheless there are not bathrooms in all rooms and not every room is “air conditioned”. It is an OLD historical building and has a dining room, cafe and bar. The patrons are usually those who fly in from SF and other areas to fly fish, hunt wildfowl or play golf. They are 100% booked up during the seasons. It is good enough for the millionaires but evidently not good enough for CDF
So……here come the CDF muckty mucks who tell the hotel owner, who had booked them into the rooms, at a discount, that the accommodations he chose for them are just not acceptable because EACH one of the muckty mucks must have a separate room, WITH air conditioning. That he should shuffle all the other people, who have made reservations months in advance, around to accommodate them It is their right because “Rank has its privileges” Yes! One guy actually said that.
Now these are the guys who stand in the back ground with their clipboards, directing traffic. While their underlings sleep on the ground in hot tents and are eating in a chow hall style…..doing the real hard dangerous grunt work of battling the fires……… Not sitting at the bar like the superior beings who are also eating in the nice dining hall, these guys were offended that they might have to spend a few nights without A/C
The hotel owner told them: “Go pound sand. I’m giving your rooms to those who were evacuated from their homes due to the fire. Get out of my hotel and don’t come back”. After they were gone the owner got a bit Atta Boy from everyone of the locals. The locals were all offended by the entitled attitude that while the real fire fighters were sleeping on the ground these guys where whining about their rooms. Really?
They were shocked shocked shocked. How could someone deny them the air conditioned comfy rooms? They are entitled, doncha know. Where they slept that night or in future nights. Who cares?
Burning Man is a case study of class division. Extraordinarily wealthy people come in luxury land yachts which require amazing amounts of energy to maintain. They also bring a gigantic retinue of servants whom are often mistreated. I would rather the BLM arrest those who exploit the people they hired and impose fines for the destruction of land.
The original idea has disappeared some time ago. Typically when an event such as this is planned for, it is no longer of its original intention. When I lived in France, there would be occasions when we would discover a Gipsy musical gathering or some such event that was ‘off the grid’. The next time it was typically organized and orchestrated. That ended that.
Burning man has passed into the realm of Cirque du Soleil and might be better off it was to be managed by the same outfit.
Give em free ice cream. With laxatives.
Burning Man hasn’t been counterculture for a long time. It’s evolved into a trendy camp out in the middle of a dry like bed and tickets sell out quickly each year.
The BLM doesn’t like how out of hand and hard to manage it’s getting and I suspect, versus outright denial of permits and such, this is their hamhandedly bureaucratic method of trying to price Burning Man into nonexistence.
Does any wonder why no one likes the BLM?
And I should be ctritcized for my spelling.
BLM should be heavily ctriticized for not also asking for chauffeured limousines and pedicures for its staff.
Why not? I mean bankers steal $5 trillion from the economy to keep their bonuses going. Why should BLM not get in on the act? I dont care if you don’t get a piece of the pie. I want mine and I want it now!
How ridiculous. Government fees have increased from ~1M 4 years ago to 4M last year, to ~5M with this proposal. Apparently the government believes that they should benefit because other people have been successful in creating something out of nothing. Greed and entitlement.
Bring a few shuttle buses and take the employees off duty back to town.
‘And add on Tacos, ice cream, and massages, what, you think that’s going too far? Nah’
There is abuse of power and then there is just plain stupid. The BLM, if any one there had half a brain, should have simply demanded a flat sum expense account and then spend it on whatever. The only thing worse than a crook is a stupid crook. In my years of being self employed I got beat from time to time. In a fair fight, beaten by someone who is really good at it is a learning experience. An attempt by an idiot is just embarrassing. Something must begin to decay in the brain of people who get so high up and removed from common sense.
This is like the South Park dilema: on one side you have a giant douche. On the other, a shit sandwich.
Aren’t there any spare FEMA trailers?
A snapshot as to why so many people have no respect for entitled government employees.
We all fiddle while Rome burns
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