So cash-starved are some units of the national park system that they're resorting to leasing out their facilities for private parties. One of the latest bashes, at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston earlier this week, didn't lack for alcohol, reportedly involved one arrest, and generally impeded the public in places.
Yet officials at Boston National Historical Park, of which the Navy Yard is part of, are focusing on the bottom line, which, in this case, are the fees they collect for renting out the facilities.
The affair, which BNHP spokesman Sean Hennessey told me represented "a more entrepreneurial way of managing, providing revenue streams over and above what is provided to us in our operating allocations," was hosted by McKesson Corporation, a health-care company. The guest list, Mr. Hennessey told me, numbered 3,500.
Now, in the past the Navy Yard has hosted some pretty big affairs, like the Tall Ships celebration in 2000, and the bicentennial salute to the USS Constitution in 1997. However, unlike the McKesson bash, those were public events, open to the public. Access to the McKesson party was controlled, I understand, by wristbands, there were "Private Event" signs, and the many tents they set up impeded public access to parts of the Navy Yard.
While my conversation with Mr. Hennessey led me to believe this was going to be a somewhat low-key affair lasting only two evening hours or so, I understand it took crews three days to set up all the tents and run electrical cables across the Navy Yard. Some of the cables ran in front of gang planks leading to some of the ships, including the USS Cassin Young. The party itself apparently didn't wind down until 1 a.m.
Throughout the day of the event delivery trucks were seen cruising up and down Pier 1. As you can see from the accompanying photo, some of the deliveries involved quite a bit of alcohol. I understand that one of the attendees possibly imbibed a bit too much, got into an argument with an interpretive ranger and even the park's chief of interpretation, and later was seen being escorted off the grounds in handcuffs.
While Mr. Hennessey told me none of the grounds, outside of the tents set up for McKesson, would be off-limits to other park visitors, I understand that at one point there was an effort to block non-McKesson visitors from accessing the USS Cassin Young. In the end, though, a decision was made that if the ship was going to be open for McKesson's guests, it had to be open for everyone in the park.
To help arrange these types of affairs, Boston National Historical Park officials a few years ago retained Amelia Occasions, a company that specializes in special events and wedding planning. Amelia's agreement with the park is similar to the concessionaire contracts parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone and Grand Canyon have in that they require the company to pour a certain amount of money back into the park.
According to Mr. Hennessey, who didn't know how much McKesson was charged for using the Navy Yard, Amelia spent $30,000 last year on roof repairs to the commandant's house at the Navy Yard, and some funds were also spent on plumbing repairs.
"It’s that kind of contingency uses of the funds that are being encouraged through this kind of arrangement," he told me. They "provide a revenue stream to help us with the upkeep, maintenance, education programs. That kind of thing. It augments what is provided to us.”
Is the National Park Service so broke that $30,000 is a reasonable amount to allow a private company to take over a unit of the national park system, bring in truckloads of alcohol, and close off sections to the general public?
National Park Service Director Mary Bomar has promised to operate the agency "more like a business," but I question whether this sort of affair, and the one earlier this month at Alcatraz, while helping the NPS pay its bills, is an appropriate business use for the national park system.
Is it appropriate when there's drunkenness involved, as supposedly was the case at both events, and drug use, as allegedly took place at the Alcatraz event?
I would say not.
Comments
Haunted hiker, Beamis: You two are right on.
"I'll take a park that is run 'like a business' versus one that is run like a stagnant bureacracy [sic] anytime."
Amen! How can anyone support the bloated pigs? Parks should be run efficiently like successful businesses, not like Marxist regimes.
Oh and re: Anonymous and Modoc: OUCH! SMACK! Were facts not verified? Was false information put out on the Internet? Wouldn't be the first time.
Parks run "like a business" would be eternally seeking a profit, be concerned with attracting more people to the park, advertise, etc. This is not what the National Parks are all about. That's what ski resorts and Atlantic City are all about, and they don't seem to be doing too well. Some people will just never be happy with the amount of money they make (never enough) or the amount of taxes they must pay to keep things going (always too much).
I already can't believe I see huge billboards in our community advertising Navy Football and Towson University Basketball. The last thing we need is a billboard imploring people to visit Dry Tortugas National Park.
-- Jon Merryman
What about the examples of Mount Vernon and Monticello? Why is business efficiency always equated with such super "evil" motives like showing a profit? Eating is more important than going to national parks, so why don't you advocate that the government take over the grocery business, because obviously we could never trust the "evil" motives of the market place to efficiently feed the masses, now could we? After all the Interior Department is such a pargaon of virtue and selflessness now ain't it? Just ask Jack Abramoff. Your boundless faith in Big Brother's abilities is truly astounding. Just look around and ask yourself what has the government ever done that is consistently efficient and-first rate?
I'll take a billboard of a national park any day over one for Bud Light or some lame FM radio station. It might even brighten up your dreary Maryland commute.
heaven forbid parks were operated to profit parks rather than "managed" to fill the coffers of congresspeople and the bloated nps bureaucracy. heaven forbid the parks make a "profit" to be reinvested into the "business" of preservation and recreation.
let the waste bleed all over the land and declare yourself superior to free market. that's the government way.
Before there was a grocery business, people grew their own vegetables, had their own chickens, milked their own cow, shot their own turkey. It was never the government's place to feed everyone so your analogy is a bit off the mark. I much prefer the anaology of the grand job Halliburton's band of American patriots has done in the name of fighting terrorism. My greatgrandkids will be paying for their "efficient management" of profits for years to come. Wait, didn't they move their world headquarters to Dubai? One thing's for sure, you won't see the United States Government move to Bermuda for a tax break.
To the government's credit, it is experimenting with different public/private partnerships in newly acquired park areas such as the Valles Caldera in New Mexico (http://www.vallescaldera.gov), where you need to make reservations for just about anything you do there and there are rigid limits on the numbers of people per day who can enjoy the area. Good ideas? Maybe, and you can bet the arrangement is being given serious consideration for application elsewhere.
No matter what the government does, people will whine. Not enough access, too many roads, too many people, not enough modern conveniences, not enough flush toilets, not enough shopping, too many tacky souvenirs, too difficult to get to, too many dangerous animals running around, costs too much, not enough railings for safety, too many tour buses, too many restrictions, not enough enforcement of the rules, not enough parking, not enough multilingual personnel, the water tastes funny, why can't they cut down that ugly dead tree... wah wah waaaah. You try running a business with 300 million executive vice presidents who can't agree on anything and all have a stake in micromanaging the company.
Ultimately, the government does what we tell it to do. Don't like it? Get enough people to agree with you and vote the bums out. I work with government employees every day and the vast majority of them could easily get huge pay raises tomorrow working for private contractors, and yes they are doing noble and important work. Companies are not accountable to the people and governments (at least in this country) are. Companies come and go, but the U.S. Government is in it for the long haul.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." -- Star Wars IV, A New Hope
-- Jon
Companies are accountable to their customers. Their strength is derived from voluntary transactions. Government, on the other hand, is not accountable because it gets its money by theft (i.e. the tax code). Haliburton is an excellent example of government corruption and unaccountability steering these stolens funds to non-competetive enterprises that would not otherwise survive in a free market. Thank you for making my point. As the original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Marshall said "The power to tax is the power to destroy."
How can you say the government is accountable with a straight face when the vast majority of U.S. citizens do not support th current unlawful war the feds are waging? Has that made a bit of difference in determining whether to spend $12 billion a month on death and destruction? So far the Decider-in-Chief has cared not a bit what the people want. Is that doing what we tell it to do? Like the old reggae song said: "No matter who you vote for the gova-mint always gets in."
"Companies come and go, but the U.S. Government is in it for the long haul." Don't be so sure. The U.S.S.R. fell hard after a long and costly war in the Middle East. The current thugs in DC are already bankrupt, both morally and financially. I wouldn't be surprised one bit if the long haul you talk about is about to come to a screeching halt much sooner than most people could imagine.
Vermont and New Hampshire both have active secession movements, as does Texas, Hawaii, Oregon and Alaska. The cracks in the dam are already appearing. It won't be long, my friend. Tyranny always ends this way.
I personally find your faith in Big Brother more disturbing.
Theft? Stolen? Secession? Wow... I guess this conversation is going nowhere fast. Have a happy life in the Conch Republic. ;-)
PS -- I said "ultimately accountable"
ULTIMATELY: adverb. At last; in the end; eventually.
I find it even more disturbing still that Merryland is quoting Star Wars as philosophy.
Beamis is totally correct: a government that ignores 2/3 of its citizenry is not at all accountable to anything but money and greed.
No, our government doesn't listen nor do the bureaucrat swine in the ranks of the NPS, and for the same reason: they're drunk from gorging off our hard work, the tax dollars they illegally snatch before we even hold them.
And here's some real philosophy for you, not that of the canned new-age-BS variety a la Lucas:
"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine