The Great Googa Mooga

They are pledging not to repeat the problems of the past:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/googa-mooga-mooga-improvements-article-1.1344112

Hamilton: If you start practicing now, you too can have a band playing at Googa Mooga next year. By the way, an article in today's N.Y. Times says the park receives $75,000 from the concert promoters and the promoters pay the $325,000 in police costs, a real bargain compared to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The constant helicopter presence is pretty annoying.

The Great Googa Mooga has been canceled!

These Googa Mooga people need to get their act together. If I remember correctly, last year people were pissed because the event was too crowded, and vendors ran out of food and drinks.

This year, despite Googa Mooga's assertion of "Rain or Shine" yesterday was canceled because of rain.

I'm sure the event contract allowed for NYC Parks to close the park in the event of weather, I'm not questioning the decision to cancel. It was understandable given the damage that could have been done to the park, but, it does seem misleading to sell tickets "rain or shine," cancel the event because of the rain, and then refuse refunds.

If the organizers refused refunds, I hope all the money goes to the park.

I roamed the whole area this morning during off-leash. Because of the (mild, but present) hills, the damage is invisible from some areas. I skirted part of it yesterday and thought the damage wasn't bad until I walked all around today.

The worst patch last year wasn't too bad, but parallel to it is an even worse mud pit than last year. At part of it there were tire ruts so deep that when my 50lb dog stood in them, the water came up to his stomach.

The trash isn't too bad, but there were a lot of bones scattered around (I try not to freak out over my dog eating bones, but a friend's dog died a few weeks ago from a bone cutting her esophagus so they are a danger to dogs). One large area has a very strong smell of rotten meat though my dog found no obvious piles to dine on.

The bottom of Look Out Hill near the peninsula has an impressive mud pit as well.

Sadly, its seems a little worse than last year even though they were there less time. Hopefully if the park keeps allowing this, Superfly has to pay to re-sod instead of reseeding.

OQ-

This article in today's NYT again talked about the economics involved. It paints the Prospect Park Alliance and being in the position of "begging":

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/nyregion/reducing-some-city-parks-to-the-status-of-beggars.html?_r=0

However, when you merely beg, you don't have to let the donor touch you. This is a clear case of prostitution.

As with most situations, the question is "Did she realistically have another way to make ends meet?".

This article discusses the challenges of making the parks equally nice:

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130916/OPINION/130919913

So happy that Googa Mooga is not returning. The damage done to the park was not worth the small amount of money raised.

I remain interested in seeing their next attempt to raise money for the park.

...googa mooga clearly wasn't a fit.

Will the Parks Alliance be able to design a fundraiser that raises enough $, YET DOES NOT HAVE the undesirable side effects?