Why Red Bull approached the set-up to the BMX competition they wanted to hold at Harrison and Wells the way they did we don’t know. It sure didn’t help their cause.

A community meeting held at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday simply isn’t fair. That their reps at that session said the May 15 concert was only a “possibility” only, instead of a fact, was bizarre. Their claim to Chicago Journal that only 300 people would show for a May 14 qualifying run — an event listed as free and open to the public on a promotional Web site — was laughable. Their credibility is made of pretty soft material.

And yet process questions aside, we’re dismayed by the hyperventilating coming out of some South Loop quarters about this event, the hue and cry that sunk it.

Yes, traffic would have worsened temporarily. Yes, parking in nearby lots and on the streets would become more difficult temporarily. Yes, it’s annoying for some neighboring residents to find their neighborhood given over a Friday and a Saturday to a non-traditional sporting event attended by the thousands. And yet none of these reasons by themselves or even taken in combination justify the wholesale rejection of this event by neighborhood residents.

The vague, apocalyptic scenarios some predicted for this proposed event doesn’t match up, in our minds, to a neighborhood that has hosted, for example, a pretty famous book fair attended by thousands each summer since 1985. The area could have handled this, too.

Red Bull screwed up on outreach — they should have started planning this with residents and the city before they started selling tickets and television rights — but neighbors complaining about temporary hassles need to step back for a moment and see them as such.

Ald. Fioretti’s role here was mirroring resident’s opposition, and, in Red Bull’s pulling out of Harrison and Wells, welding a bunch of voters to his side (ask Ald. Reilly and folks opposing the children’s museum push into Grant Park about how this works). You can’t blame an alderman for taking up the cause of his or her constituents on a hot-button issue. It’s just in this case it’s the constituents’ cause that has us a bit flummoxed.

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By CSL from South Loop
Posted: 05/02/2010 10:19 AM

Do a little research on E-2, and the lessons. Absentee landowner rents to promoter, who rents out to corporation, etc., who serves alcohol to 5,000 kids. Having gandered @ the plans, the logistics, especially with Congress down to 1 lane on weekends for a 1 year, was incredibly unprepated. IMO, Glaring deficiencies for many of the permits, earthwork, set-up. Irony, the generation that brought us 'Hope and Change' Obama complains about corporate sponsored BMX hipster event not being allowed!!

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By Mike from S Loop
Posted: 04/29/2010 1:19 PM

CSL from South Loop: It's NIMBYs like you that ruin neighborhoods. Slamming a generation and comparing this to the E-2 tragedy doesn't even make sense. Perhaps a return to Skokie is in order once the housing markets allows you to sell your place.

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By CSL from South Loop
Posted: 04/29/2010 8:45 AM

I would have supported an event like this, but why are you putting this on the head of the residents? Identify the Land Owner. Timeline, Contacts? Is the editorialist a member of the Y-Me/No-accountabilitY generation? If this was as poorly planned and organized as you admit, less than a month away from the event, what are you thinking? They should have met with the neighborhood group 6 months ago to plan. An idea for you hipster, Google 'E-2 nightclub', and tell us how that went.