Here’s yet another major event – like the Lakers victory parade and various Fourth of July fireworks displays – that a city in California fears having the funds to accommodate – the Michael Jackson memorial event at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry said she’d “love it” if the Jacksons helped defray some of the city’s expected costs associated with Tuesday’s memorial, but that officials hadn’t heard from the family.
Perry said the city didn’t immediately have an estimate of those costs. More than 1.6 million fans registered online for a chance to attend the Staples Center ceremony, and only 8,750 names were chosen. Los Angeles officials are concerned about other fans clogging city streets.
“We’re encouraging people to stay away,” Perry said on CBS’ “The Early Show” on Monday.
I don’t think that the city leaders have entirely thought this one through. The shops and restaurants in the LA Live complex around Staples tomorrow will probably set a one-day record. Obviously the city will have to pay out some overtime for cops and the like, and traffic will put a crimp in productivity (don’t expect to get anywhere near downtown tomorrow), but overall, the city stands to make money off of this, given the economic activity generated.
Still, the fact that it’s almost become a cliché to discuss major California events in the context of distressed state and local budgets shows the scope of the problem.
the city as a whole will make money off this? And if so, how soon? I can see the local shopowners making bank, but the taxes they pay won’t be collected until next year, and we’re in big trouble right now.
The number I saw this morning was that the memorial is going to cost the city an extra $2 million to make sure everything runs smoothly.
Sure, Staples Center will make a killing off the parking fees, but how exactly will that money get back to the city itself for L.A. to turn a profit?
I’m not sure it’s feasible for the City to make up the $2 million in costs through the added economic activity. From what I understand, the only people they’re allowing anywhere near Staples Center is the 20,000 people who hold tickets to the memorial. At the 9.75% sales tax rate, over $20 million would need to be generated to cover the $2 million expense. That means that each of the 20,000 people needs to spend more than $1,000.
It seems that the City should have planned a “spill-over” area to corral all the people who don’t have tickets and show the memorial on large-screen TV’s. It probably wouldn’t cost much more than what they’re paying to secure Staples Center and there would be a much larger audience to generate tax revenues. Kinda macabre, but hey . . .
Is the Staples Center permitting this extravaganza for free? I would think not. Who’s going to pay for it. It was the “family” that arranged this silliness. The “family” probably doesn’t have the money to pay for the Staples Center. There is, of course, the Estate of Michael Jackson, deceased, a separate legal entity. However, the family has no access to that money. The probate judge was rather pointed about that.
Human beings living in cities are going to use public space for social purposes. Whether it’s a parade for the local sports team (fans nearly burned down Constantinople in 532 when Emperor Justinian tried to stop fans of one of the city’s chariot teams from celebrating) to celebrating the death of a beloved figure (witness the riots in Rome at the murder of Julius Caesar, or the more orderly but massive public demonstrations at the death of Princess Diana) or protesting (like the 1 million plus who showed up on the streets of LA in 2006 to fight for immigrant rights), and any number of things in between, city space is going to be used by the people who inhabit the place for mass events from time to time.
The notion that somehow you can or should stop this from occurring is ridiculous. It’s yet another example of how we’re supposed to sacrifice everything on the altar of the budget crisis. How the state’s financial mess is supposed to be the biggest trump card of all, stopping Californians from doing whatever it is they want to do.
It’s unrealistic to expect and insist that human society stop because the state is broke. There’s no good reason at all why we should be letting the budget mess make our choices for us.