Surfing Saga: Chapter 2

This week's LB Herald offers more details about the pending onslaught otherwise known as the Quicksilver Pro surfing competition.  Here's what we now know:

• The top 16 NY surfers will compete in the Empire State Trials in Long Beach on Sept. 2 (the launch of Labor Day weekend).
• The winner will compete in the Quiksilver Pro Trials in Long Beach on Sept. 3.
• The winner of that will compete with 33 other world-class surfers in the Quiksilver Pro New York, taking place in Long Beach from Sept. 4 (Labor Day) through Sept. 15.
• It will be one of  the largest surfing contests in the country.
• It will offer a $1 million prize purse - more than twice the pay out of any other event on the world tour.
• The event is expected to attract thousands of spectators to our shore.

Our city manager, Charles Theofan, says the event will be a "revenue generator" for the Allegria Hotel, local shops and restaurants, and even enterprising homeowners seeking to rent accommodations to the flood of humanity that will overtake the city. He also says that Quiksilver will be covering the costs of police, sanitation and other municipal support services.

What he doesn't say -- and what the Herald does not report -- is how this monstrous event is going to benefit local taxpayers. What's in it for us?

Will Quiksilver be paying a stipend to the city to compensate us for the extraordinary inconvenience the event will create for local residents? A stipend that could be used for tax relief, or to repave winter-ravaged streets, or to upgrade the boardwalk, or to landscape the municipality? Or to create a reserve fund for homeowners and businesses who sustain damage as a result of the hoards converging on or grazing our property as they migrate towards the beach? Or blocking our driveways and intersections?

There has been no public referendum, no official communication arriving in our mailboxes, no emails from the city, no direct outreach from our elected or appointed leaders to inform us about any aspect of the event at all. In fact, if I didn't read the Herald or have my ear to my neighborhood grapevine,  I might not have any inkling of what is about to come to town..

Imagine walking out of your home Labor Day weekend with cooler and beach chair in hand, only to confront an army of strangers overtaking your block on their way to your spot on the sand! In Long Beach, that would be heresy. And you know what happens to heretics: they get burned at the stake. That may be too extreme for the Quiksilver Pro collaborators, but if I were them, I'd be making sure that the largest event in our city's history turns out to be a sure-fire success.

Reading Room Ruminations

A strong public library with well-stocked stacks, a diverse cultural calendar and an engaging program of activities is central to any vibrant community. So when the budget for these core offerings is cut in order to accommodate increases in personnel and related overhead costs, something is definitely rotten in Denmark.

The LB library budget put forth for 2011-2012 actually decreases expenditures for essential items including books, films, sound recordings, audio-visual rentals, and periodicals and other materials, while increasing the line items for personnel, insurance, retirement contributions, social security and health expenses. In fact, the proposed spend on basic media decreases 7%, while the personnel expense increases 1.5% and related expenses increase 11.9%! 

The math just doesn't add up to the kind of library asset that we can or should fund without challenge. Something surely stinks right here in LB.