Never underestimate the power of negative publicity, I guess?
Shortly after Amanda MacKaye announced the cancellation of this year’s free summer concert series, hosted at Fort Reno Park in Washington, D.C., enlightenment came to the National Park Service and the US Park Police, who were previously all about dropping monetary bombs without real forewarning or an appreciation for conciliatory meetings. Several thousand tweets later, wherein the conversation revolved around the possible shift toward replacing park police with highly-uniformed squirrels, and a chiming in from D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, it appears that we’ve won! Everyone who loves free music has won! People who love delivering surprise invoices are… bad.
But here are the details of the victory: following a meeting between the parties involved, the issue of footing the bill for officers working the concerts has been settled to a degree that allows the shows taking place this summer to go on as planned. Paul Strauss, a D.C. shadow senator and former Fort Reno organizer, reportedly brokered the meeting, which resulted in a deal of a “more community-oriented police presence that’s more appropriate to the venue,” as well as park officials giving up their initial demand of being paid up front. MacKaye and those opposite still have to figure out the scope and duration of the police presence at each show, but for now, everyone’s “comfortable moving forward,” Strauss noted.
What a natural diplomat! If only Strauss had assumed a similar role during the Cold War. To Fort Reno’s continuance!
• Fort Reno: http://www.fortreno.com
