By Emerson Drake
6/26/11
City Hall can certainly move fast when they want to. If a business wants to hold a special event in a hurry they have pay Chris Ricci's committee through the nose(read financial inducement) to obtain a permit if things weren't arranged at least on month prior.
But to stage a series of mixed martial arts Cage fights in a public park all you have to do is call Parks and Neighborhoods at 1:30 Friday afternoon, pay a few bucks and voila like magic you can stage your human cock fights that night.
Council Joe Muratore and his syncophants on the Blue Ribbon Homeless Commission are not only trying to starve the legitimate homeless out of Modesto through attempting to regulate acts of Christian Charity ( feeding the homeless) but are also pushing forward the idea that anyone including home owning taxpaying citizens should only be allowed so many hours to enjoy the very public parks their taxes pay for. Papers please, let me see your papers.
The question seems to be not of the use of the parks system, but can friends of the Muratore/Ridenour make a buck from spectacles being staged there.
In other words if Muratore, Wright and Madison could figure a way to make a buck selling tickets to watch the homeless, all would be well.
Maybe if good old boy Councilman Joe Muratore could sell homeless cage fights....
