My point exactly. Portland International Raceway is always under some kind of
fire. It's a city park, and every so often some people who live nearby get a
councilman to explore closing it down "can't something more productive be done
with that land" or some developer starts tossing money and ideas around. Only
one thing stops it--an active group of people who demonstrate clearly that
it's a third rail. In fact you don't die just from touching PIR, you can die
from talking about touching it.
Racetracks and people who care about them should build that group now, not
when they need it. They need to be ready to go before any goofy ideas gather
momentum. It's easy to crush them when they're small. They also need to
demonstrate their power conclusively at least once. Toss some boob out of
office, and make sure everyone knows why it happened. Help somebody that's a
friend of the track get elected. It's a good lesson for the rest of them.
You might gather from my choice of words that I'm a little passionate about
this.
-----Original Message-----
From: BillDentin@aol.com [mailto:BillDentin@aol.com]
Sent: Thu 11/29/2007 8:06 AM
To: Bill Babcock
Cc: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Fot] Laguna Seca
In a message dated 11/29/2007 9:45:56 AM Central Standard Time, BillB@bnj.com
writes:
> Interesting idea, and I certainly don't think it should work any other way,
> but it does. Ultimately even the most altruistic-seeming politicians and
the
> regulators they appoint respond to money or votes. Nothing else. The ones
> who
> don't are back doing what they did before they became politicians. I know
> that
> sounds cynical, but it's obviously true as well.
>
> Tracks don't have a lot of votes, unless someone works hard on their behalf
> to
> garner and organize support. Pissed off homeowners are an automatic vote
> block
> that a politician can harvest by "reasonable"actions like noise
constraints,
> or shutting down the track.
>
> End of sad story.
>
Bill...
You, and many others on the FOT list, will recall Bob Wismer's impressive
monument at Road America. Originally that monument was to be placed at
Blackhawk
Farms Raceway, where most of Wismer's Sports 2000 races were run. But at the
time Blackhawk Farms was on VERY thin ice. In spite of the track's
considerable efforts to be a good neighbor, locals were involved in an effort
to get it
shut down (noise and nuisance). All indications suggested they would be
successful. Then the racers got involved in a letter writing effort. They
pointed out that, in fact, Blackhawk Farms was a little jewel in a pretty
bleak
community. Every week end considerable dollars from outside the community
flowed
into the economy. Copies were sent to local businesses, and in particular
hotels, restaurants, etc.
The problem went away.
Bill Dentinger
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