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Garden gets stern finger wagging over pedestrian gridlock between Garth Brooks concerts in January
By adamg on Thu, 03/19/2015 - 10:01am
The Boston Licensing Board recently voted to issue a warning to TD Garden for overcrowding in between two Garth Brooks concerts on Jan. 24.
The warning has no immediate effect on anything, but the board could use it as justification for more severe action should the Garden be charged with a similar offense in the future.
At a hearing on the problem last week, a police detective said he arrived after the first of the two concerts to find the west side of the Garden and much of North Station all jammed up - to the point that people just trying to get home on commuter rail couldn't get to their trains.
Garden officials threw up their hands and said there just wasn't much they could do when a superstar of Brooks' caliber decides to go on late and then keep playing past his allotted cut off time, as happened with his first show that night. But they vowed to try to do a better job in the future getting even somebody like Brooks to better adhere to his schedule.
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Comments
Finger wagging is very
Finger wagging is very popular in MA, particularly when it comes to criminals.
They got off easy
If the TD Garden had gotten a seventh DUI, they would have gotten a stern glare.
They need to redesign the whole mess
When I took the commuter rail more often, it was always a pain to get in to the train area on game nights due to the number of people hanging around outside getting that one last smoke in and/or waiting for their folk to show up. Then it would be difficult, despite security types, to keep the line up of people from blocking all the doors into the station on the I-93 side of the building.
Add in late and cancelled trains and way too many kiosks in the train waiting area and you get a disaster.
If this facility is to do double duty, they need to do a better job separating the incoming and outgoing crowds on a regular basis, not just when Garth starts working overtime.
As I noted in a previous post on this subject
one of the biggest problems with Garden events that coincide with rush hour is that the Garden does not open up the gates early enough (5:30 opening for a 7:00 game/event should be reasonable enough). That alone is what makes trying to get from the subway entrance to the commuter rail platforms in a timely manner a nightmare - despite their fancy barriers to segregate the event folks from everyone else.
And I'm amazed that McDonalds hasn't put up a bigger stink about the Garden not opening the gates sooner, as I've often observed how the crowds waiting to get into the Bruins and Celtics games are effectively blocking access to the Mickey's for everyone else.
The Garden complex is being
The Garden complex is being redesigned with lots of apartments, retail and office being developed, and they should make sure that the commuter rail/subway facilities are improved in doing so. And if they were penalized for these problems it would be in their interest to make the flow better. But letting them off with no penalty means they have no need to do so. This would have been a great time to push the garden complex owners into making the train station part work better.
Meanwhile
The board will NOT stand for late night hot dogs in Mattapan.
If this were a small establishment, they would be forced to close for a day or more, causing the business to lose revenue and employees to lose pay.
I'm not saying there shouldn't be repercussions in some situations, but this board is almost as bad as the BRA.
About Simco
They actually applied for later hours, but then withdrew their request.
Oh I know
Just speaking generally that the licensing board is pretty quick to jump on smaller businesses, and using this as an example.
Only after the Licensing Board
toldreminded them that if they don'tsuck up toplay nice with the snooty NIMBYs that comprise the local neighborhood council, their request would be denied.Because we all know that late night hot dogs are the end of civilization, a few extra people walking down a city street at 2 am is completely intolerable, and that human beings can never adapt to change. Not, not, and not.
The Garden should put
The Garden should put appropriate penalties in performer contracts.
What is their incentive to do
What is their incentive to do so, they broke the regulations and nothing happened to them except selling more concessions. They will do the same next time, its not like this is the first time.
The city should require them
The city should require them to do it. (It was my answer to them saying, "Sorry, nothing we can do about difficult performers" at the hearing.)