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Foo fighters: Chinatown, city, Big Dig contractor in statuesque brawl

The Herald reports on a fight over the old marble "foo dogs" that used to greet Chinatown visitors at the gate fronting the Big Dig.

A couple of foo photos.

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Comments

What an asshat. They were a gift to the city from a foreign government and he just says "but they were worksite surplus to be tossed away and nobody said anything".

If he were a real working person, he'd be saying this to his lawyer through a little phone on the other side of a lexan screen.

Maybe the National Guard should surplus his house? I hope they are cursed and he chokes to death on his hubris.

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The unplausability of a sophisticaed government contractor accepting "permission" from a local trade association to remove government owned property from public land and put it to person use asside, I would suggest the contractor has at least three problems: (1) this likely was larceny; (2) this was likely a breach of his contract; and (3) this was likely a breach of state and/or federal procurement law (the later likely having been incorporated into his contract by reference when federal highway dollars were used to fund the contract). The City, the State, the turnpike authority, and the state and federal attorneys general should be on this guy like green on money. Speaking of money, I wonder if other liberties were taken in the course of performance? Recoup.

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In all fairness, what's the likelihood that these statues were just slated to be thrown away, and that new ones were supposed to be bought to replace them and this guys getting harassed for saving the old ones?

If that's the case, shouldn't they be going after the officials who bought unnecessary new statues, and tried throwing away the old ones? Shouldn't they be going after them for slating them to be thrown away, rather then auctioned off as they were public goods?

I've done what this guy did on jobs before; "Hey you're just going to throw this away? It's going in a landfill? I'll take it!"

Kinda sounds this way when they say a restaurant had the other two donated...

If this asshat just took them, and he's the one who drew up the plan for the new ones, throw away the key and lock him up in a 5X2 box!

Anyone know the difference between the new statues and old? Are the old relics and expensive, and the new ones cheap imitations made in America?

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At first I was outraged--as usual. But then I started wondering the same thing. Maybe they really were going to be dumped. I would have taken them if I thought that myself. But who would be dumb enough to throw away perfectly good foo dogs and get new ones that look the same to me? Doesn't seem likely. I don't think the foo dogs that are there now are any different than the ones the guy "saved" from the dump--they are all of modern manufacture somewhere in Asia. I don't think that one is any more intrinsically valuable than the other but obviously it's not nice to throw out a gift.

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My guess is, as a contractor, you look for all ways to increase your profit margin.

They had no idea about the sentimental value of the Lions and had the contract written up to dispose of them, then buy new ones when the time came to put them back, thus getting a piece of the pie charging the state.

The TA then signed off on this, again not knowing the significance of the statues.

This guy saw them sitting on a truck destined for a harbor landfill and was like, hell I'll take em if there going to be thrown away. Either way, this is another example of inadequate and negligent oversight by the state agencies that are supposed to be looking out for this sort of thing.

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I hear what you're saying on this because on any private job there is no reason to think that what goes in the dumpster isn't free game - it is. However, on a public construction job the same is not true unless someone with authority says its true (e.g. a contracting officer). A more common sense example might be a contract to update the wiring on a government building. When the contractor tears out the old wiring that wiring is still government property, as it has value as copper scrap. The contractor can't keep it without express authority because he's taking scrap that would otherwise be sold by the government and, big picutre, used for the taxpayers. The same is true of these statues. On a government job, those statues belong to the government and, indirectly, you and I so the contractor can't just pocket them as a bonus without permission. I have no doubt, as you point out, that this is probably more complicated than it looks, but this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen on a well managed job.

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And I hear you,

But if they were slated, per the contract signed by the GOV (TA?), to be disposed of, ie, thrown away; doesn't that make them fair game?

Or does the contractor have to follow through with dissposal because it's a government job?

My guess is it all has to do with what the contract said, and what the TA signed. And my guess is that the gov signed to just dispose of them.

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Fair enough. If an authorized government representative told the contractor to junk them it is possible that they were "fair game" and the fault then lies with the government - turnpike authority - for failing to recognize their monetary and cultural value. Sadly, this is another example, at a minimum, of poor cost control in the Big Dig.

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The Sampan did a story on the gate earlier this year, and mentioned the new lions:

"Earlier this year, four new lions identical to the originals and costing more than $6,000 each were purchased while construction crews were working on the soon-to-be-completed Chinatown Park. The contractor, Modern Continental, which now owns the old statues, feared they would have broken during removal and reinstallation and thus decided to completely replace them. Only two have been installed so far. Interestingly, the new lions are from Xiamen, a southern city of Mainland China."

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