I’m having fun taking the ‘casual observer with a blog’ stance when it comes to the upcoming Red Bull BMX event planned in the empty lot between Wells and Harrison on Polk. I prefer the Hitchcockian angle of watching what happens from my living room window. Red Bull’s construction crew dropped off some more equipment earlier this week. So they appear to be moving forward despite protest from our alderman. Here’s a new container and tracker they deposited in the site.

The last thing that I heard was that the city hadn’t approved the event or issued any permits. This sentiment was echoed by a letter from 2nd Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti, which was posted in my building recently. I’ll try to grab a copy and scan it. The letter calls the event organizers “cavalier” and claims their planning is “ad hoc” and would not receive any Aldermanic support. I can’t remember if this letter was printed before or after I snapped some pictures of CFD, CPD and various suits meeting in the park on Thursday. I don’t know what Fioretti looks like from an isometric view, so I won’t speculate who attended the gathering.

Then on Friday the Red Bull event planners held a community meeting in the park. As far as I can tell they only announced it a few hours before the meeting time of 6:30 pm, so there weren’t many locals in attendance. I saw someone putting up fliers on the site’s fence and there was a notice in my building that afternoon. Honestly, I don’t even know what they talked about because I just watched from my rear window, so if anyone was there, please spill the beans.

So, I’m not sure the status of this event. Red Bull seems to be selling tickets on their website and moving forward with construction while the city and some community members remain opposed. As I stated earlier, why not let them try it once? It’s on a weekend and ends by 7pm. Sure there’ll be some rock and roll and probably some drunk people, but I put up with that from my neighbors every week. The only negative outcome I can see is if this is just some rouse by an alien civilization who are going to unveil a giant robot who will judge our society on how we handle civic events. That could end badly.