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City board warns Fairmont Copley Plaza to respect police authority
By adamg on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 1:32pm
A small evening gathering at the Fairmont Copley Plaza on Feb. 25 created gridlock on surrounding streets and earned the hotel a stern rebuke from the Boston Licensing Board when members heard a hotel manager pooh-poohed a request from a police sergeant to do something about the mess:
Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski reminded representatives from the hotel and its valet company this morning that the board has control over the hotel's licenses to serve food and alcohol and to accept guests, and that they best be having a little talk with the manager about respect for Boston Police, because otherwise, "he'll be responsible for having the hotel closed down for food and alcohol purposes for a certain period of time and I don't think your corporation wants that, do they?"
Around 6 p.m. on Feb. 25, Sgt. Robert Mulvey told the board, he found Dartmouth Street and St. James Avenue in front of the hotel completely gridlocked, with unattended cars parked in the valet spots out front and double parked in the street.
Mulvey said the valet supervisor on duty that night acknowledged the problem and was already trying to do something about it, he said. In contrast, the hotel manager on duty "to be honest, was rather dismissive of me. .... He thought I was a bother to him, I guess."
Scott Van of Ultimate Parking, which handles valet services at the hotel, noted the pouring rain that night, the fact that the event was for a muscular-dystrophy group, several of whose members arrived in vans and that one of the four valets scheduled for that night called in sick. But he also blamed the Westin Hotel across the street - saying backups and double parking there made it harder for Copley valets to get cars to the garage they use. Garage trips that normally take five or six minutes were taking 20 that evening, he said.
"Ah!" Pokaski said. "So you suffer from your own type of behavior: Double parking makes it difficult to get by because the lanes are blocked up. Amazing."
"I'm amazed that even taking into account the rain taking into account the traffic, you couldn't handle 20 cars with three attendants?" Pokaski asked, adding he found it difficult to believe there was anything going on other than "three lazy valets" who didn't feel like moving cars that night.
The board votes Thursday on what to do about the charge of illegal valet parking.
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Comments
Guess who'd I'd like to see parking cars for a living
Sarah Palin.
I bet you thought I'd say Pokaski. No way. Parking cars is too good for him.
What's your beef with Pokaski?
Curious.
Beef, exactly
Lots of things, easily going back to the Wilkerson scandal and his role in that debacle in our city government...but the most recent that has set me off in particular:
Halal is to Muslims as Pizza is to Italians
The job is too cushy for an asshole of that magnitude to be paid $100,000 a year for what amounts to about 3 half-days of work a week.
Lot going on here
1) I'd like a definition of "dismissive." Did the hotel manager who spoke to the officer speak at this hearing today? Can he be blamed for allegedly being "dismissive?" What did the cop do to help? Did he redirect traffic to help the cars get through? Or did he just stand there and berate the hotel manager and expect that would make the problem magically fix itself? I'm all for good cops, but maybe the hotel manager was just frustrated with the problem. That doesn't mean that he has "disrespect for Boston Police."
2) This is what happens when you don't build enough garages in the city. Things like this keep happening.
3) Sick valet? Why wasn't the manager parking cars? A good manager fills in where they are needed.
4) Pokaski is an (expletive.) Seriously, would anybody shed a tear if he got cancer?
Sorry, Will
I have to disagree about point #4 that you made.
As much as I hate Pokaski, I study cancer for a living so I can't back you up on that one.
Cancer just can't "get cancer"...and Pokaski is definitely a cancer. Now, if he got hit by a valet, then no, no tears shed here.
Wow. Thats not very
Wow. Thats not very progressive and enlightened of you two.
You're right
After he gets hit by the valet, he's welcome to all of the free health care the government has to offer.
Better?
I love you
(no message)
Redirect cars WHERE?
re #1 where can you redirect cars? The backup of cars must have caused gridlock for blocks. I can imagine it affected the cars coming off of the Pike at the Copley exit. Where can the cars go? The solution is to get the stopped cars moving. To do that the valet and manager have to do something.
What a horrible comment #4 is. I do not know this man or what he does. Just that Adam posts these hearing results regularly, which shows some vendetta against the Boston Licensing Board? Dunno. But this Pokaski is a human being doing a job. I am certain people love him and care for him... its horrible that someone would write something so nasty about someone they do not even know.
No vendetta against the board
I attend the meetings for two related reasons:
I find the hearings interesting.
I learn - and report - stuff that hasn't shown up in the mainstream media, because they long ago gave up covering City Hall as a regular beat.
How is it horrible?
I asked if anybody would shed a tear. The guy clearly hates his life. Maybe he'd be happier if he was dead. I'd say that's a nice sentiment.
Manager was not there
Unavailable (out of the country, I believe). The hotel was represented by another manager and by a lawyer.
To two of your points 4. An
To two of your points
4. An (expletive) or not, this is an outrageous comment which reveals you to be an (expletive) yourself.
1. The first thing the cop should have done if valets are clogging the streets is...ask the valet/hotel (which technically has the permit) to move the cars they parked which are blocking the street. I sincerely wish the cops would do the same in the North End on Hanover Street in front of Bricco and Strega.
Outrageous?
All I did was ask a question. So far, nobody has posted on here affirming that they would indeed shed a tear. I didn't say that I wished for it happen, I merely expressed my ambivalence towards Pokaski's existence.
Really?
You're going to rest on that answer?
See below
Eeka said she'd shed a tear. There's one person.
MMary, The *second* thing the
MMary,
The *second* thing the police should have done is call Stadium Towing for a half-dozen wreckers to get the cars out of there.
Agree Will's comment was disgusting. His failure to repudiate it is what gvies him adjectives of his own.
CP
Would you shed a tear
or not? Can you excuse yourself from the peanut gallery long enough to answer the question?
I would shed a tear
I would, OK? Now quit being an ass. You're smarter than to have to resort to this crap.
Will Talupe (or whatever his
Will Talupe (or whatever his fake name is) is a clown. If he had been posting equally ludicrous and silly things from a conservative point of view, you guys would label him a right wing troll. But, either way, he is a sad clown with nothing going on in his "real" life and he has to resort to say foolish things on the Internet just to garner attention.
We should build more garages
We should build more garages until there is nothing left but parking... like LA, or any sunbelt city in the US. Then we can really live in a transportation paradise, where there is nothing fun left to do but drive in congestion.
One traffic problem that got to the media for a completely different reason and you flap your arms crying about a lack of parking. Nothing but poorly supported and poorly reasoned opinion. What is the goal here? Cars or people? The idea that people won't come if people can't drive? Ridiculous.
Well, either that
or we fix the public transit around here. That's clearly not happening.
As for the double-parked cars, cite the drivers. Nobody told you to abandon your vehicle at a full valet stand. Circle the block, (expletive.)
Chill, Mr. Freeze
Remember this particular situation (which makes Pokaski's comments even more ridiculous). These are handicap-accessible vans for a Muscular Dystrophy group.
Vans?
You mean like a minivan where the driver was part of the party attending the function and needed the valet service? Or was the driver from a livery service? If the latter, why didn't he go to the parking garage himself?
I hope that you are aware
I hope that you are aware that having a physical disability does not prevent you from driving a car. The driver might very well also have muscular dystrophy.
I hope you're aware
...that having a physical disability does not prevent you from parking your vehicle legally, or circling the block, or going to a parking garage, or taking public transit.
Jesus (expletive) Christ
Read the first question again:
"You mean like a minivan where the driver was part of the party attending the function and needed the valet service?"
Yes, I'm aware that the handicapped drive. I'm not Cosmo Kramer.
There has to be a lot more to this story.
I'm guessing this is what happened:
The fund raising group wanted to have a function at the Copley Plaza. The fund raising group should let the Copley Plaza know how many people are attending, and what kind of assistance these people might need. The Copley Plaza now has to figure out whether or not they might need help from the police/city with traffic, parking, closing a street, etc. The Copley Plaze should have experience with large groups, and should know when to hire a fire detail, police detail etc. Often times, extra community service units will assist for free certain fund raising events (not many private ones).
It sounds like the Copley Plaza did not do this and it ended up making traffic not only bad, but possibly dangerous for everyone involved in the traffic (pedestrians trying to cross, bikes, kids, drivers visability etc). The traffic Sergeant probably gets a call from a Superintendent (I've heard the higher ups have been pissing and moaning about the traffic problems in Kenmore, Back Bay, Copley area anyway) and he goes down there and has to figure out why drivers are breaking the law there, and why Copley people didn't do anything about it.
The cop could have been an a-hole, or he could have just been trying to figure out why people are breaking the law down there.
Transit will never be
Transit will never be perfect, and MBTA runs a pretty effective system that carries a lot of people. Are you saying nobody will use it if it isn't perfect? Neither will driving ever be perfect, and to strive for it to be so is to shoot ourselves in the foot environmentally. Transportation accounts for about 40% of the CO2 profile of an urban area, and of that about two-thirds is from cars and light trucks. (No, not trucking and air travel, but driving.) I'd rather improve transit than build more garages. I'd rather have people live in cities, and have lots of commercial and other activity in cities, rather than space everything out and live in Yet Another Suburban Wasteland. If people want that they can move to those places; our urban areas of high caliber are dwindling. People who drive already get it their way in so many ways. Our spending on highways is far, far, far, far higher than on transit. We subsidize an environmentally destructive mode at an incredibly high rate. If we build more garages, more people will drive; as Walter Kulash said, "Widening a highway to solve congestion is like loosening your belt to solve obesity." So too with parking; you will never keep pace with that demand unless you build so much you destroy what is important about Boston.
Update: Hotel gets a warning
So told not to do it again, but otherwise, no penalty.