A proposal to designate the rural foothill community of Nevada City as a companion city to the temporary city erected during the Burning Man festival has ignited a firestorm of criticism from local business owners.
"The backlash has been very, very negative," said Mayor Duane Strawser. "It's something that (was brought to us that was supposed to be) simple and fun turned out to be a very big hot topic."
The City Council will vote on the proposal tonight.
Annually, more than 50,000 Burning Man attendees erect the temporary Black Rock City in the Nevada desert. The city, complete with busy dance clubs, lecture halls and amusement rides, operate on a gift economy. The arts, music and counterculture festival starts Sunday.
Strawser said in the last 72 hours he's received more than 60 calls and emails on the topic - all negative. The flood of input has exceeded that for more weighty topics such as the city's response to the homeless problem, ban on downtown smoking, ban on leaf burning, the occupy movement, or marijuana dispensaries.
"Many of the merchants are saying 'no way,' " he said. Strawser said they are concerned that the city's image and business prospects would be tainted.
The proposal was written and brought forward by City Clerk Niel Locke.
In a resolution, Locke writes that the two cities share a similar history, environment and beauty. On his Facebook page, Locke asks Burners (Burning Man festival attendees) to contact the city to voice their support.
"My understanding is there is some opposition by some members of the City Council," Locke writes. "This is caused by the great distortion of truth that BM is nothing but an event of drugs, sex, alcohol, dirty people etc. etc."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
• Read more articles by Ed Fletcher
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.