I don't relish being That Guy who throws a wet blanket over delightful holiday traditions, but as I sat through the fireworks at the local park on Sunday night I could not help but wonder why in the hell any town or city in America was having fireworks this year. Aren't we all broke? Like, laying people off and closing schools broke?
My current city of about 100,000 is as broke as any other similarly sized urban area in the country, if not moreso.
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The average fireworks show for a place of this size costs anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the level of extravagance. For governments preaching fiscal austerity, belt tightening, and "tough decisions" this seems like a frivolous expense. Chicago raised a lot of ire by canceling its massive Grant Park fireworks show in 2010. While I've attended that event many times and gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of it, it is the right thing to do in one of the most fiscally strapped cities in the country. How can $1.5 million be justified for fireworks when they can barely keep the schools open?
The political rhetoric of "tough choices" is very different from the reality. Cutting pensions, benefits, and salaries of government employees or slashing budgets for education is easy. Most people don't notice the effects of those cuts in their daily lives. The real tough choices are the ones people will notice – tax hikes and canceled services. And even though fireworks shows are hardly on the same level as things like policing, street repair, or garbage collection, they all have one thing in common: people will notice that they are gone. So it appears that here in Georgia, as in most of America, the elected officials would rather blow money on something totally unnecessary than risk canceling the circuses and having to explain to the half-conscious herd what "We are completely broke" means.
Better to just make up the difference by cutting something Cletus the Teabagger won't notice.
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You know, something like the public library.
Nick says:
In Salt Lake, all the fireworks shows I know of are funded by donors and private entities. It seems like a much better way to do things than having every suburb pay for their own fireworks.
HoosierPoli says:
I know where I'm from the fireworks display is put on by the fire department and funded by donations and private fundraising, not public funds. I have a feeling it's a similar deal in most places.
Aslan Maskhadov says:
Fireworks are not particularly expensive. There are plenty of Third World countries far worse off than the US which find the resources to celebrate their most important holidays.
Ed's Sister says:
In Champaign-Urbana, the fireworks are funded entirely by donations. They get bigger every year.
In Freeport, the fireworks are funded by the city and were canceled this year due to budget constraints. A community group formed and raised $17,000 in donations to put on the show.
I think private donations is the way to go here. It's good for the community.
Overlady says:
Well for my part I think the bottom 50% of the American populace should seize 30% of the wealth of the top 1% and fund health care and education and national parks fully. AND fireworks!
Oh and we should nationalize the oil companies!!
Gosh I am FULL of good ideas!
Vote for ME
Hazy Davy says:
Antioch, CA also cancelled their $80K show, given that there were city layoffs.
Still, it's not surprising to me that local governments want to keep spending moeny they don't have. As you say, it's easy to fire someone, later, to make up for budgeting shortsigntedness. But the mongoloid masses will be upset with your "leadership" if you cancel things they like.
Elder Futhark says:
I say we start exploding H-bombs in outer space again.
Those are already paid for.
bb in GA says:
Cletus sends his love.
Lieberries are soooo mid-20th century…
//bb
Emerson Dameron says:
Los Angeles, which can barely keep itself from being swallowed by the Pacific, still came with dozens of displays. I saw (and quite enjoyed) the one at LA Coliseum – a large crowd was camped out on the grass, waiting for the boom-booms to start, and, sure enough, the lawn sprinklers came on. During the show, the PA blasted EXCLUSIVELY cracker-ass patriot music (mostly country: Lee G., that "American Soldier" song), which was weird, considering the mostly black and Latino crowd.
Qotfw says:
I was wondering the same thing last night. I couldn't help but notice that my neighbors ( I pretty much live in the hood) had really gone all out with their fireworks this year compared to last year. Well, it could have been firearms they were discharging?
party with tina says:
could very well be, what better time to shoot someone than on the 4th of july.
To actually comment on the post tho'. Your logic is fuzzy, public libraries and fireworks displays are not competing for money.
CaptBackslap says:
My township's website said that they would have the fireworks display as usual, but that due to tightened budgets they'd be canceling the usual pre-fireworks food, live music, and classic car display.
I didn't find that too disheartening, since I never knew they had those other things.
daphne says:
As a native Chicagoan, I used to attend the best fireworks ev-ah at Comiskey Park. This was waaaay back before you were born, Ed, and having left the area also before you were born, I have no idea whether they're still ongoing.
Del says:
Discharging firearms, in lieu of fireworks, into the air is a holiday cultural tradition in my community – New Year's Eve more than the Fourth. Usually, just roofs and cars get damaged. It only kills an innocent bystander every few years.
ladiesbane says:
The Independence Day celebration in our town was a big deal, it being the only warm-weather holiday we all could share, and fireworks were the grand finale. It was also a way to bribe people not to get drunk and blow up stuff, since our fire danger was always high. Leave it to the pros.
But cut libraries! Really? People without computers use public terminals to hunt for jobs, poor people feed their brains, kids get to look at more picture books and Easy Readers than their parents can afford. Andrew Carnegie may have grown fat off his workers, but his lending libraries still make a huge difference. Libraries are community centers. Anna Davlantes should learn what that means.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/special_report/library-taxes-closed-20100628
Dustin says:
can't they not mitigate the costs of putting the fireworks by the sales generated by the attendees at the parks? or perhaps they could instead charge a fee to each person for attendance and i bet people would still attend. no reason to give up a great tradition completely.
Crazy for Urban Planning says:
@ladiesbane – Haven't you figured out the real policies of the government these days? Its to outlaw services associated with poor people, what is unseen must not exist.
@everyoneelse – I have spent my fourth weekend on the Missouri river camping & canoeing for the last 4 years. Its a great break from the society as a whole and my pitiful unemployed existence.
Noskilz says:
I don't have the exact breakdown, but contributions from local businesses in return for adverstising has been a big factor in past firework displays around here. But that sort of thing seems to have fallen off drastically – last year, the firework show at the fairgrounds was rolled into some sort of bmx/motocross event with a fairly steep admission price (since that plan wasn't repeated, I suspect it wasn't successful.)
This year, the only public fireworks show on the Cumberland Plateau was in Algood. I think one of the local churches was a major sponsor – but since it was the only such in event in the area, perhaps vendor booth fees and refreshment sales made it worthwhile.
So at least around here, the answer to "how do towns afford fireworks these days" is they mostly don't.
Albert says:
First –
Nice work with the website, I just came along it a few days ago… a great deal of brainwork, even though i might not agree with everything …
Second –
I am surprised at people DISAGREEING on public library fund cuts, i guess they miss their sarcasm sense …
Third –
Keep up the great effort… // Congrats