Just curious as to what people thought?

It was a joke. The City has torn the heart out of the festival, whose hallmark was quality and diversity of FREE entertainment. They replaced it with local bands that can be seen all year long, foul-mouthed punk rock, and an elitist sailing cruise at $35 a ticket. Oh I forgot the bar band Winters Brothers, whom I understand were excellent, too bad only a few hundred people showed up to see them. The layout of the festival was a farce, fireworks on Friday were poor planning as they should be staged on the final night. It seems the coordinators of this years festival squandered whatever money they did raise. Another issue is that there were no volunteers working the events, they were all paid city employees. I remember seeing dozens of volunteers helping with the festival, granted some looked like they were on a prison release program, or emerged from an ARC bus accident, but they were helping. The City should just cancel this embarrasment. BTW, are they still cleaning up from the huge crowds that gathered for the Parade of Lights, another elitist chance for the rich to sail past the poor flaunting their wealth.

Responding to the above post: I find it very humorASS that you keep bringing up the rich and poor factor.. I was at the parade of lights and I definitely did not get the feeling that the "rich sail past the poor flaunting their wealth". The only thing sailing past me were the BUGS! ANYONE could have entered the contest, it is NOT an "elitist" event. In fact, I believe it is put on by Rotary as they were a sponsor Mayor's Cup. Maybe you work down at the dock where the Parade of Lights were held and you are po'ed about doing the clean up? SPEAK UP THEN! Write a letter to the editor about people not finding the trash can that night.

That cruise idea was a bit strange, I agree with that! The band thing was also bad planning. But, the Winters Brothers were great, did anyone else go to that?

I think your issues of people being "elitist" and your use of people "flaunting their wealth" make me want to say that the whole event should be cancelled so people like YOU would shut their mouths and STOP THE COMPLAINING. I think it is laughable that people never have any ideas of how to make the event better, they always just COMPLAIN! Get over it! If you pick up a paper or watch the news you would know how tight this city is on funds because of previous administrations and abuse of power. The reason that Mayor's Cups of the past were so great was because money was spent that we didn't have! Now, we are paying for it! So, maybe next year there should be NO fireworks for people to complain about (as they are expensive) no vendors, no nothing! I could only imagine how many people would complain then about how much they loved Mayor's Cup when it is gone!

When speaking of the bands, I forgot to mention that Lucid was GREAT! They always put on a great show and they are certainly a crowd favorite.

Unfortunately you are extremely ignorant, as is, and was, the City Council when it comes to understanding how the Mayor's Cup Land Festival worked. It was not from a huge financial investment from the City. While the evnt was well close to $300,000. to stage, .75 cents of every dollar spent was raised by private corporations. The City paid $35,000 in cash and $40,000 in overtime, What the City got back was an event worth attending. In addition the organizers coordinated 75 volunteers that contributed over 800 hours to make the event happen. In addition the organizers ran and funded all of the July 4th festivities including a parade with much more than firetrucks. There were marching bands, floats and specialty vehicles.

Learn your facts. While you scoff at the rich/poor division , you obviously don't know many of the downtown scumlords and inbred business owners that despise the poor and working people of this community.

The City Fire Department wastes more money in a week than the Mayor's Cup cost. Perhaps when the greedy unions get broken this city can rightfully allocate some money towards getting this festival back on track with professional organizers that have a vision to make the event something again. I don't fault Mayor Kasprzak one iota, this festival got sunk when Jack Stewart let the Council eliminate funding without ever one time going to anyone involved and asking "How can we make this happen". Not once, Bill Provost, Amy Valentine, Mike Drew, the whole crew of spineless and brainless miscreants are a disgrace to Plattsburgh.

Speaking of Unions, I agree with you 100%! Don't get me started on my thoughts of the Fire Department with their fruitless grievances and talk of trainee pay raises. Sanderson and the union should be ashamed of themselves. It is refreshing to see someone else on here with the same thoughts on Plattsburgh city unions.. also the same feelings of past councils. The time spent by certain members of THIS council (who will remain nameless) on issues of say.. banning Styrofoam cups, ect. are simply RIDICULOUS!

I do, however, disagree with your points on facts. I do not "scoff" at the rich/poor division, it is YOU who sound ignorant when discussing the division. There is a civil way of addressing the issue, and by implying that the Parade of Lights was simply a way for the "rich" to sail past the poor "flaunting" their wealth is not only asinine, it is plain rude. You obviously are entitled to your own opinion, but I think you should rephrase your words when talking about the subject so they are not misconstrued.

I do know the facts, I do know the numbers associated with this event, and I also know several downtown business owners! When you say I am ignorant I apologize if I come off that way, but I truly do not mean to be! I did not feel the need to post up numbers to defend my thoughts, but maybe next time I will :)

Also, to get down to brass tacks.. Your numbers are COMPLETELY OFF! I do not want to make you sound un-intelligent (because you seem to be very intelligent, honestly) so, I will assume that you are misinformed. This years Mayor's Cup did NOT cost over $100,000. I would say it was in the range of $75,000 or LESS to stage COMPLETELY.

Make sure you check your facts! Because, by now you know how Mayor Don is and you would need to have your head exaimened if you thought he would even ask anyone to donate to an event that would spend $300,000 on 4 days!

BTW, where did you get your facts?? My guess it someone trying to get you going!

I was talking about the 2006 Mayor's Cup, it was $300,000 with $225,000 in corporate contributions and volunteers.  2007, last year, and 2008 this year, couldn't have been more than $50,000. total for both years. If there was more than that spent there needs to be a criminal investigation because both years have been a disaster.

The facts are all part of the public record, as submitted to the Mayor and Council following the end of the 2006 Festival.

My understanding is that the company that raised the money and ran the festival had built up a bevy of enemies whilst they did their jobs. That often happens when private business performs well, but ultimately lie in the hands of ignorant politicians. Typical Plattsburgh example of a failure to handle success.

An ultimate compliment about the old festival was that people would say, "Wow, this doesn't look like Plattsburgh!" Anyone that went to this year and last years festival had no problem realizing exactly where they were.

kibblesandbits, you sure are good at riling feathers.  I noticed in your very first reply to mikehunt, you mentioned getting rid of the bands and vendors to see how well the Mayor's Cup Race would go.  What a great idea!  Anyone out there remember when the Mayor's Cup Race was just that - a sailing race, an awards dinner and not much more than that?  I do.  Guess that's what we need to go back to then, since all the extra festivities really aren't lucrative after all.

Ten,

I am not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but to solve the Mayor's Cup problem I don't see why cutting out all of the festivities would be out of the question. I am just thinking of a future where people aren't on this forum COMPLAINING about the event! I know the top brass do listen to all of the complaints.. One example is how an apology was issued for the foul mouthed teens. Complaints about promotions, lack of vendors, band issues and parade issues could be solved by one thing: Have your own event!! Invite companies to sponsor the event and then you can have every thing you enjoy! You can also see what it is like to do all of the work, clean up, ect.