Charging Critical Mass?

Published May 6, 2009 at 6:27 p.m.

Joe Vazquez, who took to the streets with critical massers last month, has posed a question: Why isn't critical mass paying its fair share for the cost of their monthly ride? After all, according to Vazquez, an event permit would be $1,000 (that's $12,000 for the year), required portable bathrooms (?!) are another $500 each time ($6,000 for the year), a $1,000 cleaning deposit ($12,000 a year), police protection at 20 officers comes to more than $112,000 a year, and another $13,000 for two sergeants. This makes a grand total of $155,060 tax dollars. The simple answer is that Critical Mass isn't an organization, so it can't pony up any kind of dough. Another answer is that the ride (allegedly) does the world good, so give them a free pass. When Vasquez asked Supervisors Ross Mirkarimi and David Campos, two of Critical Mass's biggest supporters, about charging the monthly bike ride, they replied, "Critical Mass shits gold bricks and pees ambrosia. How dare you suggest anything less, kind sir." Or something like that. But what say you? Do you think riders should be charged an event fee for their end-of-the-month protest? Or, more to the point, how is that even possible?

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