Monday, August 3, 2009

Sham, and for shame

A little off topic but here goes:

This is a big reason the New Jersey Turnpike Authority should embrace a beer series that salutes its world-famous toll highway instead of denouncing it and acting like someone threw a stinky diaper in its lap.

If the authority is going to be an event ticket broker – and the mere fact you can buy concert tickets through a toll road bureaucracy is so patently absurd – then the PNC Bank Arts Center should be selling at its concession stands beers that were made locally. (The Turnpike Authority owns the arts center; naming rights were sold to PNC years ago. Yet, the state is still broke, drowning in red ink.) The authority's bitching earlier this summer about Flying Fish and its Exit Series beers was bootless, knee-jerk whining more suited for a dumbed-down world we should have taken the exit off of long ago.

Of course, ensuring Jersey brewers enjoy a home-state advantage at those concessions would be circumventing the public bidding process for contracts. But hey, looks like the Turnpike ensures a concernt ticket advantage for insiders and its employees (because they work hard. Note to the TA: Let's just assume people paying taxes and tolls to support the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway and pay off the highway bond debt work hard, too).

But the bigger picture here is: How do you place any credence in the Turnpike's gripes about it being prima facie wrong to mention beer and a highway in the same breath, when the Turnpike's administration is running a ticket racket, selling premium concert seats to people smart enough know the Turnpike has killer seats for Dave Matthews or Incubus?

That in-the-know crowd pretty much excludes most of us, since last time we checked the E-ZPass lanes don't have signs saying "Need seats? Call (732) 750-5300." Nor do Turnpike toll tickets.

What's the next act taking the stage? Sham.

Time for a beer.

7 comments:

RSR said...

wow, that's an interesting article. I've got family right up in that vicinity; I'll have to let them know about the ticket situation.

As for the beer thing--there's got to be some rationale about promoting state businesses and local culture and so on.

At the Phillies ballpack, they offer a rotating selction of regional craft brews (Flying Fish included) as part of their overall dining strategy. Of course, that's not run by a gov't agency.

Does the TP Authority actually run the center? Or is it's management outsourced? If it is outsourced, the Authority could easily add regional cuisine requirements into the next contract bid. They'd still pick the lowest bid, but the bid would have to included homestate dining and beverage options.

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