Riverfront Recapture drops the ball

[MadVlad]

So, Joe Marfuggi, the guy who has done great things reconnecting Hartford with our glorious river that is all nice and penned in, has really dropped the ball finally. It's a shame too, here's a guy who has done really good things for the city. However, on this case, he is objecting to Riverfront Recapture being used for the Grand Prix Champboat race in August due to the new sponsor: Knockout magazine. Apparently, Mr Marfuggi doesn't like girls in bikinis being around a river event. Confused? Me too. It isn't family fare and he doesn't want the eyes of the poor children to be burned out by all the sinful naked flesh in bikinis, because, you know, they can't see that anywhere else, like the beach, or on tv, or the internet, or at the pool, etc, etc, etc. Some people can't seem to move out of the 50's. Ridiculous...

Riverfront Recaptures our morals for us

[Afro Saxon]

While the mag is a bit trashy, they aren't putting full frontal nudity out there or any nudity on the riverfront for that matter. He over stepped his boundaries in regards to saying who and what is moral enough to sponsor events.

[watching hartford]

There seems to be more to this than we are hearing. I would imagine if Hooter's restaurants were the sponsors, they would be welcomed immediately. And to pull the event two weeks prior to it happening sounds kind of odd. Did they have no idea before this who the sponsor was?

And for the city not to step up is very shortsighted. The sponsorship is only $75,000, just $10,000 less than we spent to send the Mayor's Chief of Staff to Harvard for two months. And I would venture to say we would see much more return on our investment by sposoring the race than we will see from Hennessy.

[mikel]

I'm pretty sure this event just isn't welcome. I attended the last event out of curiosity. There were not many people there, and very few families. And with all due respect, the type of people that were there will not be returning to Hartford or any city for that matter unless there was a similar event. The location is off the highway and too far from any local businesses. Pollution is a definite issue with these boats. Also, they had security to prevent people from walking across the bridge that day, which to be honest I don't think is even legal, and should be addressed.

The vendors all were from the tour. And there were countless trailers, which makes it seem like the tour really isn't putting anything into the local economy. I don't see the point in this event personally. Just some loud power boats going in a circle. We can do better.

[bignasty96]

I'm pretty sure this event just isn't welcome. I attended the last event out of curiosity. There were not many people there, and very few families. And with all due respect, the type of people that were there will not be returning to Hartford or any city for that matter unless there was a similar event. The location is off the highway and too far from any local businesses. Pollution is a definite issue with these boats. Also, they had security to prevent people from walking across the bridge that day, which to be honest I don't think is even legal, and should be addressed.

The vendors all were from the tour. And there were countless trailers, which makes it seem like the tour really isn't putting anything into the local economy. I don't see the point in this event personally. Just some loud power boats going in a circle. We can do better.

[mikel]

You have to start somewhere.The people who brought the event here were making a big deal out of it when it was announced so to cancel it a couple weeks out is embarassing. And because the magazine is a little racy? It's just another embarassment for Hartford. Even if the people attending wouldn't help the local economy, the people coming into town for the event would still stay at hotels, hang out downtown and probably eat somewhere. Events like these are key for just spreading the word about Hartford that it's not a minor league city. But then we get on our moral high horse and, yes, we act like a minor league city. Just a bad job all around.

[jcrc]

Again, the people with the event were staying in their own trailers, not hotels, and probably eating their own food. And I really doubt any significant amount of them or their spectators ventured downtown.