Dunkin' Donuts State Park?...you gotta be kidding!

[Thinker]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/122/metro/Republican_revenue_plan_Sell_names_of_state_parks+.shtml

 

Republican revenue plan: Sell names of state parks

 

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff, 5/2/2003

 

Tour companies could tout cruises to the Coca-Cola Boston Harbor islands or a stress-free retreat near Borders Books Walden Pond.

 

A group of House Republicans, saying they've found a creative solution to the budget crisis, is proposing that the state look into selling naming rights to some 600 parks, forests, and recreation areas.

 

While some scoffed at the budget amendment, not everyone is laughing.

''We're definitely intrigued by the proprosal,'' said Chris Hardy,

legislative director for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. ''It ought

not to be rejected out of hand. A state park by any other name is still a

state park.''

 

And advertising executives said the state could reap millions. ''This is

even more powerful than stadiums,'' said a Boston-based ad executive.

''What you're really doing is positioning your company as a guardian of

the ecology of the state.''

 

But not everyone agrees.

 

''Why stop at parks?'' asked Jim Gomes, president of the Environmental

League of Massachusetts. ''We have lots of rivers that have old,

unremunerative names. Take the Charles. It's named for some old British monarch who paid did dly for the name and got 300 years of free PR.''

 

The measure could come up for debate next week.

 

This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 5/2/2003. © Copyright

2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

 

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http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7514~1364404,00.html

Friday, May 02, 2003 - 6:50:31 AM EST

 

Dunkin' Donuts State Park?

 

Naming state forests, parks for highest bidder proposed

 

By Glenn Drohan

Berkshire Eagle Staff

 

NORTH ADAMS -- Could the War Memorial on Mount Greylock become the next Trump Tower? Or how about renaming Pittsfield State Forest the Land of Larry Bossidy?

 

Those and other inane possibilities are what some environmentalists fear could happen under a proposal from the House Republican leadership to sell the naming rights to state parks and forests to the highest bidders.

 

House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, R-North Reading, and other Republicans filed the budget amendment this week as part of an attempt to raise revenues during the state's budget crisis.

 

Jim Gomes, executive director of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, said the proposal is laughable and would be disrespectful of the time-honored tradition of naming parks and monuments after heroes and civic leaders.

 

"We have a tradition in our country of naming public places, whether it be parks or buildings or rivers or lakes, after people who have made

significant contributions t o the commonwealth and to society," Gomes said yesterday. "We do that based on our judgment that the person is praiseworthy rather than on the basis of who puts the most shekels on the table and says name it after me."

 

Nonetheless, he said, the proposal could lead to some intriguing

possibilities -- and perhaps millions in cold, hard cash.

 

"I realize that many people have a sentimental attachment to the old names," he said, tongue in cheek. "But think of the possibilities. General Electric got a lot of bad press over the PCBs that got released into the Housatonic River. For a reasonable fee, the state could change the name of the Mount Greylock State Reservation to the General Electric State Reservation, and give the people of Berkshire County a happier reminder of GE's presence in that region."

 

He added, "Maybe the state would even change the name of the mountain itself to Mount Jack Welch if GE kicks in a few million more."

 

Theodore "Tad" Ame s, executive director of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council in Pittsfield, went a step further.

 

"Why don't we just cut to the chase and rename Massachusetts the

Commonwealth of Bain & Co?" he said, referring to the Boston venture capital company formerly headed by Gov. Mitt Romney.

 

"Sports arenas are one thing. Public lands and sanctuaries for people and wildlife in perpetuity don't need to be commercialized this way," Ames added.

 

Efforts to reach Jones for comment were unsuccessful, but an aide in his office briefly defended the proposal, saying, "I think the purpose is pretty self-evident: to raise money."

 

The amendment, to be debated by the House sometime next week, along with dozens of other proposals, would require the state's Department of Parks and Recreation to come up with a report and recommendations to be presented to the Joint Ways and Means Committee and the Joint Committee on Natural

Resources and Agriculture by Nov. 1 5.

 

Under the proposal, facilities within state forests and parks could also be renamed through whatever criteria state officials develop.

 

"Hey, why stop at parks?" Gomes asked. "We have lots of rivers that have old, unremunerative, names. Take the Charles. It's named for some old British monarch, who paid diddly for the name and got 300 years of free PR. If we could sell the name to Harvard, whose property the river runs through, everybody in Massachusetts would benefit.

 

"And think how much those kids from Yale and Penn would hate it if they had to row in the 'Head of the Harvard' race."

 

Katie Cahill, spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, said her agency has not taken a position on the amendment because officials have not reviewed all its implications.

 

"We feel it's an idea we would need to review thoroughly before we could endorse it, so at this point we are neutral," she said. "It's certainly something we wo uld like to discuss thoroughly and extensively with our constituents -- the people and organizations who care about and use our state parks and forests -- before we made any move to implement such a policy."

 

Gomes said the House should reject the amendment immediately.

 

"Clearly, we have a serious financial situation in Massachusetts right now, but I don't believe we're so impoverished as a state or as a people that we need to lower ourselves to selling off the names of public places just because some wealthy person has the vanity and the cash to back it up," he said.

 

 

[Ursa_Eagle]

I knew there was a reason I left MA...

[gregm]

another attempt to sell you what you already own.

 

i never thought i'd see the 'berkshire eagle' mentioned on cc.com. i spent a lot of summers in the berkshires. did you know mt greylock covered in snow in winter struck herman melville as looking a lot like 'a great white whale' and was thusly inspired?

[Gordonb]

If they don't restrict access and are able to maintain the park, who gives a shit what it is called?

[Ursa_Eagle]

It's the principle. MA would be selling out in every aspect of the term. More advertising makes it all the more difficult to ignore. As if pop-up ads on the internet we're bad enough...

[specialed]

This is the best state park name though

 

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/bong/

[Szyjakowski]

DickBong state park

[specialed]