Post event thoughts

I would suggest some logistics related items for consideration by the Burning Man Organization. I believe a separate way in for 'will call' users would have made things there run more smoothly and such would be among any suggestions I would make based on my experience. Of course they could rightfully suggest one get their ticket early next time!
At the time of the Burn there should be a signal which is given out to release all the Rangers from their task of containing the perimeter when its practical usefulness has passed and the inner flood of people is clearly underway. The 'fall of the Man' should be restored to its former prominence as a signal for the wildness to begin, but I fear this is no more likely than returning the man to its hay bale base.
I would also suggest the problem of 'reserved space' be dealt with so empty plots would not persist until Thursday, as happened this year based on study of the IKONOS image. The adding of three streets may well be an automatic solution to the problem a friend and regular atendee faced this year, that being the inability of the gate staff to refer or address the lack of parking places for his vehicle upon arriving. Every one who buys a ticket and is equipped to survive as long as they will be there deserves to be accommodated.
This is the time to relate the story of Russ Plain, who breaks free from work to attend the event when he can, which is usually Friday. Russ bought his ticket in a Berkeley hat store months before, renting an SUV and arriving about 5:30, going through a modest line and after having his ticket torn he entered and began looking for a parking space. After an hour and a half of fruitless searching he returned to the gate where a greeter asked him 'Are you coming back in?' he answered, 'No,'cause there's no place to park!', and she answered 'I can't believe that!' Of the six years he had been going he had never before had this problem, and he saw numerous cordoned off open spaces even this late in the event. He passed by the 'walk in' area but found nothing to accommodate a vehicle his size. By sunset he had given up and started back home, disillusioned. In retrospect it looked to him like they oversold the event considering the available space, exacerbated by the reserving of blocks of land for groups and camps that never showed up. He deserves to get his money back, and yet proving he actually left the event after 90 minutes is problematical at best. I simply know the truth of his testimony, and let his story be a warning of what can go wrong when plans based on what space a given number of people require are compromised by excessive roping off of regions never filled.

As mentioned earlier the event is apparently vigorous with no hints of winding down. A coming issue seems to be how to handle the population limits which so far are just staying above the actual attendance, which topped off at about 40,000 this year.
Russ was told by a policeman that for the first time during these events three rowdy drunks jumped and beat up an officer Thursday night. There seemed to be a lot more drinking in evidence, I would guess as likely being among the dreaded 'frat boy' crowd. Some people acting like that demographic were behind me during the burn, making raucous catcalls at the bare breasted fire dancers nearby. Fortunately such people stood out in their rarity from what I generally experienced.
The overt aspects of law enforcement seemed fairly low key to me this year. There were perhaps a hundred undercover 'narcs' operating at the event, and numerous BLM rangers in trucks and in good weather on their cute little All Terrain Vehicles. One could not trust strangers offering to trade drugs for favors, or answer in the positive when someone you didn't know an hour ago asks if you have any recreational drugs. It seemed that if you kept such activity among known friends and within your tent off the street to lower the odds of smells being detected, one could imbibe with impunity. I walked into the BLM camp near Center Camp Sunday and asked about how things went from their perspective. I was told they wrote about 40 citations, if true a continuing decline in numbers over the last three years. It was said to be an overall smooth event from within their areas of concern. People who were cited now seemed to be those being blatantly public about it, or those caught in dealing related stings, or in one of their fake 'art cars' entrapping people with leading questions who hop on.
Water was often reported stolen, and I heard a first hand report of someone finding a jug of water in her tent opened and partially emptied, much to her uneasiness. Camps were visited by thieves and gasoline containers were stolen as well as gas being siphoned from a few vehicles. The presence of unethical people who will steal from others is a troubling growing concern at Burning Man. If somebody shows up without caring for their needs they are acting counter to one of the oldest surviving ideal of the event, self sufficiency. I would guess perhaps over a hundred people arrived at the event without food or shelter. There are apparently dozens of people who virtually 'live' at Center Camp, sleeping on the carpets and couches, as one visible aspect of the 'homeless' aspect of Burning Man. There may be tiny 'camps' with people like the isolated vagabonds with only a backpack on at the gate to the event begging for a ticket, who somehow got in and resorted to begging or stealing from those who came to the event prepared. I wonder if the ever migrating 'Rainbow Family' gatherings have much of this kind of thing happen.
The problem with bike theft has reached epidemic proportions at Burning Man, so I brought my lock and used it every time the bike was to be out of my sight. There were many thefts I heard about, in every case the bike wasn't locked. People seemed to think they could trust everyone at the event, but those days have gone the way of the 'Temporary Autonomous Zone' once proclaimed before the BLM crackdowns started in 2000. One woman I spoke to had her bike stolen along with her handbag containing vital items for maintaining her contact lenses, the result of which she suffered for the rest of her stay. There was a gathering sense of anger regarding such criminally inconsiderate behavior simmering in many. One report I judge as plausible told of an individual caught stealing a bike being beaten until he could barely stand up by an enraged crowd. One cannot excuse vigilante justice however it is fair to say that people are sick and tired of the thievery and the word should go out that it is not appreciated. People should use locks as I did whenever the bike would be out of sight, even for a minute.

The most common serious accidents prominently continued to be due to falling while running onto and off of art cars and 'party floats'. I saw someone being loaded unconscious after such an incident early Sunday evening, near the 7:00 and Esplanade streets, into an ambulance near me. Another art car accident resulted in a woman landing on her head, and accepting a ride from an ambulance which appeared quickly on the scene. She didn't really feel badly injured but was sympathetic to getting looked at by a medic. The trip to the first aid station was turned into a nightmare because all the road signs had been stolen. If this had been a time essential situation someone could have died due to the mass theft of the signs emergency vehicles had been used to navigating by. The woman involved relayed her story to Michael, from who I then heard it.

Death visited the Playa again this year, in the form of a heart attack which on Tuesday struck a 37 year old man while showering, collapsing and hitting his head on a length of iron rebar with an attempt to rise ending in convulsions. As medics sped to the scene Adam Goldstone insisted on wearing his distinctive narrow legged pants when offered a pair of ordinary pants for his ride, saying his last words, 'Oh, that will never do'. Goldstone was a well loved New York East Village DJ, and a musician who released dance music as well as editing related publications in the mid 90's. His single 'The Sky Is Not Crying' is regarded highly in the 'House-music' world.
The death of Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin ended up being the big news story taking place in the outside world during the event, which although sad was a relief compared to what one might imagine happening. The devastation of New Orleans last year, which I happened to be able to follow the progress of on the cable news networks, or the Georgian school massacre of two years ago were examples of horrendous past contemporaneous events, along with the death of Princess Diana during my first Burning Man. I sometimes imagine the world as we know it coming to an end while we are out there, and the varieties of grappling with the consequences among the gathered populace. Being out on the playa invites such extreme ideas, the vast emptiness acts as the blank canvas for many a wild idea. Burning Man itself is a mutated expression of the kind of individual eccentricity often seen in the desert combined with the combination of affluence and creativity in west coast urban environments which has spawned entire social movements. A massive collective act of expression is hammered, hung, woven and plugged together across a vast tent city which pulses with light and music, is home to a good sized town full of people, and is pulled apart to virtually blow away like a mammoth sand painting yielding its intricate designs to randomness. Then all will be blank emptiness once again swept by veils of wind driven dust.