Ramona, you are right on the mark. The best RAGBRAI host cities festivities have always been those that wrapped up before dark. How could the planning commitee not have known this, unless the arrogance of its members precluded checking for ideas from more experienced host cities. Instead, the commitee decided to re-invent the wheel and came up with a square

I agree with Bob. When they were announcing the plans, several people that are experienced RAGBRAI riders told me that having things so far from the campgrounds was crazy. The 9:30pm concert start time brought several comments. Most said they would be asleep by then. The committee wanted festivities downtown and I don’t think they really cared how many riders showed up. They were counting on non-riders to fill up downtown and it did not happen. Total disaster as far as I am concerned. It would be a long time before I would let the people that were in charge of the event handle anything again.

It’s very telling that when it was announced receipts were well below expectations we were told there would be a full accounting ‘later in the week’. There has been no accounting to date… none. Just how bad was this fiasco? Even setting aside monetary loss the whole thing was farcical being obviously choreographed to move activity to our magical ‘downtown’ with no consideration for the actual needs of the people we were supposed to be hosting. If those who put this together had a sliver of integrity they would publicly apologize to the city and the RAGBRAI organizers. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen… these people are apparently just not accountable.

Pitiful.

I know nothing about the planning committee so this is just pure speculation. Maybe part of the problem was no one on the committee was over 30 as well as having “pie in the sky” visions. Another factor may have been the failure to consider that being near the end of the trip people were getting physically tired as well as tired of “celebrating” and just wanted REST! ( My wife did volunteer at a “food stand” and found sales “disappointing”. )

The committee is just following the city council,s “pie in the sky” attitude about everything. They have maintained that if anyone disagree’s with their ideas that the person disagreeing has something wrong with them or that they are against progress. I want to see the “accounting’ they promised and I want to know if the taxpayers had to pay for the actions of the Chamber. If the taxpayers had to pay then the council should take back any future funding until such time as the debt is paid back. If I make a financial mistake I can’t pawn it off on others to pay for and I do not think the taxpayers should be held accountable for this. Anyone with even an ounce of common sense could have seen this failure coming. It was the hottest summer on record,the longest ride 80 miles I believe and they put a concert in the middle of a concrete street in downtown Cedar Rapids which is always hotter than the parks (concrete and asphalt and buildings hold in the heat you know) All responsible parties should lose whatever position they have. Again If I made that kind of mistake in my job I would have been fired but in the Chamber of Commerce world they probably got a promotion and raise