On last week’s Roll Over Easy my fellow Mission Mission contributors Luke and Chris talked about the joys of watching the Blue Angels buzz the city during Fleet Week. They pointed out that there are always complaints about the noise and rattling windows. But there have also been complaints about the cost. Last year KQED suggested that it costs about $1 million to fly the planes over SF. Luke and Chris thought they brought a lot of joy to people, with no specific cost to anyone who wanted to watch (excepting residents’ tax money). Beyond that, I would assume that they’re meant to sustain excitement and support for our military might and justify its spending.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Angels. Their skill is impressive, but it’s not my thing, and I agree that the noise is annoying in that it’s not opt-in. So, I invite you here to speculate with me about what we could do with one million dollars that would still not really accomplish anything, but would bring joy to all kinds of people around the Bay Area, with no added cost to them.
What would you do? What would you like to see?
Here’s my stab at it: a life sized At-At standing with the Oakland cranes shooting It’s Its all over the Bay Area. Now, I know there are people out there who aren’t Star Wars fans (I’m not), and people who can’t tolerate ice cream (I can’t), but even so, how cool would this be??
The key bit to your post is this: “[...]they’re meant to sustain excitement and support for our military might and justify its spending.” So just not spending the money at all would be beneficial to the people of the Bay Area — maybe it wouldn’t fill them with joy…?
For the people who were not filled with joy at the thought of not wasting 1 million dollars on military aggrandizement (North Koreans assimilated into the general population?), I guess you could build a giant, khaki-colored toilet on the Farallon Islands with part of the money, and flush the rest of the money into the ocean, where the desperate poor could compete for the bucks with sharks. That would entertain somebody.
Seriously, you don’t even mention what always worried me — that one of those pilots would make a mistake and crash into an apartment building. Air shows are held over airfields for a reason. Airplanes, even those piloted by experienced, trained pilots, CRASH.
I wonder what would it cost to replace all the water in the bay with horchata?
Sorry, but FUCK THE BLUE ANGELS. Loud, obnoxious military propaganda that has no place in this city…
One million dollars!? Why, I could buy a small condo for that kind of money!
Right to my bank account… Fuck all ya’ll.
Fleet Week is a celebration of San Francisco. It draws millions of people to the City. If the Blue Angels didn’t fly, the attendance would plummet. It is not pro-military, it is pro-SF.
LOL
It seems more of a celebration of what SF is not. How much poop can they get of the street for 1 million bucks? Maybe they can keep the civic center BART/Muni station escalator free of poop for a year?