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Sunday, April 17, 2011
City Agency Lays an Egg
In a news release redolent of Orwellian Newspeak, the city of Santa Fe on Friday canceled its annual "Easter Event."
In the service of greater public understanding, we attempt here to parse the cancellation statement, starting with "Easter Event."
Surely this must mean the annual Easter Egg Hunt, traditionally held at a city park the Saturday before Easter.
The news release explains that this year's egg hunt — which, if it were held, would have been the 25th annual — has been canceled because the city's "Recreation Division intends to re-focus priorities toward family-friendly healthy lifestyle initiatives that are affordable for all Santa Feans."
That's a mouthful, and it may simply be "duckspeak," the Orwellian term for meaningless quacking by public officials. But since it's the Recreation Department's justification for canceling the egg hunt, we persevere.
"Re-focus priorities" usually means an organization is going to stop doing one thing and start doing another. OK, we get that the city is stopping the egg hunt. What's it going to do instead?
Organize "initiatives" (that's events, surely) that are "family-friendly," apparently. It's hard to imagine a more family-friendly event than the annual egg hunt, which has drawn as many as a thousand kids.
Hard to imagine, too, an event more "affordable for all Santa Feans." The egg hunt was, after all, entirely free.
The egg hunt might not have been, however, a "healthy lifestyle initiative." By definition it involved candy — we assume multicolored glazed "eggs," those marzipan chicks and chocolate rabbits.
But in recent years, it has also involved "jump tents" and a veritable carnival of other activities ranging from face-painting to visits by clowns and the Easter Bunny. And that's in addition to all the running around on the Municipal Recreation Complex greensward required in the search for hidden goodies.
Kids being kids, we'd bet the egg hunt participants get plenty of exercise — in fact, they might burn up as many calories in enthusiastic pursuit of the fun as they later ingest from their share of the spoils.
Never mind. The Recreation Department has a "new vision" now, according to the news release, which "along with the economic downturn," means curtains for the egg hunt.
Here we hesitate to interpret. Could city officials have their holidays mixed up? Did they mean to cancel Christmas (the Farolito Walk) as, in a Dickensian economy, they channel Scrooge?
According to the news release, interim Recreation Department Director Martin Lujan could explain. What he said Friday was, the city has decided the money for the egg hunt would be better spent on a BMX competition.
Let's compare. The egg hunt is free and can draw a thousand or more participants, plus families, to any big, grassy city park.
A BMX competition is dangerous and requires skill, thus is probably limited to older kids, and only kids with a certain type of bicycle. Is it free? What about the liability insurance?
Our interpretation: This time, the city's Recreation Department has really laid an egg.
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