Going back to a smaller center circle?

[BitterDan]

Was it just me or was the center ring way too big? I could understand it if there was more art crammed in there but the art was few and far between and all the larger city did was make it nearly impossible to go from one side to the other. I think it was good in theory but in practice it was a pain in the ass (and the feet).

[MikeVDS]

I agree

[BitterDan]

The Wheel also confused the hell out of me. I would be headed to center camp and say to myself, "Wait a minute, there are camps here. WTF? What do I do now?". I would then typically curl up in a ball and wait for a BRC Ranger to lead the way.

[thirt33n]

i also concur.

[missy]

I agree, with the sand dunes making riding so difficult those distances seemed vast. :D

[Captain Goddammit]

It's ironic that they wanna discourage powered vehicles at BM but the bigger the city gets the more people want them.

[mikesieben]

I totally agree, cant there be a smaller center and more rows?

[Badger]

It's ironic that they wanna discourage powered vehicles at BM but the bigger the city gets the more people want them.

I agree.

I think it's important to mention why people found it challenging so that any folks from the BMORG reading this will understand why it was frustrating.

I'll star by noting that the size of the BRC - especially the open playa - made the event hostile to the pedestrians that the BMORG has always claimed the city was about.

That's now bullshit. BRC is no more a pedestrian city than Los Angeles. If anyone in the BMORG disagrees with my assertion then I'd ask how many times anyone from First Camp actually walked from the 3:00 to 9:00 keyhole.

Had the open playa been filled with large scale art it might make for a compelling argument to increase the area. That wasn't the case. People stayed in their camps or hung almost exclusively in their little ghetto. As a result there was little to know cross pollenization of community.

[betrdanevr]

It's ironic that they wanna discourage powered vehicles at BM but the bigger the city gets the more people want them.

I think I get what you're saying, but I don't find it ironic. I find it absolutely ridiculous. The bigger the city, the more people want and need them. It sounds like high time that the city be limited in the number of attendees, and the BM organizers need to just DO it because they're inviting problems.

[Cassidy]

I lived at 3:00 and only took one trip over to 9:00 because it kicked my ass. I rode my bike and had to cool down and drink all of my water so I could make the trip back. Call me a wimp, but I did it MANY times last year with ease. Smaller inner circumference is better whether you're walking or biking. If it doesn't decrease back down next year yeah, I'm going to consider something powered to get around, and you can bet I'm not the only one.

[Timezone LaFontaine]

I found more yellow bikes this year than last, but ended up using them less because it was much more difficult to ride (especially if the wind was against me) than to walk. But I walked all over, many miles each day, I'm sure. All the way out to the fence and back. Afternoon and in the midnight hour. I guess I just enjoy walking. The firmer my buttocks become, the more strongly they repel motorized transport -- it's the only logical explanation. Not to mention, rarely do I walk in a straight line to one particular destination -- there's a lot of spontaneous zig-zaggery involved, as something off in the distance catches my eye. Keep it vast.

[oheric!]

I think it's important to mention why people found it challenging so that any folks from the BMORG reading this will understand why it was frustrating.

I was at BaggageCheck 7:30A and found that trekking around was a bit more of a challange this year. I am very sympathetic to the folks that were camped further back. You guys/gals are troopers.

The Craigslist hybrid-mountain bike was shelved on the 2nd day as it was just not working for me. We had 20-some bikes parked in our camp that nobody used. We all just walked rather than negotiate the loose and fluffy conditions.

1) Distance: Opulant Temple, Deep End and even our trek to last years "address" at 3:30 Landfill (I know there was no L this year but we were close) required quite a bit more preperation. I managed to make it out to each a couple of times. They were more like hikes then walks.

2) Danger, Danger Will Robinson:
Hiking, what seemed like a long distance was complicated/enhanced with negotiating golf carts; lots and lots of golf carts, art cars/barges and even the girl cruising around in her black Mustang on the Esplanade made me focus less on what I was walking past and more on not getting tagged by whatever vechicle was wandering along.

3) More danger?
Open playa, dear god. Day time was fine but I am visually challanged so night time was a little more of an adventure. I was seperated from my group over at Opulent Temple, had been drinking and decided that I wanted to go to bed. Shortest way home? Aim towards the red light over Mal-Mart (thanks guys!) and cut across open playa. I was equipped with glowies and a headlamp but still had near misses with bikers riding in "stealth" mode. Unlit art installations, pee puddles, random moop. I am glad I was wearing the big leather boots.

Hindsight is 20/20, We could have done things differently, noted.

People stayed in their camps or hung almost exclusively in their little ghetto.

We did "turtle" and IMO had a pretty decent camp that was open to the street. A lot of people stopped in and took naps or went a couple rounds with the Hooka (cherry licorice tobacco: new to me) or enjoyed our never ending supply of bacon.
Naps, hooka and fatty meats: I would say we were not the most active camp.

Comments were made by campmates that we were not traveling as much this year. Tis' true. It was more comfortable and safer to stay put then head out for 4 or 5 hours. When we did go out, we did not go too far.

If I was to come up with a solution to what I consider issues at BM I would go with population control. Cut the event in half. Less work, more managable work for the volunteers and more time for the volunteers to go play.
I am unsure why the event has to grow or even be at the size that it is. From what I understand (which is very little) the larger the venue the higher the costs. Permits, logistics all that stuff. If there is a benefit to having 50,000 people over 25,000 people I would love to hear it.

[BitterDan]

My problem was that there wasn't anything to attract me in the distance. I would be out by the man and searching for some interesting art but alas I'd find none (no offense to artists, there was some great stuff out there but it was so sparse that it was hard to discover). If we keep the bigger circle, cram the art placements into it; Don't just make it more difficult for me to get from one side of the city to the other.

I'm sure the playa condition added to the difficulty and being as it is unpredictable, my opinion is that we should go back to small. The city worked fine last year with nearly as many participants. It comes down to the old adage; If it aint broke, don't fix it.

[Dork]

One thing that was really striking to me was the lack of any action on the esplanade at night other than at 2:00 and 10:00. Occasionally there would be a good performance or something but mostly it was dead especially on burn night. I think the effort to expand the "tourist zone" into the keyholes and plazas really backfired this year. Many camps didn't make it for whatever reason, many weren't doing a lot to bring people in, and there weren't enough cool camps left to make it worthwhile for people to "barhop" their way down in the dust. Most people seemed to just head straight for 2:00 or 10:00 and stay there or catch a party bus back/forth. The camps that were trying seemed to give up because nobody showed up.

The placers need to react to the number of camps that show up instead of just expecting there to be more and more cool theme camps every year.

[thirt33n]

yeah dork, my first year that esplanade was lit up all the way around and it really made a huge difference. that was 2002.

if they could keep the density of the esplanade AND add light density in the portals and keyholes then that's great.

don't put out more chairs than you have guests or the place will seem empty,.....

[Grizelda]

Ugh, yeah. It was too big this year. Unlike previous years, where getting around wasn't a big deal, I alternated between biking and walking to get around in order to give different sets of muscles a rest, and I ended up with bloody, blistered toes anyway. By the end of the week, I had just given up on making it to anything that wasn't within 1.5 "hours" of my camp. I made it out to 2:00 Tuesday afternoon, but never saw 10:00.

The heatwave this year didn't help matters, and the sandy patches made it worse, which I guess perhaps they couldn't have predicted when planning this out months in advance.

This was probably my last year of Burning Man (sadly), but if I ever went back, there is no way I would do it without an art car or something to get around.

[Captain Goddammit]

Well after thinking about it again, it probably had more to do with the shitty playa surface condition this year than the distance. When it's smooth and hard, biking considerable distances is extremely easy.
This year would have sucked for getting around even at last year's diameter.
Ain't much we can do about the weather.

The playa was just plain rough. I had to drive my boat VERY slowly and carefully on those dunes, and most of the time people were passing me on foot! But that's OK, remember, mutant vehicles are supposed to be more about being cool to look at and less about transportation.

[regynalonglank]

The Wheel also confused the hell out of me.

dude, I so hated that wheel shit. give me the clean lines of a continuous curve you can see along any old day. I actually talked to someone who rode out onto the roller rink floor thinking it was the rest of the Esplanade!

[ZaphodBurner]

Most people seemed to just head straight for 2:00 or 10:00 and stay there or catch a party bus back/forth. The camps that were trying seemed to give up because nobody showed up.

I wondered if the weather was involved or what. There was a camp near 8:30 on the Esplanade that we never saw open to the public the entire event. That was near what I think somebody else described as the billionaire camp, which was, like, 8:30 between the Esplanade and Bonneville in which on one side, it was like a giant RV dealership that wasn't open to the public.

It isn't the first year. There were other camps on the Esplanade back in 2005 that were open for, like, a night. The other times you could hear them yelling at each other inside the structures and tents... sad.

The city didn't look any bigger to me this year, except for the wheel. The playa conditions royally sucked, for sure, otherwise I'd have not noticed the size increase if I hadn't read about it in advance.

-c

[alanogy]

I agree with most of the above. The event has just become too big, and I'd limit attendees if I could. I don't plan to go back any year soon; I'm thinking maybe regional events instead.

It was fine about 20,000 people ago. I've never walked/biked so far to find so little going on, and really relate to the LA analogy above. It was like a suburban wasteland with 1000 cloned topless women in Wal-Mart angel wings scattered about - not my American dream.

We had to hop art cars to get where we wanted to go or had to waste hours and deal with sore feet. The heat and sand didn't help any, but I think it was a poor choice to gigantify an already-huge city and an already-mostly-empty playa in the center.

I don't want to minimize the good things and the fun things, but the distance thing was bad.

[Gage]

I agree with most of the points above, but I also wanted to point out something from a virgin attendees point of view.

We walked to open playa many times at night (5 out of 6 nights), and while it took 30-35 minutes each time, it was some of the most memorable times we had. Bonding, isolated from the city while still being surrounded by it. Peaceful...

I know most posts on this thread are from re-attending burners, so you are comparing this year to past years, but just wanted to play devil's advocate. I can only imagine how different it would have been with a smaller center circle...

fyi - the first night we were out was the only night we used bikes (and had a race around the esplanade from approx. 4:00 to 9:00 plaza)... fun fun, but we felt limited by the bikes (random art cars, parites, etc) so we decided to 'commit' to going out and staying out on whatever side of town we ended up...

.02

[cowgirl]

Perhaps the ORG made it wider for the sake of motorized vehicles and the safety of pedestrians?

In hindsight, I agree with more streets but not the width. As someone who has a serious injury that, while it doesn't require a golf cart, does make it touchy to get here and there on foot at times, crossing was impossible. I blame it on 2 factors, weather/ surface (mother nature) & the ORG's decision to widen the horseshoe.

SO - I didn't see my buds at Gigsville or Wheeville or Barbie Death Camp or even Center Camp... but I still had a great time.

What was weird was seeing the other side at night as a set of pin-prick lights that looked inaccessible to me. That was sad. I felt cut off.

[Samsa Bee]

Youre all so right....I STILL had my best Burn, but these factors were ALL present.....It helped that I camped next to the Hookahdome at Lustre, where our small club went off almost every night on a small scale. Personally it was magnificent. But I agree with you all about the idiosynchrisy of 1. the playa being fucked up and sandy, and 2. the BMorg going aheaad with the plan of a bigger city on a year they should clearly KNOW that it was going to be hard to get around. ?????
The desolation of some parts made for saturation of others which was a nice change in some ways (I took off on my bike less and interacted with people more) Where as last year was a total PLAYA ART year for me as 06 was too, this year was a Vibe Up My Village Dance Bar and Get To Know People year.

TEH BMORG should consider keeping the city smaller if the playa pack is going to be that fucked again. If it rains a good amount this winter and the playa packs nice, teh city would be OK being a bit bigger. maybe make the Wheel not so janky, and keep Center camp like it used to be, but largen the esplanade. I hear they opened things up for saftey reasons????? I would sign a petition to keep the city smaller too, but if they have to open it up, only do so if the playa is back to being packed.

[MoisturePup]

For years now The Man has been the center of the city with a huge swath of empty land between the esplanade and him in our cities C shape. This worked well for a smaller population. The cities population has tripled since this initial design though, and the expansion of the initial C shape design has resulted in a city that is too large for pedestrian traffic, and almost too large for a bicycle.

I propose instead that the city be modified into a filled in circle/pie with center camp at the center, and the 10:00 to 2:00 area be the missing slice with the Man at 12:00 and in line with the furthest street.

Here is a very crude drawing.

[regynalonglank]

you know that's not half bad. good half - more art closer, more intimate city. bad half - no open playa views from the Esplanade. loss of expansive feeling. loss of sides to put loud camps away from city center.

for me the open playa views are kind of key. it is the backdrop that everything else happens against. you lose that with this design. you lose that if you close the circle.

maybe we just go out with sprinklers early in the year, and make our own rain :) with a good playa surface the distance is not an issue.

[Samsa Bee]

Hmmmmm interesting, like Pac Man
I have personaly come to konw and love the city as "hugging" the art, and the man in the center. The view of the man from the burb streets, if you stand in the right spot, has a connective mojo to it. The "feng shui" of this C design with the man in the middle works so well with the way the city FLOWS......
The Pac man shape you proposed seems to seperate the large interactive art from the burbs more, creating more segregation.

[devildogzmom]

I also think the current configuration was just too big and spread out to be pedestrian friendly. I last attended in 2002 and found that years plan to be ideal. There was lots of open playa space, not too far out to the man, and it was not unthinkable to actually walk anywhere within the city. I have camped in hushville both years and although the placement, as far as number of "blocks" to center camp was the same, the actual distance and time it took to walk was at lease 3-4 times as much this year. Like others mentioned, I was very limited as to the camps I visited because it was just too difficult to get there and back.

I also thought that there was too much wasted empty space within the camps... the way I figure it, the more floorspace that is covered, the less of a problem the blowing dust would be.

[Dan D. Lyon]

American Dream = Biggerer!?

Just like the Onecler from the book, The Lorax, put it... "Biggering, biggering, biggering... "

I guess I got over seeing everything years ago. Though visiting friends on the other side of the city was more challenging, I liked the spaciousness and I've focused more on meeting neighbors. I think if you want to limit the attendance you might consider going to a regional instead, it just wouldn't be right to turn people away.

It's interesting that MP's pac man design above is the same as the city was in '96 and prior.

Next year, The Tangled Bank, why not experiment a little. I've always been fascinated by the idea of the line, civilization on one side, space and the unknown on the other. How you can step back and forth when your mood suited you.

Here's an idea... make the Esplanade straight (or a little curvy, like a river) and have several b-men/women/whatever built by different artists spread out flanking along in the outer space side. Maybe it would be a little disconcerting but it would fit the theme nicely... (and see what evolved out of it).

[/b]

[AKAparttime]

Hey Zaphodburner

I walked passed that camp many times,we started calling it
Park Place....

~Parttime
Wheel of Karma... ESP 8:30

[mars]

I like Moisture Pup's idea--a lot.

The new esplanade could then be the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock streets with the inner ring connecting them, sort of an ankh-shaped esplanade. The 10 and 2 streets would have the open view to the playa and the inner U could be more like a downtown.