A moment to complain.   I’m not one of those “life is rosy, kids are perfect, here is how my every day is beautiful and productive” bloggers.  Nor am I one of those “parenting is crap, our city is crap, just curl up in a ball and give up” bloggers.  I think I’m somewhere in the middle, hopefully leaning towards “mostly upbeat, somewhat witty, with helpful and relatable suggestions” bloggers.

BUT once in a while I need to take a moment to just complain.  If you can’t whine on the digital diary you’ve created, when can you whine? (To your husband as soon as he walks in the door? Guilty).

For one whole month, the boat show (specifically, the yachting portion held outside) has been an inconvenience to locals.  The city literally made a sign, “boat show – expect delays 1/31-2/28″ at the 63rd street bridge (which I cross numerous times a day).   Is it just me or is that statement RIDICULOUSLY RIDICULOUS?!? Literally ONE MONTH, or 1/12 of the year, we are supposed to be cool with waiting 10, 20, 30 extra minutes for the bridge to come up so fancy yachts can show themselves off for a few days.  Yes, the argument is always “but it brings revenue to the city”, but I wonder how much of this revenue would be hurt if they limited the boat-travel-inconvenced locals time to say, five days?

The event’s website says, “The show is Florida’s largest annual event and boasts an economic impact of nearly one billion dollars.”  Economic Impact.  Hmmm.  Does that mean it includes sale of boats & yachts from all companies and brokers, which Miami benefits from zero? Community Newspapers states, “The Miami Boat Show generates $817.8 million annually in gross sales and wages and supports more than 9,000 full-time jobs in Florida. Additionally, more than 45-percent of visitors that travel to the Miami Boat Show are from outside the state of Florida.”  Again, gross sales, nothing to do with us but I admit, those jobs and potential tourism dollars are nothing to sneeze at.

If I had more time/thought any of you really cared about a deep investigation, I’d seriously look into those 9,000 jobs.  Full-time?! Does that mean working as a yacht broker, for a boating company, for sponsors, etc. Out of state? Does that mean they traveled here ON THEIR BOAT, which brings us zero tourism dollars, or could have driven from, say the Carolinas, or are people who have second homes here (which doesn’t count as a primary residence)? Who knows.

My Bottom line: if they could find a way to somehow do the majority of bridge raising/yacht traveling over night, it would be great not to waste an extra 40 minutes of my time every day for a month sitting and watching people ride away on their gorgeous yachts while I listen to my kids screaming in their car seats. I’m guessing a few other people feel the same way.

Thank you, I’ll put my cynicism on hold for a bit now.