Thursday, January 19, 2006

Seeing Red on City Hall

A quick note to my friends at Matier and Ross:

So I'm walking home from the Academy after work and I see City Hall all lit up in red with limos out front. Pretty. But since it is too early for Valentine's Day I figure it is some big event.

As I approach I see miles of red carpet. Royalty? More gay couples getting married? Nope. Some sort of corporate event for Oracle. That's nice. I think it is great that City Hall is so elegant that corporations want to hold events there. Just curious, do you know how much the taxpayers who paid to refurbish it got from Oracle for rental fees?
(Oracle's Red Carpet in front of City Hall)
We all remember how Oracle got busted for selling the state more database licenses than state workers. I just hope that the city got some cash for hosting the venue. (The saddest part of that story? The guy who found out about the scam was BOOTED from the audit committee! Whatever happened to him? He should have been put in charge of MORE audits! Maybe he can get Harvey Rose's job when he retires.)

Anyway to check up on that? Maybe it is very affordable and other corporations will want to rent it out too. Or was it a trade out in services or software? Did we need those services or software?

I would HATE to hear that we gave them the space for free or really, really cheap. I mean it's not like Oracle is hurting for cash or anything. I know how often cities give stuff away to corporations when they really don't have to. Thanks for checking up on this.
Signed,
A concerned resident.