Tag Archives: Gerlach

Sep 4 2014

OUTBREAK? Burners Warned of Virus Risk

They say bad luck comes in threes. This year Burning Man faced an unprecedented closure on Monday and Tuesday, followed by an unfortunately fatal art car accident on Thursday.

It seemed like Burning Man might have sneaked home past the nasty Third Fate. The Diplo/Skrillex incident picked up a lot of press attention worldwide, but it was hardly a headache for BMOrg. Just more free publicity, and maybe even further justification for Larry Harvey’s ban on music guides. Exodus was one of the smoothest ever, with almost no significant delays reported by Burners.  More than 10,000 people left the festival before the Man burned, and the official population cap was down from the previous year, keeping the BLM happy.

Alas, ’twas not to be. The mainstream media is reporting on the danger of a potential outbreak of the lethal West Nile Virus, which yesterday killed a man in Long Beach. Officials say anyone who attended Burning Man this year could have been exposed to the virus.

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

mosquitoMosquito traps set near Gerlach just before the annual Burning Man counter-cultural festival have tested positive for West Nile Virus, the Washoe District Health Department reports.

The traps were checked Aug. 22 and were sent to the state lab on Aug. 25 and they got the state results on Tuesday, said health department spokesman Phil Ulibarri.

On Aug. 6, the health department announced it found the West Nile Virus in the Kiley Ranch area of Spanish Springs, the first West Nile Virus case this year in Washoe County.

The Gerlach General Improvement District will take measures this week to kill the mosquitoes, Ulibarri said.

“We decided to help them with surveillance this year,” Ulibarri said. “We didn’t have the funding to go out there and do abatement.”

A person has tested positive for West Nile Virus in Clark County this summer. Nevada health officials have identified positive mosquito pools in Clark, Washoe, Elko and Mineral County, the county health department said. With so many pools with the virus, the state said other West Nile Virus cases are expected in humans.

From MyNews4:

RENO, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) — For the second time this year, mosquito samples in the Washoe County area have tested positive for the West Nile virus.

The Washoe County Health District says mosquitos caught in nine traps that were set in the Gerlach area tested positive for the virus.

The health district says this is the first time they’ve set mosquito traps in the Gerlach area. As a precaution, officials say anyone who attended the Burning Man Festival could have been exposed to the virus.

Gerlach does border the Black Rock Desert, but officials say the chances of mosquitoes traveling from Gerlach onto the playa is minimal.

The first human case of the West Nile virus in Nevada this year was reported in Clark County Wednesday afternoon — but officials say it’s not a very common virus.

“West Nile virus is very serious, but people need to know only about one percent of those people bitten by mosquiotes that carry West Nile Nirus will become seriously ill. Seventy to eighty precent of people bitten by mosquito with West Nile will show no signs … or any symptoms,” said Washoe County Health District, Communications Manager Phillip Ulibarr

From EliteDaily:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 70 to 80 percent of victims do not show the usual symptoms of fever, headache, vomiting or rash, but no one from the festival has tested positive just yet.

Nine people have died from West Nile in Nevada this year, with 129 total cases confirmed.

There is no known cure for the infection.

The Gerlach General Improvement District is seeking to eliminate the virus by hunting down all infected mosquito traps beginning this week.

Mosquito traps in three other Nevada counties have also tested positive for the virus, and more human cases are expected to emerge.

 

Normally the Playa is not a place where you need to worry about mosquitos, but the large amount of rain this year may have encouraged their spread. The world is on heightened alert for bio-disasters as international health authorities scramble to contain an outbreak of another deadly virus, Ebola.

westnilevirus

 

 

[Update 9/5/14 9:25am]

KOLO TV has a video story, they say that 6 traps in Gerlach initially tested positive, then all 9 did.

Huffington Post says there’s no reason to be alarmed, because a local press person said it was fine.

just because West Nile was detected in Gerlach doesn’t mean it made its way to your painted van. The Huffington Post reached out to Washoe County press contact Phil Ulibarri who verified that, despite the positive traps in Gerlach, there is no chance the Burning Man desert was infected. “Zero,” he said when asked about the odds of such an occurrence.

So there you have it. The slowly gentrifying hippie-fest, while potentially still your worst nightmare, was at least not infected with a deadly mosquito virus.

HuffPo does not share with us Ulibarri’s qualifications as a virologist. The same spokesperson admitted to the RGJ that they lack funding to do an adequate study. If it helps you sleep at night, believe them, but if you have any of the symptoms, we suggest you get them checked out, just in case.

From SFist:

anyone who was at Burning Man and may have been bitten needs to be on the lookout for symptoms. As Mic notes, those include fever, headache, vomiting or a rash, however 70 to 80 percent of those infected are asymptomatic. Only about 1% of people develop serious symptoms, like meningitis or encephalitis, and those most at risk are people with cancer, diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease.

 

[Update 9/5/14 1:12pm]

Alayna’s friend is being treated for suspected West Nile virus after returning from the Burn:

Friend returning from the burn is being treated right now for west Nile but waiting on spinal tap results to confirm….flu symptoms followed by sudden seizures….So it may or may not be a real concern to most, but be aware of your body’s signals, if you are sick go to the doctor to be safe. Could be a coincidence but i figure it can’t hurt to be extra cautious

 [9/5/14 11:44pm]

On Facebook Pip Squeek from Vegas has said she has been confirmed with West Nile virus, and came down with its symptoms right after returning from the Burn. There is no other confirmation of this yet:

I have been confirmed for West Nile, though not confirmed that’s where it came from. I got sick about 24 hrs after returning from the Burn. I as pretty near death and it was horrifying. Please don’t just shrug this off. Get medical attention if you start to have symptoms of meningitis. I have reported to the CDC so we will see where this goes

Aug 27 2014

How Much For That Ranch In The Desert?

The Black Rock Beacon published a story about the Burning Man Founders’ cash out. The $10 million figure they use seems very much on the low side, unless it is per director. See The Great BMOrg Cash Out $28-45 million post – so far, no-one has attempted to dispute the calculations from our guest author A Balanced Perspective. These calculations did not include the estimated $2.5 million per year in royalties paid to Decommodification LLC, a private company owned by the founders which in 2017 will probably be sold back to themselves (ie., another entity in their complex web of for-profit and tax-free companies). This transaction is by no means a done deal, since the directors still have the power to vote against the transfer.

The cash out numbers we have estimated do not include any rent the organization pays for the use of their Nevada work ranch and other properties. This year, just before the announcement that Burning Man had finally “completed” their transition to a non-profit, the ownership of the Gerlach ranch was transferred to yet another private company in their complex, non-transparent corporate web.

Santafemous did some investigation of this property:

Beginning in 1999, Burning Man had a 10 year lease on an 80 acre parcel they called The Work Ranch (80 Jackson Way) and, in 2001,they purchased 200 acres next door (88 Jackson Way) called Black Rock Station.

“…this property originally served as a landing zone for all the stuff left on the playa after every event..the years of stuff now amount to an unorganized tract of land. We will completely remove and relocate operations to Black Rock Station…because Washoe County Community Development isn’t happy with some conditions on the property.”

…Some of the…properties are, “Black Rock Station (a fully functioning work ranch), the Gerlach Office, “Helen’s House”, the Black Rock Social Club and the Gerlach Showers. From these properties, Burning Man uses these properties for administrative operations, supplies storage, and staff support facilities.”

work ranch burning_man2

aerial view burning_man_80_acres

In a 2008 permit application, the ranch at 88 Jackson Lane was owned by Black Rock City, LLC

On January 9 2014, the title was transferred from Black Rock City LLC to Black Rock City Properties LLC for $0. On March 3, 2014, BMOrg announced the completion of their non-profit transition.

Black Rock City Properties LLC was formed at the end of 2013, presumably for the sole purpose of this real estate transfer. It has the same address as Burning Man’s HQ. Black Rock City LLC is listed as the managing member. Will Roger is the only listed director. This is different from Gerlach Holdings LLC, which lists all 6 founders as officers  – does anyone know what that company does?

So just before they announced they’d fully transitioned to a non-profit (which later turned out to be not true), they shifted the real estate holdings out of one company in their group, and into another. Why?

The government valuation information on the work ranch is:

2013/2014 Fair Value

$582,177 taxable

$203,762 assessed

According to a consultant from Piscataway Homes, Gerlach real estate is only going one way: down. Dramatically so.

2014/2015 Fair Value:

$487,244 taxable

$170,535 assessed

They purchased the property in 2001 for $70,000. In 2013 the taxable improvement value was $550,177.

Does Black Rock City LLC pay rent to Black Rock City Properties LLC? Although there is no direct evidence either for or against that, I think it is a reasonable assumption. The IRS Form 990 filings from the non-profits show that both Black Rock Arts Foundation and the Burning Man Project pay rent. Since both organizations are housed at BMHQ, this establishes the precedent that BMOrg is cross-charging rent (and other expenses) across its various entities. Occupancy was $5500 in 2012 for BMP, and $12,900 for BRAF. Office Expenses were $9,497 and $26,390 respectively.

The rent charges skyrocketed (62%) at the same time that BMOrg announced their transition plan, 2011. They’ve been growing dramatically every year since.

Rent (from Afterburn reports):

2013    $732,900

2012    $615,944

2011    $444,000

2010    $274,000

2009    $167,000

2008    $236,000

2007    $281,000

In 2013, Burning Man moved its headquarters from 3 floors of a $17 million building in Market Street, to a building in the Mission. Here are the details on that building from LoopNet:

660 alabama

The 2 lower floors are 11,555 square feet each; level 4 is 15,000 square feet. Burning Man’s headquarters address is Level 4, 660 Alabama Street.

Burning Man took up 3 floors in their Market Street offices. The floors there are 4500 square feet each.

Consolidating the work force onto a single floor that is slightly larger seems to make sense. The top floor at 660 Alabama has high ceilings, as you can see in the photos here. There are stairs in the offices, but these seem to go to a mezzanine, rather than to one of the lower floors.

bmhq stairs

bmhq mezzanine

This page from 2010 lists the rent for the upper 3 floors of the building at $65,100 per month.

Assuming the lower floors are priced less than the penthouse, a reasonable estimate for the rent is half the total: $32,550 per month.

Rents in San Francisco have been steadily increasing over the last few years, so let’s factor in 10% growth per year. This brings us to $43,000 per month by 2013, or $520,000 per year.

From the 2013 Afterburn report, total rent of premises was $732,900.

So my estimate is about $200,000 per year goes to rent the Nevada properties. If this ends up in the pockets of the founders, then this is another $1.5 million or so over their 7-year cashout. Presumably this is a revenue stream that will continue as long as the event is held on the Playa.

If the money doesn’t go to the founders, then why would they transfer the real estate holdings out of Black Rock City LLC, before transferring Black Rock City, LLC to the Burning Man Project? If the properties needed to be transferred at all, why not transfer them directly to the Burning Man Project? Why form yet another private, secret corporation?

If all the rent simply goes to the HQ building, then that is more than $60,000 per month. The company claims 30 full time employees and contractors, so they would be paying $2,000 per person, per month. Even in rent-hungry San Francisco, in the hipster Mission District, that seems unfathomably high.

Another possibility is that Burning Man rented the whole building, then sublet the other floors. Revenue data is not shown in the Afterburn reports, all we have to go on is Maid Marian’s claim of $30 million per year. This scenario still does not explain the last minute transfer of real estate holdings to another private company.

As always, if anyone else has other data, or a different take on the math, please share.

ranch burning_man4

Aug 25 2014

BREAKING: Burning Man is Closed [Updates]


Hard to believe, but it’s true. They have closed the gate due to rain (and hail).

Now Burners are being asked to stay in Reno, and not go past Gerlach.

Prior to the close, the wait was 2-3 hours from Wadsworth to 8 mile then 5-6 hours to get through the gate.

Get updates from Twitter @bmantraffic @burnersdotme and listen live at BMIR and iHeartRadio.

We’ve been informed that the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno is offering a 50% room discount to Burners. Use code BURN14. Other hotels are also offering special deals for Burners, see here.

This UStream screen capture shows what the situation was like before they shut power down. BMIR kept transmitting for a while but they have gone off air too.

2014 rain screenshot 25th

[Update 8/25/14 12:07PM]

Burner Paul is on the Playa and has an Internet connection. He sent the photo below. He says:

I’m here now and the storm is terrible…crazy loud thunder and non stop rain. Ive been unable to leave my tent for the last few hours lol! 

puddles paul 2014

[Update 8/25/14 12:54pm]

Official word from @burningman is the gate will be closed until at least midday Tuesday. We imagine the line to get in then will be rather long. Some estimates have 10,000 people currently in line at the gate.

https://twitter.com/burningman/status/503988750544666624

 

[Update 8/25/14 9:30pm]

Although there has been no word on the official Burning Man social media channels for 8-9 hours, BMIR let slip that the gate was open – then didn’t mention it again. Cars were seen on UStream driving into Black Rock City. A few Burners between Gerlach and the gate have reported that cars are now moving again. Peter Hirshberg told us:

“Gate is open. The road blocks are still in force, but being stood down town by town heading south. Here in empire we are being told that the highway patrol will give us the go signal within the hour. As the backlog clears, towns further south will open . We’re being told not to proceed until the highway patrol says go, Or “you’ll be turned back as a matter of policy” The whole thing looks pretty well coordinated between bmorg and law enforcement .”

 

[Update 8/26/14 10:31am}

Gates are open.

Airport will be open at noon today.

9 o’clock area of the city is full. There is still room available on the 3 o’clock side to camp.