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hotrod4x5
Did I miss it? Was there any meat to this interview? It seemed like he was trying to be very polite to both sides and he really didn't take a strong stand either way.
I really didn't hear anything much different from that I have heard before other than the year (2003) that DNC gathered and licensed more trademarks. I have not been able to find and good time line of events and what was trademarked and when. I think that we are all aware of how national politics and who is in office affect the parks over all but I also think that there are also internal politics that we might not be aware of. I am just saying this because in 2010, I went to the party for the opening of the New Old Faithful Visitor Center in Yellowstone. When I was going back to my room, I saw a group of Xanterra upper management people so I went up and asked if they would ever bid on a contract for Yosemite and after much hemming and hawing they said they would not because Yosemite is too political but they would not go into details. Since they have contracts in other parks, this leads me to believe that there are other "politics" that are specific to Yosemite they were referring to and not just national politics. BTW Xanterra did not bid on the Yosemite contract this time.
I don't feel that Binnewies is on the side of DNC or any concessionaires. because he said that they are only concerned about their economic gain which conflicts with the goal of protecting our parks. This is why he brought up the idea of having non profit companies run the concessions. As for the names, it sounds like he feels that DNC pulled the wool over the NPS's eyes and that the names should not belong to a concessionaire.
For me it was not very informational about what is going on with the name change but just another person's comment on it. I do wonder what his book is like and maybe that was part of why he did the interview - to get people to buy his book.
