Seinfeld and the City of Albuquerque

Rio Grande Foundation’s president and his wife attended Jerry Seinfeld’s standup comedy event on Friday, Feb. 16 in Albuquerque. While this would typically be nothing more than a fun date night (Seinfeld was great and totally worth seeing), like nearly everything these days, it is political with some relevant concerns relating to the City of Albuquerque.

1. There were dozens of anti-Israel protesters. Seinfeld is Jewish and has expressed support for Israel, but he’s also a private citizen and decidedly NOT in charge of American foreign policy toward Israel. I can only imagine how differently the media would report on these protests if conservatives were protesting Jews or other groups.
2. The protesters were blocking the ONLY entrance to the event (2nd street entrance to the Convention Center). Thankfully no serious altercations occurred, but this situation is completely unnecessary as the 3rd street entrance could have been used as an alternate entry point.
3. Unrelated to the protestors specifically, it is clear the City is not equipped or at least used to hosting major events. The Civic Plaza Parking Garage uses machine payment mechanisms and there simply are not enough of them for a crowd the size of the one that attended Seinfeld. It took a VERY long time to get out of the parking garage (and we attempted to let the crowd thin out).