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TECH More: Sean Parker Facebook
Sean Parker Responds To Wedding Criticism: 'Everything We Did Was An Homage To Nature'
MEGAN ROSE DICKEY JUN. 6, 2013, 1:58 PM 672 1

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Earlier this week, billionaire Sean Parker paid $2.5 million to the state of California for his medieval-themed wedding in Big Sur, Calif.
Parker's wedding sparked some criticism because he temporarily installed structures in an ecologically sensitive area.

Parker had built it on public lands and mistakenly didn't obtain the required permits from The California Coastal Commission. Parker has since responded to the criticisms in an email to Alexis C. Madrigal of The Atlantic.

There are a few key takeaways.

Parker "informally" consulted with the Save the Redwoods League early on to help him find a forest to host the event. The "before" image included in the CCC's report was likely taken after Parker's crew cleaned it up. Parker also says paying $2.5 million was voluntary and "consistent with the kind of conversation work" he's already doing.

Parker also said that he spent nowhere near $9 million on the backdrop for his wedding, as previously reported.

Instead, he "spent roughly $4.5 million on prepping the site and big part of that was restoring the forest floor (I should say, covering the forest floor with plants) since it had been paved over in black asphalt or cleared by bulldozers before we ever laid eyes on the campground."

Head on over to The Atlantic to read Parker's full defense.

SEE ALSO: Look At The Fantastical Set Built For Sean Parker’s $10 Million Wedding

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2 0 Encino Man on Jun 6, 2:50 PM said:
Parker also says paying $2.5 million was voluntary and "consistent with the kind of conversation work" he's already doing.

Conversation work?

EM
Reply
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TECH More: Sean Parker
Sean Parker: Tech Guru And The Bad Boy Of Silicon Valley
PAUL HARRIS, THE GUARDIAN JUN. 9, 2013, 9:22 AM 3,751 2

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Given the way he has lived the rest of his life, no one really expected Sean Parker – the hard-partying playboy of tech – to have a quiet, modest wedding. Nor did he disappoint.

Parker and his young songstress girlfriend, Alexandra Lenas, tied the knot last weekend in an ancient grove of Californian redwoods on the gorgeous stretch of coastline known as Big Sur.

But the glories of nature alone were not quite enough. Parker had teams of workmen and builders construct fake ruins, excavate a pond and import scores of potted plants. Some reports put the tab at $10m. It also prompted a stern investigation from the California Coastal Commission, which detailed environmental damage and revealed Parker had agreed to cough up a further $2.5m as recompense.

When details of that report and the pay-off emerged last week, it triggered a storm of outrage at the way in which the billionaire Parker, who has been at the nexus of virtually every major development in tech, seemed to operate outside rules that apply to ordinary people. That was doubled when it was shown that California's attorney general, Kamala Harris, the top law enforcement official in the state, was on the guest list and partying away in the damaged grove. But the symbolism was more important than just Parker's wedding. The shindig came at a time when ordinary Americans are becoming increasingly wary of tech titans and their impact in the world. The largesse seemed to sum up an increasingly pervasive Silicon Valley culture defined by arrogance, a sense of being above the laws of mere mortals and saturated by untold wealth that greases the wheels of power.

After all, news that Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg and some of his closest tech pals have formed a political campaigning group recently earned a prickly public response. Assailed by concerns over privacy and wary of deep-pocketed lobbying by any industry, many sceptics are increasingly waking up to the idea that Big Tech could soon join corporate bogeymen Big Pharma and Big Oil as something to be worried about. Last week, we also learned that America's spies are happily accessing data from giants such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube. Suddenly, the tech industry's promises of information freedom and interconnectedness look a lot like a civil liberties issue and an out-of-touch, new elite starting to take over the world.

Parker would never see it that way. He regards himself as a rule-breaker, but in the causes of good. He is the fun lad-about-town who takes on old industries and transforms them, empowering ordinary people. He is described in the same sort of language as a rock star and is famed for late nights, fast cars, private jets, rumours of illicit substances and a succession of gorgeous girlfriends.

Though such a reputation is rare in the nerdy world of Silicon Valley, Parker is one of the industry's most serious players, carving a path through the seminal moments of the information age. He started young. Parker was born in 1979, in Herndon, Virginia, to an oceanographer father and a mother who worked in advertising. The former introduced him to computers, teaching him to program at seven years old. A sickly child, he was astonishingly bright and a voracious reader.

Software became his passion and he morphed into a teenage hacker, hanging out with like-minded souls and seeking to dance past the online security of firms and organisations. He started failing at school. Not that it mattered, for Parker was very, very good at computers.

He loved to penetrate organisations and then email their system administrator from their own account, pointing out the holes in their defences. But he also got caught. His father, discovering him in front of a computer screen in the early hours, yanked away his keyboard before he could log out. As he had been hacking at the time, his computer's identity was exposed. The FBI came calling, arresting the 16-year-old, who was sentenced to community service. But it was the making of him. He drifted away from hacking to more legitimate pursuits, interning at web companies, and started to use his talents to earn serious money. He clocked up $80,000 in his last year of high school, decided to skip college and moved to San Francisco.

In 1999, he formed Napster with fellow web prodigy Shawn Fanning, whom he had met via chat boards. In those early days of the internet, when the impact of the rapidly spreading web was still being determined, Napster was a landmark moment. It was a file-sharing site that allowed users to share music, which sounds innocuous enough until you realise that it rendered CDs old fashioned and completely transformed the entire music industry. It was also illegal and, after entertainment firms went after it, the site was taken down for copyright infringement.

But the Sean Parker legend was born. Similar rises and falls followed as Parker developed an uncanny knack for spotting key moments in the rise of the internet. In 2002, he launched Plaxo, a little-known but hugely influential networking site that was a precursor of the behemoth LinkedIn. He was ousted after two years when he clashed with the board but got a tip from a friend's girlfriend about a new site called Facebook. He sent its founder, Zuckerberg, a blind email. The two met, Parker used his contacts to bring in funding, and the rest was history and, eventually, the hit movie, The Social Network. Facebook made Parker rich thanks to his stake in the firm, but here, too, he ended up being ousted in 2005 after a drugs bust at a home he had rented in North Carolina. But as Facebook grew into a giant, Parker became a billionaire, through his shareholding, and continued putting his hi-tech fingers in many pies.

He moved to New York, becoming famous for his extravagant parties. Since 2006, he has helped run the Founders Fund for uber-rich investor Peter Thiel, with carte blanche to take bets on new start-ups. He's invested in Spotify, a music service seen as a natural heir to Napster, and lesser-known firms such as Airtime. Admirers and critics alike accept that he has more than a touch of genius about him. Thiel told Vanity Fair: "I've told Sean he may be the long-lost grandson of Howard Hughes – a brilliant entrepreneur who is somehow transforming the United States and yet is not understood by society."

Such words are unlikely to put much of a damper on Parker's self-regard. A compulsive worker, he puts in immensely long hours, seems to need little sleep and runs on something the rest of Silicon Valley calls "Sean Parker time" – meaning he is frequently late, though worth waiting for. Like any young man with an ego and billions, he indulges passions beyond what normal people think possible (such as taking piano lessons from Sean Lennon) and is known for incredibly generous gifts and charity donations.

He also takes an extreme interest in what is written about him. When the details of his wedding were scathingly reported last week by Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic, Parker emailed her with a detailed defence of his nuptials. "Everything we did was an homage to nature, to the natural redwood environment which I call 'God's cathedral'," he wrote.

That may be so. But now the jury is a little out on Parker, his industry and his fellow tech titans who increasingly rule our hyperlinked brave new world. As privacy arguments heat up, as the power of Facebook and Google to shape our lives grows, and as billions of dollars flow into the pockets of a small, elite new class of industrial barons, the sceptical voices are getting louder. What once seemed a bright and shiny new future is suddenly tinged with shadows.

Parker once described this shaded area of morality, back when he was a hacker and called himself a "grey hat" in a homage to old cowboy films where goods guys wore white and bad guys donned black. "Grey hats are the ones who think they're doing good, but they're not," he said. That is an argument that many are starting to have over aspects of the tech industry. No doubt, some of Parker's projects and investments will – as always – be at the centre of it.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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CNET News Internet & Media Sean Parker on his wedding, redwoods, and death ...
Sean Parker on his wedding, redwoods, and death threats
Things have been a bit crazy since Parker's controversial multimillion-dollar nuptials in an old-growth forest on the California Coast. He talks with CNET's Paul Sloan about being the Internet's punching bag.

by Paul Sloan June 14, 2013 6:53 AM PDT
40 CommentsFacebook737Twitter205Linked In7More

Sean Parker's wedding picture, as posted to his Facebook profile.
(Credit: Mark Seliger)
So much for the honeymoon.
Sean Parker -- Napster co-founder, first Facebook president, portrayed on the big screen by Justin Timberlake -- had expected to spend early June relaxing with his longtime girlfriend and new bride, Alexandra Lenas.
Instead, the newlyweds and their newborn are holed up at an undisclosed location in Menlo Park, Calif., while Parker works the phones to get out his side of a story he describes as "simultaneously the silliest and the most damaging PR crisis that I've had to deal with."
If you've missed the uproar, just Google "Sean Parker wedding." You'll get on the order of 717,000 results. Or try, "Sean Parker wedding Big Sur." That'll produce scores of results, many with headlines like this: "Internet Mogul Sean Parker Trashes Big Sur Redwood Forest to Create a Fantasy Wedding."
It's all driving Parker crazy, on a number of levels.
A quick recap: Parker's troubles began last week when, three days after his June 1 wedding, The Atlantic's Alexis C. Madrigal wrote about a report from the California Coastal Commission. The agency detailed the work Parker had done at a campground he leased for the ceremony from The Ventana Inn, a resort just off the ocean. Workers hired by Parker built, among other things, "multiple structures including a gateway and arch, an artificial pond, [and] a stone bridge..."
The key problem, according to the report, is that Parker didn't have the necessary permits for construction on what the agency says is a "privately run public campground." There are plenty of details in the report, which includes photos of the campground, and you can read the whole thing here.
Parker wrote an e-mail to Madrigal explaining his side, which The Atlantic published. Without going into all the specifics, Parker makes some persuasive points. He says he worked with an organization called Save the Redwoods to locate the spot and that the group suggested Ventana because it was private and had previously hosted events. He also says he was then dependent on Ventana for things to be in compliance. As Parker tells it, 20 days before his wedding, the California Coastal Commission shut down his construction crews based on outstanding Ventana Inn violations from long before Parker was involved (an article in the local Monterey County Weekly discusses those outstanding violations).

Parker at the premiere of 'Downloaded' during the 2013 SXSW festival
(Credit: Getty Image)
With his wedding near at hand, Parker said, he didn't want to deal. So he did what rich people can do: He threw money at the problem. He agreed to pay $1 million to settle with the Commission, and another $1.5 million to, among other projects, help build campgrounds for underprivileged kids.
"The last thing I wanted to do 20 days before my wedding was get into a battle with some commission," said Parker.
The settlement, which required approval by the full Commission, was signed off on Friday morning during a public hearing. During the hearing, in fact, Parker won considerable praise for his cooperation and for making the state aware of outstanding violations that were not his fault.
"By my addition, it's six years of violations which we didn't know about and had nothing to do with the wedding," said Mary Shallenberger, who chairs the Commission. "...I thank Mr. Parker for having his wedding there so we could discover all the violations."
After the first Atlantic piece went live, hundreds of reporters jumped on the story. Madigral used Parker's wedding as a "parable for Silicon Valley excess," and others focused on the idea that he was destroying old growth forest, something he vigorously denies. Each report, he argues, added some detail that became "truth by repetition."
"Everything from the bogus price tag on the event to the idea that we built 'castles' in the forest," he said. (For the record, Parker wrote in his letter to The Atlantic that he spent roughly $4.5 million on "prepping the site" and cleanup. As for "'castles' in the forest," here are photos, from the Coastal Commission report, of wedding prep and constructions -- Parker gives more details in the Atlantic letter.)
Then the threats started appearing on his Facebook page, and Parker and his bride cancelled their honeymoon to deal with the mess. Throughout it all, reporters and news outlets, including CNET, never bothered to contact him, said Parker, so he started reaching out to people he knew, which is how I ended up on the phone with him for almost two hours.
"There were over 200 articles in a 72-hour-period, and not one reporter called me for a comment," said Parker. "No one even bothered to try to reach me or my PR person."
Death threats via Facebook
Parker said he wrote directly to some commenters on his Facebook page. Some threats he deleted.
"There are crazy people on Facebook typing death threats," said Parker. "There were people -- eco-terrorists -- on my own Facebook page saying, 'Let's find this guy and put him out of his misery'...Psychopaths are hunting me."
And so the 33-year-old billionaire, not one to keep his emotions in check, is fighting back and ignoring the advice of his handlers, who want him just to shut up until the whole thing blows over. They clearly don't know their client.
"There are crazy people on Facebook typing death threats. There were people -- eco-terrorists -- on my own Facebook page saying, 'Let's find this guy and put him out of his misery'...Psychopaths are hunting me."
--Sean Parker
It's going to be a hard campaign. Let's be blunt: Stories about Sean Parker drive clicks, and this is an easy story, especially if you ignore its many nuances and complexities.
Parker is also more image-conscious than most tech moguls, doing the red carpet stroll at times and often wearing suits that seem more Paris than Palo Alto. So this whole episode has him in a bit of a state, wondering why, in his view, the world is choosing to pick on him as the symbol of greed when his lavish ways pale in comparison to some.
"I had a forest wedding where I made everyone wear silly outfits," said Parker, referring to the medieval theme. "Why is that an example of largesse? You could accuse me of being goofy, or whacky, but there was nothing particularly ostentatious about it."
Making matters worse is that whole movie problem. Much to Parker's displeasure, if the general public has an image of him, it was created by Aaron Sorkin, who wrote "The Social Network," a Hollywood account of Facebook's early days. It's the smooth-talking, hard-partying, big-spending Justin Timberlake -- and that's a guy that Parker says just isn't him (though he has thrown some famously big parties).
"I suppose I need to get used to this, since I'm forever conflated with the JT character in the 'The Social Network,'" he said. "I'm no longer me. I'm this symbol, created in Aaron Sorkin's imagination."
Updated at 9:50 a.m. PT: Added details from the California Coastal Commission hearing.
Topics:Media, Facebook Tags:Sean Parker, Facebook, Sean Parker Wedding Paul Sloan
Paul Sloan has been a San Francisco-based correspondent for Fortune magazine, an editor-at-large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior producer for CNN. He's now an executive editor at CNET News. When his fingers aren't on a keyboard, they're usually on a guitar. Email him here.

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crappyguy 9 hours ago
This Eco crap has become a religon.

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Zulut 21 hours ago
No Brains + Lots Of Money = Huge Lamer

Imagine wth he's going to be thinking 3 years from now during his divorce ;>{


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Augure 11 hours ago
@zulut No brain? He created Napster, was president of Facebook, then Spotify, amongst other thing.

It's like shouting out loud "listen to how I'm stupid subhuman scum". You are

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wethepeephole 22 hours ago
An honest, humble experience full of love it seems. Sobeit he went to this extreme to make it happen. He could. And it probably brought a lot of good vibes into that forest. Shame there are "eco" minded people giving him hell. I'm sure their dreams would have been to have such an experience, I mean talk about a great connection with nature. A happy wedding in a forest full of smiles and beauty, what's wrong with that? Love nature, love what you do. Don't believe the hype.

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Facsimilesmiles Jun 15, 2013
Maybe next time you decide to have a "Forest Wedding", actually *have* a forest wedding. My best friend had her wedding in a public park and you know what we didn't need? Bulldozers.

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jondecker15 15 hours ago
@facsimilesmiles Ha well said, it's true, leave the forrest the hell alone, it's doesn't need any makeup or props, it's insanely beautiful on its own.

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Scotts_Folly Jun 15, 2013
Apparently Mr. Parker is a bit sensitive?

I posted this comment on his FB page, which was then deleted:

Parker: "Why is that an example of largesse? You could accuse me of being goofy, or whacky, but there was nothing particularly ostentatious about it."

Hello! How many couples create a new corporation to manage their wedding, then spend this much on the event?

...........................................................................................

The real concern here may be damage to Post Creek. Construction/Paving/Development/Removal can all impact the area with regard to sediment in the creek.

The Ventana campground is situated in a Redwood forest adjacent to Post Creek, which runs through the property and provides hydrologic drainage for the surrounding 870 acres watershed. Approximately 1.5 miles in length, the upper reaches of Post Creek are characterized by a narrow creek channel with a heavy redwood forest canopy and limited riparian vegetation. Approximately 900 feet from its confluence with the Big Sur River, Post Creek is blocked by a log jam, below which the stream gravels provide spawning habitat for steelhead trout, a species listed as threatened by the Federal Government. As Post Creek and the Big Sur River afford the only significant steelhead habitat in the Big Sur watershed, Post Creek is a critical link in maintaining a natural steelhead fishery in the Big Sur watershed.




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SmokeyBehr Jun 15, 2013
This has nothing to do with the redwoods, or a wedding, or Sean Parker. It has everything to do with the California Coastal Commission, who is an unelected group of know-nothings that have done nothing but screw up the lives of countless people because they have the power to do so. If Sean Parker has the money for a lavish wedding, then let him spend it. He's not burning it, he's employing people to get things done, and buying equipment and supplies to do it with. Why do the (not quite) 99%ers think that there's some kind of alchemical process that converts money into stuff?

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dizzymon Jun 14, 2013
Napster founder huh. So why is the music industry and movie industry still witch hunting when these guys who made their money illegally become right eventually. Really makes you think doesn't it.

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greeneyedcrystal Jun 14, 2013
I'm so sick of the 99%ers constantly bashing and complaining about the 1%ers that work hard to make it. Now... I do have to agree that some 1%ers are VERY overindulgent and wasteful because of their wealth. We all read about movie stars and other famous people buying multi-million dollar mansions, living in them for a couple of years then moving to another... shedding them as if they're clothes! But in this case I'm not seeing that here. I believe Sean just wanted a very special moment to be the most romantic possible and he had the money for it, and he did try to be conscientious of where he was! Unfortunately, you can thank the World's attitude for creating this jealousy and hatred! In our own country, it doesn't help that we have a President that has caused an even greater division among the wealthy and the poor because of his policies and attitude. Which I find rather incongruous, considering that he's building up quite a bit of wealth for himself! Quit being a bunch of hypocrites folks! Anyone of us in the United States can make it, IF, we apply ourselves! Besides... we all know that deep inside, MANY of those 99%ers would actually give anything to become 1%ers!

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OniOokamiAlfador Jun 14, 2013
@greeneyedcrystal Normally I'd agree with you, but the fruity hypocritical bullcrap they did with this wedding is just beyond the pale in terms of absurdism. He deserves the criticism he's getting purely on the justification of how frivolous and stupid it was, not even taking into consideration the actual money spent.

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y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@oniookamialfador @greeneyedcrystal

He claims he didn't know.

I don't know about you, but I can only claim ignorance until the point where I'm fully informed. And once he was fully informed that a permit was needed (and probably that the Coastal Commission would have never granted it) he didn't say "OK - my bad - I'll find another place where I can do this within the rules". Instead he offered to grease the Commission with a cash settlement and apparently help them with some PR stuff.


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Duckydoug Jun 14, 2013
@y_p_w @oniookamialfador @greeneyedcrystal

The commission in the end accepted his building plans and gave him the permits, so what exactly is your point about him greasing the commission? It's just beyond me how anyone can make such sweeping statements implying both Parker and the authorities to be corrupt or plain sleazy. Who here can really claim to be "fully informed" of whether or not this was the case??


Some argue that the speed was evidence of corruption but of course the process was expedited. It's reasonable behaviour when MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are floating around, corruptly or otherwise.

Also, it was 20 days to the wedding. It's a wedding. People with the means aren't going to sacrifice all the effort they already put in to "find another place". It's a stunningly beautiful area and I for one can sort of understand paying through the nose to keep it.

Furthermore, it's his money that he made himself. He's not some twenty six year old relying on daddy and mommy's money for a lavish wedding. He's not even throwing it down the drain as some people believe LITERALLY. He brought his business to the local economy where it will recirculate.


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y_p_w Jun 15, 2013
Did you read the report? He didn't get a permit. It was a settlement in lieu of waiting for a fine. It was the equivalent of him getting found out after the fact.

With the money they decided to let him go through without the proper permits. The plans were not remotely close to anything the Coastal Commision would normally grant a permit.


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inachu1 Jun 14, 2013
May the spirit of Dexter Morgan always protect people who never did anything wrong.

shareflag1likereply
Alex_Darkness Jun 14, 2013
Hey eco-people he did nothing wrong, he helped the specific forest 2.5 million times more than most! He didn't break any regulation the company that was setting up got in trouble for other projects and he bailed them out, because he didn't want delays. The money and publicity he has generated is worth more than a couple thousand eco-bake sale and probably 10-15 years of fundraising for the park. Yellowstone has documented many times over why people should visit parks. Yes they disturb things, but if you don't educate people by letting them visit in a couple years you won't have a park. So, you should honestly be saying thank you.

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sfjill Jun 14, 2013
@alex_Darkness The funds (minus the fines) went to a private hotel. No one in Big Sur is fundraising or seeking publicity for the forest.

shareflaglikereply
Alex_Darkness Jun 14, 2013
@sfjill @alex_Darkness

Why is no one in "Big Sur" "fundraising or seeking publicity for the forest"? It is a publicly owned park and I want to know what makes this park so special that it doesn't need publicity (by the way if it doesn't need public attention then it doesn't need protection either). The forest department spend how much each year to educate the public about deforestation and other forest related program and if "Big Sur" is not contributing to the public that is a problem. MAybe we should be looking at "Big Sur"?


shareflaglikereply
sfjill Jun 14, 2013
@alex_Darkness @sfjill You are right. This ancient forest should have a FACEBOOK page and maybe a SQUARE account to accept micro payments. We should send in some google cars to map the forest floor. Then lets find the coolest hollowed out 600 year old ancient redwood and list it on Airbnb for some extra cash. We will need lots of cell towers so we can stream Spotify and of course and TWEET our location so UBER can bring all our friends to our party in the forest. Why didn't we monetize the forest a long time ago?

shareflag5likereply
Alex_Darkness Jun 14, 2013
@sfjill @alex_Darkness

If you want the public not to care about their parks and want to keep them locked up, they will eventually be forgotten and then lost. Every intelligent Naturalist and Environmental Scientist realizes this. The reason The United Stated has the world's largest park system is because it is open. The Public cares when a developer wants to destroy an area they know (have seen or visited). The public doesn't care and will allow a closed area to be destroyed because "obviously they don't care". Your first 3 suggest, even though made sarcastically are very good. Have an environmentally conscious photographer takes some photo for facebook, square payments, and Google virtual mapping (It is working well for Coral reefs, it actually protects them by letting people see them without having to visit them and destroy them). Very good ideas that benefit nature by educating the public without being destructive.


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y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@alex_Darkness @sfjill

The campground wasn't in a state park, national forest, or any other public land. It was a private campground in an area subject to Coastal Act requirements.

The Coastal Commission report seems to use the term "public campground" like how Pebble Beach Golf Links is referred to as a "public golf course". It was open to the public at one point, but it's not government parkland like Upper Pines at Yosemite.


shareflag1likereply
LaSegunda Jun 14, 2013
@alex_Darkness, the wedding photo at the top is misleading. Try clicking on the photo link in the article to see the damage that was done.

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y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@alex_Darkness

The funds actually went straight into the Coastal Commission's general fund.

It's also not a "park". This was a campground - privately owned and operated, but formerly open to the public. It was apparently shut down by the county for septic system problems, but the Coastal Commission claims that a permit would have been required to close it (permits are required for anything that substantially increases or decreases coastal use).


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michaelolenick Jun 14, 2013
Looks like he built a beautiful picnic/wedding area in the redwoods. I can't see where he destroyed or damaged anything. I think his handlers are right; post more photos, an account of what happened, and let it speak for itself.

shareflag1likereply
y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@michaelolenick

The Coastal Commission doesn't even allow people to repave their driveways in the coastal zone without a coastal development permit. Parker talks about how the asphalt was ugly, but someone owning a home in the area couldn't even pull out asphalt without a CDP. The level of equipment used would clearly call for a coastal development permit, and I really doubt that the Coastal Commission would have approved those plans. He basically bribed them to keep them from stopping his plans.


shareflaglikereply
sfbiker Jun 14, 2013
Is he really so rich that he's oblivious to the fact that spending $4.5M prepping a site for a wedding indicates "largess", and he makes it even more apparent when he whines that he "only" spend $4.5M on it, and not $9M as reported elsewhere?

shareflag5likereply
Dr_Spaceman42 Jun 14, 2013
Oh, the travails of the poor 1%!

My heart bleeds for this misfortunate fellow.


shareflag4likereply
sfjill Jun 14, 2013
Mr. & Mrs. Parker simply do not understand the Nor. Cal. coastal culture. When a person/family chooses to live in or near the beach and redwoods of Big Sur/Santa Cruz, we choose to value nature and our community instead of wealth. If we wanted wealth, we would move to the Silicon Valley where one does not get to enjoy a coastal lifestyle but does have access to greater opportunity. Instead of $$, we get to breath fresh air and see the redwoods/oceans every day. What we give up is access to high paying jobs. This event highlights two very different sets of values. He is what locals refer to as a VALLEY. There has been animosity between Valleys and locals for many many decades.

shareflag5likereply
y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@sfjill

Actually any kind of development along the coast would trigger Coastal Commission scrutiny. There's a prime piece of coaastal property in San Mateo County that's been rumored to have been purchased by a group led by a prominent Silcon Valley VC. That would be subject to the same Coastal Act requirements as in Big Sur.

As it stands, the new owner is already in hot water for cutting off traditional paid access to a parking lot, stationing armed guards to keep people out, and installing a gate/removing signs. All of these actions are things that are supposed to go through the coastal development permit process. They've informally restored access and we're waiting to see what happens with the Coastal Commission.


shareflaglikereply
OniOokamiAlfador Jun 14, 2013
"death threats" are a little extreme but these idiots deserve every other bit of harassment they get for their self absorbed stupidity.

shareflag4likereply
joetesta70 Jun 14, 2013
What a tool this guy is. Wreaks of "new money" with that cheesy photo

shareflag2likereply
Zero187 Jun 14, 2013
If only we could bribe nature like we do other humans..

I'll give you $2.5 million if you stop flooding our homes.


shareflag1likereply
Ratnok Jun 14, 2013
That wedding photo made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

shareflag3likereply
sarai1313 Jun 14, 2013
He changed the whole eco environment around the area that his wedding was in including altering the ground and soil by bringing none native soil and changing the drainage ,PH, and none native plants. I could go on but .... I think any one with any kind of back ground in environmental sciences gets the point.

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Perlandria Jun 15, 2013
@sarai1313or you could read any of the hyperlinks provided in the article instead of jumping to conclusions. Then you would have learned that the plants were in pots and fabric liners were used to protect the forest for just this reason. It is almost like Sean Parker actually took the time to do it right and loves the forest too.

shareflaglikereply
NJohnston0718 Jun 14, 2013
As long as he wasn't destroying the beautiful redwoods let the man spend his money on whatever he wants. I'm a huge outdoor guy and support nature conservation everywhere, I believe it is very important, but if he went through the proper channels and no damage was done then who the hell cares. If I were him I'd be using my money to find each and everyone person who threatened me and make them back it up.

shareflag4likereply
y_p_w Jun 14, 2013
@njohnston0718

But he didn't go through the proper channels. Anything that requires this level of heavy equipment would easily trigger a requirement to seek a coastal development permit. If you read any meeting minutes for the California Coastal Commission, a good chunk of their day is spent reviewing permits for even the most mundane building projects in the coastal zone and issuing cease and desist orders. Heck - I saw one C&D order for a restaurant in the San Diego area that had installed a pay parking machine in its parking lot without a CDP. They were ordered to have it removed, but then had to apply for a CDP to approve their plans for removal.


shareflag1likereply
NJohnston0718 Jun 15, 2013
@y_p_w "Parker wrote an e-mail to Madrigal explaining his side, which The Atlantic published. Without going into all the specifics, Parker makes some persuasive points. He says he worked with an organization called Save the Redwoods to locate the spot and that the group suggested Ventana because it was private and had previously hosted events. He also says he was then dependent on Ventana for things to be in compliance."



If that is true then its good enough for me. That means the man tried. It is impossible to know the law for everything on earth which is why we hire and depend on someone who knows the subject matter to make sure we are in compliance with the rules and regulations.


shareflaglikereply
y_p_w Jun 15, 2013
But if you're told something is not allowed, can you then claim ignorance?

I mean - if someone is in a place where smoking isn't allowed, should he ask to finish his smoke or put it out immediately?

Basically he had enough money to grease the California Coastal Commission. He used his money to get around proper enforcement of the Coastal Act. If it were someone with a modest income without the means to pay $2.5M, the Coastal Commission wouldn't have been willing to bend over and take it. Someone building a 100 sq ft bathroom addition could tell you how difficult it is to get approval, with many not getting approval.


shareflaglikereply
NJohnston0718 11 hours ago
@y_p_w If that is true I would agree with you but you would have to prove it first. According to what we read he didn't know something wasn't allowed. He tried to make sure he went about it in a way that was allowed. I didn't read anything about greasing or going against any rules. Its possible... but were commenting on the same article here. As far as him throwing money to pay for the violations committed by other people, I'd do the same if I could. I didn't violate anything and if such violations were unbeknownst to me going in and with my wedding date rapidly approaching you do what you have to.

"The settlement, which required approval by the full Commission, was signed off on Friday morning during a public hearing. During the hearing, in fact, Parker won considerable praise for his cooperation and for making the state aware of outstanding violations that were not his fault."

Sounds like everything worked out for the best. I'm pulling my information from the article where are you pulling yours from again? One of the "credible" sources that never contacted him claiming he was building castles in the forest?

"There were over 200 articles in a 72-hour-period, and not one reporter called me for a comment," said Parker. "No one even bothered to try to reach me or my PR person."



You just sound angry and you hope your accusations are true rather than false which is actually wishing harm against the redwoods and not protecting them.


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It's true, this wasn't a Game of Thrones wedding. It was a Game of Thrones, Lord of The Rings, Avatar crossover wedding. And it certainly wasn't "subtle." This brand new photo will either make you weep or gag.

[henry]

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Sean Parker Wedding Brings Ventana Inn’s Campground Violations to Light - Monterey County Weekly: Local News
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Sean Parker Wedding Brings Ventana Inn’s Campground Violations to Light
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Nic Coury
High-Security Forest: A private guard mans the entrance to Ventana Inn’s closed campground, where Sean Parker’s wedding occurred the prior weekend.
Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 3:11 pm, Thu Jun 13, 2013.
Kera Abraham | 0 comments

A few days after Facebook billionaire Sean Parker’s June 1 wedding to Alexandra Lenas, beeping machinery drowns out birdsong at the forested campground he rented at Big Sur’s Ventana Inn & Spa. U-Hauls and portable toilets sit on the soil among pieces of plywood, crushed gravel and stone masonry.
It’s hard to see just what’s going on in there; the road into the campground is blocked by a gate and private security.
But in the national uproar over Parker’s wedding – which reportedly involved the construction of a Game of Thrones-esque fantasy land in the protected coastal redwoods, in violation of the California Coastal Act – not much press has been given to one of the state’s most significant findings: This space is supposed to be open to the public.
The 100-site campground, meant to facilitate lower-cost public access to the high-demand redwoods, was a condition of Ventana’s 1982 permit to expand, according to the Coastal Commission’s June 14 staff report.
Then shit happened, literally. In fall 2007, the Monterey County Health Department ordered the campground closed and put an occupancy cap on the inn after discovering human waste leaking next to a bathhouse and running into Post Creek.
But Ventana, according to the Coastal Commission, never got the permit amendment it needed to close the campground to the public. Nor did it get permits for the construction of Parker’s medieval wedding set six years later.
“Mr. Parker, in essence, leased an ongoing Coastal Act violation when he leased the campground,” commission spokeswoman Sarah Christie says.
Ventana managers did not return the Weekly’s multiple calls. But Roger VanHorn, the county’s senior environmental health specialist, says neither the health department nor the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which had cooperated in the sewage inspection, realized the inn had to notify the Coastal Commission to close the campground back in 2007.
He says Ventana has invested millions in a new wastewater treatment plant, able to treat up to 30,000 gallons per day. That plant is now online, he says, and the county is evaluating the last of the inn’s treated-wastewater dispersal fields.
“The system they put in is ultra-modern,” he says. “Once it comes online, they’re going to have a better facility there than they ever had before.”
Yet the campground was made available for a private event in the meantime. The contract between Ventana’s parent company and Neraida LLC, the corporation Parker created to handle the wedding, gives Parker’s crew exclusive use of the campground from March to July.
Under a settlement dated June 3, Parker agrees to pay $2.5 million toward conservation and coastal-access projects. Christie says $1 million of that is a penalty for the unpermitted wedding construction; Parker paid the other $1.5 million on the inn’s behalf for Ventana’s unpermitted closure of the public campground.
In a separate settlement, the inn agrees to restore public parking, improve public trails, install trailhead signs, create a public-access guide to its amenities, upgrade the campground and reopen it to the public, “if at all possible,” by Oct. 15.
VanHorn says the inn can’t meet that target date until the county green-lights the wastewater dispersal fields, which won’t likely happen until next spring.
The Coastal Commission will vote on the two settlements Friday, June 14. The Parker team is not allowed to dismantle the wedding set until commission staff signs off on a removal plan.
The commission took some public heat for failing to halt the wedding after the violations came to light. But Christie notes the commission immediately issued a cease-and-desist order, only allowing the wedding to proceed because the damage had been done by the time the inspectors arrived.
She says the commission couldn’t do much to stop it, anyway. “The coast is not as protected as people assume it is because we are so understaffed,” she says, noting the commission’s backlog of 1,876 violations. “The staff is completely dedicated, but the system is dysfunctional.”
For example, 21 state agencies are empowered to issue fines directly, but the Coastal Commission is not one of them. Instead, the commission can take violators to court and ask a judge to impose a fine – something Christie says has only happened four times in the last 10 years. “Who wouldn’t go to Vegas with those odds?” she asks.
A bill that recently passed the Assembly, San Diego Democrat Toni Atkins’ AB 976, would grant the commission that administrative-penalty authority. It now heads to the Senate.
Another bill, Santa Cruz Dem Mark Stone’s AB 203, would have required coastal development permit applicants to clean up prior violations first – a step that could have prevented Parker’s wedding. It passed out of the Appropriations Committee, but it was moved to the inactive file because the bill , opposed by big business and big ag, lacked the votes to pass on the Assembly floor.
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Posted in Local news, 0613 on Thursday, June 13, 2013 12:00 am. Updated: 3:11 pm. | Tags: Sean Parker, Ventana Inn, Coastal Commission

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FB cofounder Sean Parker’s “Game of Thrones” forest wedding criticized
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The disputed "before" picture. California Coastal Commission California Coastal Commission California Coastal Commission during construction, California Coastal Comission
Monday, June 10, 2013 - A World in our Backyard by Laura Sesana
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WASHINGTON, June 10, 2013 – Facebook cofounder Sean Parker made a lot of enemies earlier this month for spending a reported $10 million for what many are calling the trashing of a redwood forest in Big Sur, California. After an investigation by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) and criticism in the media, Parker fired back.

With attendees like California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Kamala Harris, Parker’s wedding is symbolic of the power and extravagance of Silicon Valley.

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The media reports

Parker, co-founder of Facebook and Napster, is reportedly worth $2 billion. In stark contrast to Mark Zuckerberg’s low-key wedding in 2012, Parker turned into what many were calling a ‘groomzilla,’ throwing himself “a wedding fit for a king,” recreating a medieval style celebration in a redwood grove in Big Sur.

According to the CCC investigation prompted by the wedding, violations and illegal acts were being perpetrated in a campground area adjacent to the Post Creek in Big Sur, Monterrey County, California long before the Parker wedding.

An ecologically sensitive area, the campground runs along the Post Creek, home to threatened steelhead trout, and containing a massive ancient redwood grove.

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The campground is managed by Ventana Investors, a private company. Ventana runs a high-end 59-room resort with adjacent Spa and restaurant. It also manages a 100-site campground as part of an agreement with the CCC to provide lower-cost accommodations as a condition of expanding its high-end facilities. As part of the agreement Ventana also agreed to maintain a parking area adjacent to trailheads open to the public.

Contrary to the agreement, Ventana closed the campground without seeking the required CCC approval in 2007 and kept the parking space for overflow from the Inn. “Basically, what was supposed to be a facility that people of all incomes — including the general public — could visit had become a high-end resort with no camping or public parking,” said Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic.

Earlier this year, Ventana contracted with Sean Parker, giving him exclusive use of the campground. Without seeking permits from the CCC, Parker’s team took on a massive building project to give the naturally beautiful forest “Victorian flair and whimsy.”

This included grading of existing roads and campsites to give the appearance of ruins, construction of stone walls, stairways, gateways, and even a pond with a stone bridge over it. Parker also had a number of elevated platforms built close to Post Creek. Potted trees and plants were “partially planted” around the area, as well as lighting, tents, and generators.

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According to the CCC report, Parker’s crew did not install erosion control measures when erecting the numerous structured on the campground, and did not employ setbacks to control erosion in the structures built adjacent to the Post Creek.

The crew also increased potential erosion into the Creek by hardscaping and removing vegetation along streams, increasing sedimentation. Sedimentation in streams and coastal waters can increase turbidity, endangering the steelhead trout, which require low in-stream turbidity, and impairing the photosynthetic process of aquatic plants.

Additionally, several structures were built adjacent to the redwood trees in the campground. According to the CCC report, besides the immediate physical damage that may have been done to the trees, if the builders failed to provide adequate buffers from redwood trees, this could impact the trees’ ability to propagate.

After the report, Parker agreed to pay $2.5 million that will reportedly go to improve coastal access and recreation in the area.

Parker’s answer

On June 6, 2013, Parker wrote to The Atlantic, with his version of the story. In a long email, Parker states important points that were either not reported or misrepresented in the media. For one thing, it appears that Parker consulted with the Save the Redwoods League from early in the planning process. He also claims that he believed he was renting a closed, private campground and was not aware of the campground closure and parking issues between Ventana and the CCC.

On the matter of acquiring the necessary building permits, Parker claims that his “representatives were told by relevant agencies, such as the CCC and Monterey County planning commission, that it was the responsibility of the property owner, not the hotel guest, to obtain any necessary permits.”

As far as taking the necessary precautions to ensure that the environment would not be disrupted, Parker states that he voluntarily “consulted informally [with Save the Redwoods League] on the project from Day 1, sending their Director of Science down to the site to educate our naturalist regarding a plan for work that would be minimally environmentally disruptive to the local redwood and riparian habitats.”

He also states that “by and large” the CCC and other biologists who later inspected the site were satisfied with the measures taken, but “Of course it’s impossible to get everything exactly right at a production of this scale.”

Parker also took issue with the “before” picture provided of the campground. He claims that the picture was actually taken after his crew removed the asphalt that apparently covered a large portion of that area. He also claimed that he spent $4.5—not $10—million on setting up the space for the wedding.

CCC did not comment on the Parker response.

Who’s to blame?

While Parker’s email may be convincing and maybe he was not quite the groomzilla he was made out to be, this wedding raises several questions. The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal called it “the new Silicon Valley parable: dream big, privatize the previously public, pay no attention to the rules, build recklessly, enjoy shamelessly, invoke magic, and then pay everybody off.”

Critics seemed to cool off when it was revealed that Mr. Parker consulted with Save the Redwood League and trusted that Ventana would get the necessary permits.

However, the bottom line is that mistakes were made, necessary permits were not obtained, the correct measures were not taken during building, and some harm may have been done to the ancient redwoods and endangered steelhead trout. Even without the structures and plants, it can be argued that 300 guests plus support staff, plus food staff, plus entertainment, plus toilet facilities, plus transportation ina an ecologically sensitive area would cause some kind of environmental damage.

Furthermore, while the CCC was already investigating by May, officials let the construction and wedding go on because “the damage had already been done.”

But Parker arguably did what any environmentally conscious billionaire would do to throw himself a $10 million – no, sorry $4.5 million- wedding, right?

Read the CCC report here

Read Sean Parker’s email here

See pictures of the wedding here



Follow Laura Sesana on Twitter at @lasesana and get regular column posts and updates on Facebook and Google+



This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities @ WashingtonTimes.com. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING TWTC CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW.

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[henry]

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[henry]

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