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Monday, December 17, 2012

CHARITY! Once Tom Carr Called Me Up to Shout at Me

Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 8:12 AM

This year, to raise money for Northwest Harvest, current and former Stranger staffers are telling stories about times people have called us up to shout at us. SO WITH NO FURTHER ADO IT'S...

A few years ago, I was covering a fiasco involving the Faire Gallery and former City Attorney Tom Carr. It reached a grand crescendo two months before the election with Tom Carr screaming at me.

It all began when the Faire Gallery applied for a liquor permit.

But, to make a long story short, Carr lobbied the state liquor board to deny it on the grounds that the owner's husband didn't take a class for his probation (relating to a DUI charge, which he was never convicted of). Finally, after I'd been covering the story for weeks, Carr stopped challenging the liquor permit. Faire gallery had won. I'd called three different people in Carr's office for comment but nobody called me back, so I ran my story on Slog. And then I got this voicemail from Carr:

What was the "crap" he was yelling about? What part of my story lacked "truth"? Faire's attorney was quoted claiming Carr was caving to media pressure—partly from me—and Carr disagreed. "I don’t do things for political pressure," he said. Read the post here and decide for yourself. In the end, Tom Carr was drubbed in that election two-to-one, Pete Holmes won on a platform to STOP FUCKING WITH NIGHTLIFE, and then Tom Carr left town. (Oh, and I also wrote a feature about Tom Carr in the Boulder Weekly the same day he started his new job.)

The end.

Now: PLEASE GIVE TO NORTHWEST HARVEST and send us your commenter handle along with your receipt, and we'll set you up with a SWASHBUCKING HERO badge.

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Comments (9) RSS

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that voicemail scared me a lot.

Posted by Adrian Ryan on December 17, 2012 at 8:29 AM

So, did you call him back? I'm sure he would've answered those questions. Just curious.

Posted by Michael of the Green on December 17, 2012 at 9:16 AM

Hooray I have a badge and SO CAN YOU!

Posted by Juris on December 17, 2012 at 9:58 AM

didn't know tom carr owned a naughty minkey.

Posted by scary tyler moore

on December 17, 2012 at 10:37 AM

@2) Follow the link!

Posted by Dominic Holden on December 17, 2012 at 10:58 AM

Surprisingly, I have never had the honor of having Tom Carr yell at me.

Grats!

Posted by Will in Seattle

on December 17, 2012 at 11:18 AM

Dom is being modest. That's not the only time he got Tom Carr to yell at him (although it may be the only time he has tape). I-75 called for a Marijuana Policy Review Panel and both Tom and Dominic were on it. There were several meetings where it looked like Carr was going to die of a coronary when Dom would question him. He would get ultra-deep red and start to sweat and would yell and gesticulate and the spittle would fly. Good times.

Posted by gnossos on December 17, 2012 at 4:14 PM