| |
 Issues
Portland: the City of nearly starving Artists,
and five promises that can change that.
By Sam Adams
Portland Mercury Candidates Forum
Thursday, August 19, 2004
A. Our mantra: “$15 million
in 5 years,” say it lout…again!
Is this an aggressive goal? Yes! Do I have it all figured out how
to get there? No. But, we must find $15 million in new and public
funding for local art and cultural non-profits by 2010 or Portland
risks being a ‘has-been’ arts and culture city. I embrace
the goal. Some initial ideas:
- ‘2% for Art’ policy for all: Require
all local public agencies doing business with City government
to establish a 2%-Percent-for-Art program. The City, County and
the Portland Development Commission (PDC) have a ‘Percent-for-Art’
program. The Housing Authority of Portland (HAP), Portland Streetcar,
Inc., and others, apparently do not.
For example, the 2% percent requirement, if placed on HAP’s
“The New Columbia Project,” would provide up to $2.6
million more for public art projects in North Portland.
- No cheating: Make sure there is compliance
with the new 2%-Percent-for-Art requirement.
- Request the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission
to audit local government compliance with Percent-for-Arts
Program. The Tax Supervising and Conversation Commission already
exists and is mandated to review local governmental budgets;
it must better ensure local government compliance with the
Percent-for-Arts Program.
- For those local public agencies not under the
jurisdiction of the Tax Supervising and Conversation Commission’s
audit authority, such as HAP and Portland Streetcar, Inc.,
establish an audit committee as part of RACC. I would obtain
pro-bono services of local accounting firms to staff the Percent-for-Art
Audit Committee.
- Art money out of asphalt to create the RACC/Portland
Endowment Fund: OK, this is weird, but hang with me…currently,
under state law, when the City vacates (relinquishes the possession
of) a public street, it can only give it to the adjacent property
owner for free (even though the State of Oregon is allowed to
sell its roads and highways)!
I propose changing this state law and allowing the City to charge
market value for the conveyance of the City’s street easements
to a private owner, and:
- A portion of resources derived from the sale of
City street easements should be used to create a RACC/Portland
Endowment Fund to help pay for ongoing support to non-profit
arts and cultural organizations.
For example, the City recently vacated three blocks of N. Montana
Street in North Portland to Fred Meyer. I supported the transaction
because North Portland got a bigger store, but the City should
have been able to charge Fred Meyer for the street easement the
City gave to them.
- United Arts Fund: challenge employers to match
employee contributions: Working with the RACC and Northwest Business
Committee for the Arts (BCA) to visit workplaces to help promote
employee contributions to the Fund.
- Create Portland Film and Video Endowment Fund:
Create Film and Video Endowment Fund by setting aside film and
video business tax revenues derived from eligible local filming
and video productions. After $250,000 in proceeds, use endowment
interest income to bolster local film and video productions and
talent growth.
- Put “public” back in RACC’s public/private
partnership: Include elected officials as voting members
of RACC Board of Directors. If you want local government to step
up their financial support, you need strong advocates on the local
County Commissions, City Councils and Metro. We will only get
enthusiastic arts advocates within local governments outside of
Portland when we give them a seat on the RACC Board.
B. Affordable live/work studios + artists
= more arts education
To strengthen the ecology of Portland’s arts and cultural
community, I will help lead development of a new partnership with
private developers and arts, culture, housing and educational organizations
to build 100 new affordable live/work rental spaces in the next
four years for local artists while strengthening public school art
education programs. I call this new partnership the Portland Artists-In-Residence
Program (PARP).
Over 8,000 acres in Portland are already zoned eligible for live/work
dw3ellings. With backing of City’s excellent debt credit rating,
affordable city-owned live /work facilities could be built.
- To provide affordable live/work artist spaces,
the PARP concept assumes mixed-uses developments that include
some market-rate housing units and commercial spaces to help subsidize
the artist-spaces costs. Ideally, these projects will be built
along transit corridors to reduce the cost of building off-street
parking.
For example, a possible pilot project site for the PARP initiative
is located at the corner of SW Washington and 14th Avenue, a small,
triangular piece of land owned by the Oregon Department of Transportation,
across from Cassidy’s Restaurant near the freeway. It is served
by the streetcar, MAX and bus transit. It is also close to many
of the City’s arts and cultural institutions. If this lot
can indeed be built upon and if ODOT will donate it, this could
be a great PARP pilot project site.
Downtown commercial space on the first floor, along with market-rate
housing units on top five floors with very sellable or rentable
views of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood could help subsidize the
live/work spaces.
The PARP approach might also be a useful tool in looking at converting
older buildings, such as a portion of the Centennial Mills.
- Tenants of PARP studios agree to donate a specific
amount of time teaching arts in education in local public
schools. Artists seeking to rent these affordable live/work spaces
must meet income requirements, and agree to be trained as art
instructors in an approved PARP educational program.
C. Creative Services Strategy: the need
for a sequel
I believe arts and culture should have a high place in our society
simply because of its intrinsic value to all of us. But, Richard
Florida’s book The Creative Class also connects the dots between
the health of a city’s arts and culture community and the
success of creating local family-wage jobs. Florida’s key
point is that an active presence of artists in a community is a
key attraction for knowledge workers. Our local creative services
industry has taken a hard hit in this recession.
- We need to regroup and update the Creative Services
Strategy.
- Look for real and tangible creative services/manufacturing
industry bridging opportunities: An executive shadow
program should be established as part of the Creative Services
Strategy debrief. For example, imagine Greenbrier CEO Bill Furman
shadowing PICA Executive Director Kristy Edmunds and vice versa.
These kinds of exchanges will identify creative community and
business community bridging opportunities to include in a revised
Creative Services Strategy.
D. Expand cultural tourism: An arts moneymaker
We need to bring in more outside tourism dollars into the City’s
arts and cultural efforts:
- Build an expandable 400-room headquarters hotel
at the convention center.
- Expand “passport” marketing strategies
with lodging industry to sell multiple cultural, performing arts,
music and culinary venues in one package.
- Target Visitor Development Funds (VDF) to events that
bring visitors to Portland such as the Time Based Art
(TBA) festival in its second year, helping to put Portland on
the international arts and cultural map.
E. I’ll lead or follow, but on the
City Council, I’m not going away
I will ask to be appointed liaison to RACC. If I am not appointed,
I will work with the RACC Liaison to implement the initiatives above.
- I would appoint a full-time staff person focused
on arts and culture as RACC Liaison, whose job would include assisting
with grant applications.
- Commissioner Sam will be in the room at “the
ask”: I will help individual art non-profits with
their grant and private sector pitches for funds.
|
|
