Time to prioritize. Performing arts are losing audiences nationwide. Portland has enough White Elephants and has decided to go all in on....wait for it....the NBA and Tri-Met, our boondoggle all-gender traveling public toilet.
Use the money for road repairs...and not for anymore GD bike lanes. It's time to be boring and rational again. Like Mildred Schwab.
Thank you Kurt. You are a wealth of information and willing to share. We have District 3 and 4 elections coming up along with County Chair and Metro president, all key positions if you care about Portland’s future, especially Downtown. We need to start educating voters why and pressure politicians into forging a transparent strategy to bring Portland back. It will require tough choices. People are leaving, not coming. Thanks for the NW Examiner for starting the conversation. Let’s see if the Oregonian and WW and others pick it up. Maybe Tina will pay more attention.
Bravo! This is the kind of clear eyed, thoughtful approach that we need for managing all of the City’s real estate assets, especially office space and our parks and natural areas.
A recent headline in The Oregonian reported that PSU is facing a $35 million budget shortfall over the next two academic years. The school's president announced that three departments will be eliminated and there will be cuts to 16 others. PSU's chapter of the American Association of University Professors is expecting about 200 faculty and academic staff jobs will be cut. Enrollment at PSU has dropped 23 percent (about one in four) since 2019. And a failure by the school to properly respond to pro-Palestinian protests in campus allowed a rabble to occupy the PSU library and cause over $1 million in damage.
PSU in its current state would be a poor institutional home for a Keller replacement. A university in financial freefall, shrinking its academic programs, hemorrhaging faculty, and struggling with basic campus governance is not positioned to program, maintain, staff, or credibly co-manage a major civic performing arts venue — regardless of the geographic logic of its downtown location.
I saw this and thought exactly the same thing, Ollie. And now today comes word that Clark County and the City of Vancouver intend to build their own performing Arts Center. Naturally, I think that intends to serve the market of that community across the Columbia River, but it remains telling that in changing financial times, a local recession, that government wants to spend more money on real estate. And in that thought process, I am extremely disappointed to find that when a municipality chooses to charge its residents a tax to support the local art scene, that the money is almost always earmarked for real estate. I am in the real estate business and I love real estate. But, I do not understand the logic that to support the arts, the tax money should be spent, or largely so, on real estate. In the history of American theater, Broadway has to become an investment of real estate owners. The Schubert's and Nederlanders own real estate, and derive their income from the rentals. It is not about promoting art, but usurping art in order to profit on your real estate. Here, naturally I have serious doubts that any municipality, including the City of Vancouver, will ever make a profit. And I love that the pictures accompanying that proposal, are non-profit community arts groups who survive on zero budget, member donations and tight community support. The idea that they will be able to afford renting that dream new arts complex is more joke than reality. There is a lot more to come in this series. This discussion here was meant to be part of a possible future chapter in the series.
Thank you for this backgrounder! I look forward to the next installment as the City wrestles with next steps.
Time to prioritize. Performing arts are losing audiences nationwide. Portland has enough White Elephants and has decided to go all in on....wait for it....the NBA and Tri-Met, our boondoggle all-gender traveling public toilet.
Use the money for road repairs...and not for anymore GD bike lanes. It's time to be boring and rational again. Like Mildred Schwab.
Thank you Kurt. You are a wealth of information and willing to share. We have District 3 and 4 elections coming up along with County Chair and Metro president, all key positions if you care about Portland’s future, especially Downtown. We need to start educating voters why and pressure politicians into forging a transparent strategy to bring Portland back. It will require tough choices. People are leaving, not coming. Thanks for the NW Examiner for starting the conversation. Let’s see if the Oregonian and WW and others pick it up. Maybe Tina will pay more attention.
Bravo! This is the kind of clear eyed, thoughtful approach that we need for managing all of the City’s real estate assets, especially office space and our parks and natural areas.
Agreed
A recent headline in The Oregonian reported that PSU is facing a $35 million budget shortfall over the next two academic years. The school's president announced that three departments will be eliminated and there will be cuts to 16 others. PSU's chapter of the American Association of University Professors is expecting about 200 faculty and academic staff jobs will be cut. Enrollment at PSU has dropped 23 percent (about one in four) since 2019. And a failure by the school to properly respond to pro-Palestinian protests in campus allowed a rabble to occupy the PSU library and cause over $1 million in damage.
PSU in its current state would be a poor institutional home for a Keller replacement. A university in financial freefall, shrinking its academic programs, hemorrhaging faculty, and struggling with basic campus governance is not positioned to program, maintain, staff, or credibly co-manage a major civic performing arts venue — regardless of the geographic logic of its downtown location.
I saw this and thought exactly the same thing, Ollie. And now today comes word that Clark County and the City of Vancouver intend to build their own performing Arts Center. Naturally, I think that intends to serve the market of that community across the Columbia River, but it remains telling that in changing financial times, a local recession, that government wants to spend more money on real estate. And in that thought process, I am extremely disappointed to find that when a municipality chooses to charge its residents a tax to support the local art scene, that the money is almost always earmarked for real estate. I am in the real estate business and I love real estate. But, I do not understand the logic that to support the arts, the tax money should be spent, or largely so, on real estate. In the history of American theater, Broadway has to become an investment of real estate owners. The Schubert's and Nederlanders own real estate, and derive their income from the rentals. It is not about promoting art, but usurping art in order to profit on your real estate. Here, naturally I have serious doubts that any municipality, including the City of Vancouver, will ever make a profit. And I love that the pictures accompanying that proposal, are non-profit community arts groups who survive on zero budget, member donations and tight community support. The idea that they will be able to afford renting that dream new arts complex is more joke than reality. There is a lot more to come in this series. This discussion here was meant to be part of a possible future chapter in the series.