KQED story on 950 & the future of mid-Market Arts
KQED’s Cy Musiker aired a piece last week critical to the city’s future: San Francisco Artistic Community Wants a Piece of Mid-Market. There’s good news! Supervisor Jane Kim, a big art and education advocate, is working on a special-use district to incentivize mid-Market developers to build permanently affordable space for art and education. Effective incentives could tip the scale at several mid-Market sites.
At present, outstanding education groups interested in locating @ the 950 Center for Art & Education – Youth Speaks, Blue Bear Music, All Stars Project and Women’s Audio Mission – would owe the city nearly a million dollars in “impact” fees in order to revitalize three devastated blocks of blighted buildings, build the Center and bring their programming to at-risk Tenderloin youth. Clearly this does not make sense, particularly with the backdrop of a wealthy city reaping huge revenues from a surging tech-driven economy and booming real estate market.
Technically, of course, it is the groups’ funders that would owe the city for the “impact” of revitalizing three devastated blocks. Wouldn’t it be better if we could instead direct these resources to endow a 950 Scholarship Fund for low-income Tenderloin residents? Or endow an operating reserve to help our small non-profit groups get stabilized over the first few years?
Many hope this effort from a determined art & education-friendly supervisor, combined with the hoped-for leadership from our mayor, will give the Tenderloin a fighting chance for a measure of still-elusive equitable development (or at least heat and hot water!) in the face of the historic tech and real estate booms.
UC Berkeley is Reimagining the Urban
Interested in discussing the exciting Special Use District and/or mid-Market equitable development through the arts? Come to UC Berkeley on Monday, September 30th for Reimagining the Urban: Bay Area Connections Across the Arts & Public Space. I’ll be there speaking about 950 and mid-Market equitable development through the arts. Produced by UC Berkeley, the Arts Research Center and the Global Urban Humanities Initiative, the symposium is free to the public. From the website: Reimaging the Urban is a daylong symposium examining art, nature, economic development and equity in the Bay Area metropolis. Artists, curators, real estate developers, environmentalists and social justice advocates will gather to discuss the uses and abuses of the region’s creative and natural resources.
Cutting Ball 2013 – 2014 Season begins
Our cutting-edge Cutting Ball Theater friends on Taylor Street open their 2013 – 2014 Season with Sidewinders, recently awarded the Rella Lossy Playright Award. Get your tickets HERE!
PianoFight Art Entrepreneurs
A couple of years back, at a Tenderloin Arts Advisory meeting, I was happy to introduce PianoFight directors Rob Ready and Dan Fink to the Duggan Family of Original Joe’s fame. An amazing collaboration resulted, and the PianoFight team is now near completion of a remarkable renovation of the iconic Original Joe’s space on Taylor Street into a theater and cabaret venue. They’re looking for a few good investors! Learn more at PianoFight.
HeART of Market
Some of the best community development starts with community outreach and ends with dancing! Come see LINES Ballet dancers on the floor with kids from the wonderful Tenderloin Boys & Girls Club and De Marillac Academy at the HeArt of Market on Saturday, October 5th, 12 – 3 pm @ Mint Plaza. For more information: LINES Ballet Dance Center News/Events.
freespace
I had the opportunity to visit freespace; a fantastic and daring approach to creating a new kind of civic commons for creative expression and dialogue. I left thinking that perhaps I saw a glimpse of one possible, promising future of how and where we will interact in the public realm. To learn more check-in with freespace advocate iLana Lipsett and visionary social entrepreneur Mike Zuckerman.
Charlie Rose & The Luggage Store Gallery
A few weeks back Charlie Rose had a great segment on “Iran Modern” at the Asia Society. He closed with this observation:”Art is a reflection of a society, its culture. where society is, where it’s been and where it might be going.” Looking at Osmegeos’ stunning new mural above the Luggage Store Gallery, we can experience a reprieve, a respite from the pressures of the battle against a polarized mid-Market future. We can find a reminder that the Luggage Store has been a Tenderloin/mid-Market sanctuary for peace and understanding through the arts for over two decades. Where our neighborhood and city might be going amidst great pressures remains uncertain, but if we’re smart we’ll support places like the Luggage Store to create places where we can all meet.
tenderlion 