Editor,
The far majority of us who live in this fair city are very supportive of the arts. It is part of our rich heritage and makes us different than our coastal neighbors, however it is just one component of this city. After reading the new Cultural Arts Plan produced by yet another consultant hired by the city for $100,000 ($75,000 city funds; $25,000 matching grant), I’m left wondering about our vision.
Let me see if I have this right. We live in a city of 23,000 residents. But based on a survey of 700 people, many of which do not live in Laguna, the plan consultants conclude that there is “substantial public support for a new cultural arts center.” Further, under the plan this new cultural arts center will need to be built with primarily taxpayer dollars (by millions in taxpayer bonds?), and after it is built the city will need to hire and staff it with more city employees, and the city will have to subsidize it year in and year out, indefinitely. With so many delayed improvement projects ($50 million and counting) and so many irons in the fire already, including the long delayed village entrance and downtown specific plan, this cultural arts center seems akin to one more tentacle of a blind octopus, thrashing about without any clear and coordinated vision.
The Cultural Arts Plan is one of eight different planning developments/studies in the last year alone. Who is coordinating all these plans and what do we have to show for it? I haven’t done the math on the consultant fees, but they have to be nearing $1 million.
Although the plan does promote some good ideas, disturbingly the plan dismisses “making better use of existing facilities” as “not recommended” because it would “not address the majority of needs specified in the facility study.” Does anyone else find ludicrous the plan’s conclusion that of the many existing facilities we have for the arts in our town, not one is worthy of being better utilized or improved to better fit artists’ needs? Our city council just gave $1 million matching grants to two of them with our budget “surplus.” Could it be that this plan was in search of pre-determined goal to build a new cultural arts center?
Jennifer Zeiter, Laguna Beach
