OK sometimes I agree with San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio, sometimes I disagree. Sometimes he seems to go a bit to far. But in the case of DeMaio’s move to cut the arts budget of the City of San Diego DeMaio is not going far enough. People – the gravy boat we have been riding on for decades is over. Core services need to come first, and as much as the arts community would like to consider themselves a core service, I think that the public would disagree.
According to the Voice of San Diego the City of San Diego is spending 6.5 million dollars on the arts. How many streets would that repair? How many cops would it put in the community? This is insane. DeMaio wants to cut 1.5 million. Carl – get rid of the whole mess. There is no reason for San Diego to be in the business of providing public art. If there is a demand for public art let private entities supply it.
Even worse, it’s not like the “art” that the government pays for is popular (“why North Pole you barbarian art should be risky, on the edge, of course the public won’t like it”). Does anyone like the “art” along the harbor, for instance? No, the art invariably caters to the few, and is paid for by the many (both in terms of our pocketbooks and making us look at your rubbish).
I applaud DeMaio’s cuts. I also now wonder how many more little “Commissions” with multi-million dollar budgets, that are really slush funds for special interests, exist in the city budget. I’m going to take a few minutes and go through their website and find out.