From Harford Campaign for Liberty:
Have you heard, folks? The Cultural Arts Board is working with the County officials to create a sleek new Center for the Fine Arts just three miles south of the Harford Mall.
According to the study paid for by the Board, you’ve been craving this for years, Harford County. You just didn’t know it.
In its Demographics Study, the Center targets its intended audience for upscale Ballet, Broadway shows, and musical performances. Let’s see if you fit the bill.
The Center expects to attract the 25-44 year olds, who “prefer to be seen” and will spend their money “as long as it’s perceived to be trendy.”
They want the 35-54 year bracket, those with college degrees, who are “winners” and therefore required to pull double duty – they’ll need to both attend and donate to the cause.
And the Center will apparently appeal to the “Blue Bloods”, the 46-64 year olds who enjoy an “opulent life style” and fat investment portfolios.
If you’re a senior citizen, dear resident, you’re not the target demographic.
If you’re a young free-thinker with a mind of your own, you don’t fit the bill.
If you didn’t get a college degree… well, this may be too high-brow for you.
If you’re still working hard, and not living the opulent life style, you may not be able to afford these arts.
If your career is in farming, construction, services, manufacturing, or transportation… they’re catering to Blue Blood funds, not Blue Collar cash.
If you’re part of the 22% living in Rural Harford, or one who enjoys Harford’s rural history… Sorry. The CFA may give lip service to preserving our “cultural heritage” but its real need is to draw an “urbanized” crowd.
Okay, we’ve targeted our golden ticket audience on any given weekend, which is slated to be 2.8% of the Harford County citizens. The rest of attendees will need to come from outside the county.
Well, what’s our benefit back?
96 jobs after all the phases are done, according to the 2008 study.
Okay, that’s something, right?
Wrong.
According to the Feasibility Study, 10 jobs are slated to provide salaries over $40,000. They’ve likely got these employees chosen within the CFA staff. The rest of the jobs (said to be 96) are either lower-paying service and blue-collar positions, or jobs loosely “proposed” to be created.
So unless you qualify for a Director, Manager or Officer’s job, don’t get too excited. There’s no budget for hiring a bunch of newly graduated performing arts majors here.
If you want to volunteer as an usher, you’re more than welcome.
But let’s assume the Center does actually produce 96 additional jobs – 96 jobs divided by a public/private cost of $60 million comes out to $925,000 per job.
The state would have to fund this project at $20 million and the county at $20 million as well. The Harford County Taxpayers would be on the hook for about $51.6 million including interest on the bonds.
Assuming the Center has raised its portion of the funds, of course.
How much have they raised?
Mum’s the word.
There’s no fundraising total available on the website, and no details were made available at the community outreach meetings they held.
But they’re off to a Bang-Up start this year according to their site, having collected just over $4,000 for this fall’s Dancing for the Arts event.
Anything the Center raised prior to 2015 was used up on outdated Business and Demographics Reports, and Architectural designs for this behemoth. And paying their own expenses or salaries.
And did the Center’s Board of Trustees consider the effects this consolidation of the Arts may have on the Harford Community College? On the Tidewater Players in Havre de Grace? On Rockfield Manor, the Richland Ballroom, and many more local venues that depend on art events they can host?
We could lose jobs in these communities if they lose vital support.
Folks, the Center For the 2% is a classic Money Pit.
It’s expected to cost $2 million a year to operate, but the 2008 study shows a startup revenue of $1.1million – operating in the hole from DAY ONE.
But these figures also assumed BRAC would be fully implemented, and Americans would increase attendance of Fine Arts events
Not only did Base Realignment NOT significantly impact Harford’s population, Aberdeen Proving Ground may now experience CUTS in the next BRAC implementation.
And the National Endowment for the Arts Study published January 2015 shows attendance for the Arts are down substantially, from an average of 41% attending at least once a year to only 33% participating nationally.
Maybe that’s why the Cultural Arts Board has once again altered course, “paring down” their $60 million project to a six-phase dynasty with a paltry $25 million price tag for Phase One.
They’re desperate to get the County taxpayers on the hook, before the Council realizes what a flop this is.
So, what do you think, folks?
Should we be plunking down almost $1 million per new job created for a building that will run $1 million in the red?
Or should our County Council and County Executive be concentrating on real priorities:
*Creating good, market-stable jobs and business opportunities
*Funding the Benefits promised our teachers and law enforcement
*Shrinking, instead of increasing our outstanding debts
Harford Campaign for Liberty will make sure each one receives your printed petition, along with any personal comments you’d care to make.
This is YOUR property, Harford County. This is YOUR money.
Tell your local government what YOU want done with it.
For Liberty,
Christina Trotta
Harford Campaign for Liberty
www.harfordliberty.org
P.S. Please take two minutes NOW to voice your opposition to the Center for the 2%, before all Harford County taxpayers are on the hook for twenty years of debt and operational costs. And forward this petition to fellow practical-minded residents. Together we CAN make a difference!
Did you ever notice that the Art Center sign looks a little like the Obama Hope sign?
Doomed to fail…
While I agree with the overall sentiment and concerns of this open letter, I believe the organization you are referring to is Harford County, Center for the Arts (harfordcfa.org) NOT Harford County Cultural Arts Board. The two organizations are not connected and that, in itself, says a lot. (HCCAB works in supporting ALL arts groups in the county.)
Thank you, SCD for the clarification. There are two Boards, the Harford County Cultural Arts Board and the Center for the Arts Board. The HCCAB is under County funds, the CFA is a private foundation. The CFA was once the CVPA until a TM change in 2014.
It is the HCCAB which oversaw the early plans for a Cultural Center. From the Culural Study: “The planning process was conducted under the governance of the Harford County Cultural Arts
Board (HCCAB) and funded by the Harford County Office of Economic Development.”
It is the HCCAB which was expected to be participating heavily, as noted in the Feasilbility Study: “It is assumed that the project will be shepherded by a partnership team of Harford County, the Harford County Cultural Arts Board and the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.”
The Center for the Arts, or the Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, as it was originally registered in 2005, took part in the early workshops and meetings along with the HCCAB to develop the plans. The participants’ names are listed in the Cultural Study.
However, it is unknown if the HCCAB CURRENTLY supports the CFA’s venture, although they do have the Center for the Arts on their website as a partner organization, along with other groups.
It is also unknown if Tom Myers will ever improve his comedy routine, but I can tell you that his Mexican restaurant in Fallston is pretty darn good. Tom, you’re still my favorite liberal and I consider it a badge of honor to be heckled by you.
Its about time we had a true center for the arts in this county. “Geter done!!”
Good point on the next BRAC. All we’re hearing at APG is that if you don’t want to move to Huntsville, start looking for another job.
You go now
Someone who writes a letter like this can usually be described as as a “philistine.” However, to appeal to the lack of culture in this C4L member’s brain, I prefer to call this person an “idiot.”
I think the point of the letter if you actually read it for content (and of course you’re not an “idiot” so reading comprehension shouldn’t be that big a problem) is that millions of dollars in taxpayers money begged from the feds, local and state taxpayers to fund this project is ridiculous. Have your little ballet – just pay for the flippin’ thing yourself. This county needs so many other things before it needs afternoon opera for a very narrow and limited bunch of effete bluehairs who apparently amongst them could only come up with $4000 to put in the kitty. So the rest of us will pay for their little teas and gardens while they save all their pennies for the new Lexus while the rest of us footing the bill still drive the Honda. Harford County is not Manhattan, nor DC and most of the folks that live here like it better that way.
Would you rather the money go to Walmart so they can build a huge superstore with employees paid so little they will have to be subsidized by our tax dollars in energy, food and housing costs?
Would I rather it went to Walmart? No, I would rather it stayed with the taxpayers who had it extorted from them.
Again, the failed wanna be political hack/pundit Tom Myers spewing the hate. Toms greatest award was winning “Worse comic in Maryland” At least you can say you have achieved something.
If you look at the last available Form 990 for the Center for the Arts you will see they only have $100,000 in cash and investments. In 2013 they took in $200K but spent it all and then some. In other words they are so far from the 1/3rd contribution that is required under the agreement with the County toward the revised $25 million center, it will simply never happen. The County will have to foot the entire bill, which I do not see happening with Glassman’s position on capital improvements.
Sam, I would have thought so too. Mr. Glassman seems to be running a fairly tight ship. Therefore, I was very surprised 2 weeks ago when I noticed that the CC had approved a budget amendment for $50,000 to build a parking lot at the site. I hear the funds will come from the hotel tax. Why throw away $50,000 for a project that may never get off the ground? Perhaps an alternate plan is brewing. Stay tuned.
Yeah, use the money to fix up our schools.
Interesting. It seems to me there are many venues for artistic productions in Harford County that already exist. I too, a person who supports the arts, question the need for such a facility at this time. I personally thank the writer for being concerned about the future of the Tidewater Players. The proposed renovation of the present theatre in Havre de Grace seems intent on pushing them out. I say this because of comments I’ve repeatedly heard that Tidewater has been there long enough, and now it is someone else’s turn. I say this because there are no members from the Tidewater Players on the Board appointed to oversee this project. Although I have heard different versions of why this is, the fact remains that no one from Tidewater is represented. I’m not sure what Harford County wants concerning the arts , a little taste of Baltimore in the boondocks? Maybe it needs an appreciation for the great talent and productions that already exist.
First of all, the CFA’s original plan for this project is a little over the top. The second time I saw a plan it was a little more reasonable. I think it will get pared down a couple more times and come in as something much less major league than they were thinking when it’s all said and done.
Also, something like 88% of adult Harford residents have a college degree Just sayin.
And, an arts center is used by much more than this, it’s also used by schools and businesses and other organizations for many different kinds of events. More than that, you neglected to tally any of the possible tax revenue that could be generated.
Plus, it’s only logical, and it has been already stated publicly, that the County Council is highly unlikely to approve any county contribution without the condition that the CFA can raise it’s portion of the money. So as another person said, this is very unlikely to happen anyway.
But most importantly, I would urge everyone to think about the bigger picture. Look at the parcel of land in question and if the county doesn’t utilize it in some fashion it will go up for general sale, and then what do you think is going to go there? More houses. More shopping. Do we need that there? Not at all. Want to put more temp buildings at CFES? No? Want to have more congested roads? No? The number of residential units in there would cause significantly more traffic than almost any arts center that has been proposed.
So, CFL, I would urge you to think forward, think of a suggestion, think of all the possibilities, and be involved in that process, rather than just stamping your feet and shouting NO at everything.
88% of Harford County residents are college educated? Source?
Seems inaccurate.
My mistake, I confused my facts. I was thinking of a different statistic, either HS degree or college degree by income and zipcode. That’s what you get for trying to do it from memory.
Baltimore Metro area (and Harford) is about 35-40% of adults hold a college degree.
Thanks noble for another well thought out reasoned response instead of the guttural emotional responses of the uninformed.
Can I drive my tractor to the ballet? Can’t the people who want the “artsy stuff” so bad use a already existing facility? Churches, school/college auditoriums or private venues come to mind.I say let the people who will use it build it and not the taxpayers.
Can we do away with all the farm subsidies and just let those that need them run bake sales?
$29.4 million in subsidies 1995-2012.
http://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=24025
Things like this always stir up people that don’t see the value of the arts. It’s why school budgets for the arts are getting less and less, as if the arts are not important. Art encompasses many forms and is part of everyone’s life whether they recognize it or not. Theatre, Music, Choral, Painting/Drawing, Dance are just a few of the many arts. If you watch TV you watch the arts. If you listen to music on the radio you listen to the arts. If you have a painting on your wall at home you like the arts. If you play a musical instrument you participate in the arts. The arts is not something reserved for the 2%.
Developmental Benefits of Art
Motor Skills: Many of the motions involved in making art, such as holding a paintbrush or scribbling with a crayon, are essential to the growth of fine motor skills in young children. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors. Many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing.
Language Development: For very young children, making art—or just talking about it—provides opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. When toddlers are as young as a year old, parents can do simple activities such as crumpling up paper and calling it a “ball.” By elementary school, students can use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork.
Decision Making: According to a report by Americans for the Arts, art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over into other parts of life. “If they are exploring and thinking and experimenting and trying new ideas, then creativity has a chance to blossom,” says MaryAnn Kohl, an arts educator and author of numerous books about children’s art education.
Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even toddlers know how to operate a smart phone or tablet, which means that even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information. This information consists of cues that we get from pictures or three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television.
“Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the past,” says Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University. “Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.” Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism, is especially important in helping kids become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.
Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. “The kind of people society needs to make it move forward are thinking, inventive people who seek new ways and improvements, not people who can only follow directions,” says Kohl. “Art is a way to encourage the process and the experience of thinking and making things better!”
Cultural Awareness: As we live in an increasingly diverse society, the images of different groups in the media may also present mixed messages. “If a child is playing with a toy that suggests a racist or sexist meaning, part of that meaning develops because of the aesthetics of the toy—the color, shape, texture of the hair,” says Freedman. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps kids understand the concept that what they see may be someone’s interpretation of reality.
Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.
http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-importance-of-art-in-child-development/
Do you understand the difference between correlation and causation? Kids who participate in arts three hours a day three times a week are likely also going to be from highly educated and financially comfortable families, who will likely value other areas of their child’s education. Any studies involving the arts or music and their effect on kids has shown correlation, not causation. And I’ve read MANY of them throughout my career in the arts, so I’m not just blurting this out. I’m very familiar with this argument, and the fact that it really does not hold water.
Is a center for the arts going to feature the kind of things that a large portion of the population will be interested and will support by their patronage? Or is it going to be more of a place where local choral and orchestral groups can perform? If so, is the attendance at our local orchestra concerts and choral concerts enough that it can support the cost of a 60 million dollar center? I’m going to guess that it is not. And unfortunately, in a community like Harford County, I really don’t think it is proper to expect the citizens to subsidize local community music groups through their tax dollars.
If the arts loving people of Harford County are serious about their interests, they have a world class symphony hall, as well as live show theaters, and several renowned art museums just a half an hour away in Baltimore.
That’s true, and there is starting to be a kind of a backlash against this kind of advocacy: “The arts are important because they help kids do better in (fill in the blank”). The arts should be promoted for their own sake. Music is a great thing because it is music. Most people really enjoy music. It really doesn’t require any extra qualifications.
But the problem, as you touched on, is what KIND of music will people support, versus what kind of music arts advocates want to present. Unfortunately, classical music and related types need to be subsidized because it doesn’t sell well enough to cover the expense of presenting it. And the question is, should taxpayers in Harford County be forced to subsidize a performance venue for music that they would not otherwise pay to hear.
I have to agree that they should not. This is not a value judgement, it’s an economic reality. I love classical music, jazz, and other kinds of music that do not necessarily sustain themselves through ticket or recording sales. But the economic reality doesn’t change just because I love the music I love, and no one should be forced to subsidize my tastes in music.
If I remember correctly the property was left to the county with the stipulation of it being an Arts Center. If the Arts Center fails to be built the property on that side of 24 will be reclaimed by the estate and most likely sold to developers where more housing or another big box store will be built, further crowding the already over crowded development envelope and adding to more traffic and safety issues.
The property on the opposite side of 24 will become a park regardless of the fate of the other side where the Arts Center is proposed.
Choose carefully.
I think everyone understands the history but 60 million dollars and they want to load that on the backs of taxpayers? We just spent 30M on an emergency services center that won’t be fully utilized for 20 years. So these folks gathered $300,000 to date and only have now $100,000 left? Certainly begs the question how much they really care about it if they’re blowing it on parties or something other than holding to contribute to the costs of construction. Way too ambitious…60M is insane.
$300,000 raised????? I believe its over $1.5 million raised from contributions and events since inception. But I don’t know how we would know the exact number, since they won’t tell us.
The way you know is to look at their 990 return and their financials. And if the won’t show anyone their financial statements then you don’t want to get within a mile of them.
You can see the past three years of 990s for free on Guidestar.
The gift of the property to the county from the trustee for the estate of the late Emily Bayliss Graham has several strings attached, but it also means the citizens will have an asset that is worth between $14 million and $17 million, County Attorney Robert McCord said Tuesday.
“I think it’s the hardest we’ve ever worked to get a gift given to the county,” McCord said, noting the county has been in negotiations with the Graham trustee and other involved parties for more than a year and half.
The payoff, he added, is the citizens can be assured the property won’t “have more of the same of whatever is around it…that won’t be there,” a reference to the surrounding area’s heavy residential and commercial development.
According to the Center for the Arts announcement, the site must be developed for “construction of a cultural center by 2018 or the land will revert back to the foundation.”
McCord said this characterization is basically true.
“They [Center for the Arts] would have seven years to show substantial progress on a building and, at the discretion of the trustee, another three years to fulfill the requirement,” he explained.
McCord also said the same progress requirement applies to the 69 acres that would be used for what county Parks and Recreation Director Arden McClune has called Harford’s future “Central Park.”
McCord said Craig signed a memorandum of agreement with the Center for the Arts on Oct. 27 which delineates the organization’s and the county’s respective responsibilities for the Graham property.
The lawyer said this agreement – which was not submitted to either the Harford County Council or to the county Board of Estimates – does not obligate the county to spend a specific amount of money to build the cultural arts center. It does, however, state the county “will contribute” once the two have agreed on the full cost of the project.
“We have agreed to a portion of the cost [of the project] once it has been agreed upon,” he said.
In 2010, the county became a party to the mediation that had been ordered to settle the competing claims against the estate. On July 19, 2010, an agreement was reached with the trustee that would allow the county to receive the property as a gift.
McCord said McGrath agreed a passive park and a cultural arts center are uses consistent with the late owner’s desires for her land.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/harford/news/community/ph-ag-graham-property-1104-20111103-story.html
Thomas McGrath, a New York-based attorney who served as the elderly woman’s guardian and is now trustee of the Emily Bayless Graham Charitable Trust, said she was a Maryland native who had no children or siblings and inherited the land from an uncle. He said he visited Graham regularly at a nursing home in New Jersey and they had extensive conversations about the Harford tract.
He said she had received numerous offers from developers but described Graham as a “strong-willed” woman who had no interest in selling the land to be “concreted over” and wanted to donate the tract for uses that would benefit Harford residents.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-11-15/news/bs-md-ha-land-donation-20111115_1_land-gift-sallee-kunkel-filkins-harford-county
As usual, the Center for the Arts tries to couch this as an argument for or against “The Arts”. See above. That’s absurd. Have you heard the ridiculousness that pours from the CEO’s mouth regarding this? They also like to threaten us by saying there will be some horrible residential or retail monstrosity built on the site if we don’t fork over $25 million for this boondoggle. See above! I am FOR for the arts. I support performance and exhibit art day in and day out. And I will continue to help fund valid, competent efforts in this area. But the CFA is NOT a valid, competent effort. It is embarrassing. Close to $2 million raised with a few signs on 24 to show for it; after 10 years! Salaries and “fees” that have been utterly unconscionable, with, apparently, no responsible oversight. A website that has dead links and “coming soon” promises that have been there for over three years. Absolutely no response to requests for financial transparency. My GOD. Where are the adults????
I feel so bad for the contributors and dancers who, in good faith and with pure intentions, have allowed their good names to be associated with this fiasco.
Yes – $2 mm raised but also spent. They only have $100K in the kitty to cover their $8 million share of the pared down center cost after 10 years of begging for money. The Director of the Center for the Arts group does not even live in Harford County. In the 1990s the Amoss Center at VoTech was built at considerable expense to the taxpayer, with it being billed as the County’s arts venue. And what happened, HCPS controls and restricts its use so that it sits empty most of the time and is hardly ever opened up for community use. If you recall the Amoss Center was ‘critical’ at the time because HCC basically cut off the Phoenix Theater (also funded by the County taxpayer) from community use. If the Center is built (and that is a huge IF), you can bet that control will be in the hands of only a select few and local artists will once again be shut out.
I believe Harford Community College decides who gets to use the Amos’s Center, and they are even more restrictive than HCPS.
Yes, if some type of cultural center isn’t built there, the land goes up for general sale and we all know exactly what that means.
You can call that fear mongering, I suppose, but it’s also factual.
I believe I stated on this very website, oh, maybe 3 years ago, exactly what will happen. Something will be built there, and it will be arts related, but it isn’t going to be the second coming of the Strathmore.
It will be modest, it will be a start, at worst it will be a placeholder for the land so that some other awful hideous usage doesn’t takes its place.
Frankly, you could have a small theater and a large sculpture garden and that would be awesome for everyone. Check out the sculpture garden in NJ, it’s amazing.
I’m pretty confident this is what the County Council will see to fruition by the deadline given by the trust.
So why not an open air amphitheater, something that’s reasonable for our area and could actually be built with donations or a budgeted amount of parks and recs money, that’s been TRANSPARENTLY DISCUSSED by the council? The site is big enough to move the BBQ bash to, or for the county to host a festival with fire works for the fourth of July. The BBQ bash is a money maker I’m sure.
I’m all for the Arts, and for bringing up children to try out their artistic skills. I grew up when there was still Home Ec, Music, and Arts classes. But now it’s being driven out or cut from budgets. How many art and music teachers could we pay for in our public schools with that kind of money?
Agree. I believe Joe Woods was the first person I heard suggest an open amphitheater. And he wasn’t talking about a Merriweather Pavilion type of thing, which would freak a bunch of people out.
I think the CFA needs to get their head out and realize their grand plan isn’t going to happen. They need to go back to the drawing board and come out with something that’s a cross between a park, public space, and small arts center.
Maybe one day, if the money ever follows, they could expand on it.
I think an amphitheater is a great idea and in a garden setting with areas for kids and even a building or two certainly scaled back for exhibits or other “art” related uses. I think that would satisfy the requirements, preserve badly needed open space in the development envelop and also importantly honor the wishes of the lady who clearly wished the property to become a sanctuary. We could come up with something wonderful and to your point with the idea of adding on later if the citizens want to…for a fraction of this 60M.
Sounds lovely.
Now all we have to do is convince those who are religiously opposed to all government spending to get behind anything that is a “faction of the cost”. It should be as easy as teaching a pig to sing.
Very unfortunate that the excesses of the Craig administration have created an atmosphere such as this. Not to beat the dead horse but 30M for the emergency services center that is only being partially used…that project could have accomplished all that is necessary for half that cost. Now we’re stuck with million dollar contaminated river front half acres and municipal buildings sitting half empty…entire new developments built for Brac that still aren’t full and that the taxpayers absorbed costs for roads and all other infrastructure. Now we little if any money for projects that make sense and a county full of taxpayers sick of being soaked.
I agree with everything in your statement. Let me add into the mix of blame the incumbent members of the County Council who appropriated the money for Craig, as their hands are dirty as well. The only difference between many of them and Craig is that they still govern the County.
Won’t argue with that although there were a couple of hold-outs who still sit on the council that did not go along in every case.
Keith, your tired references to certain people being opposed to ALL government spending lead to your comments being dismissed as ridiculous exaggerations. You know that they are actually in favor of LESS government, not NO government, and your erroneous statements like this only serve to hurt your arguments.
Dick –
How much money for this specific plan is less government? We’ve ascertained that $60 million is too much government. We know what number is no government.
There is a figure out there that will get the CFL to sing along with the rest of the county. The only practical question is what that number is.
Your argument would have more value if you addressed this, at least for yourself.
My comment was strictly in response to your statement about “those who are religiously opposed to all government spending”, which is simply a straw man smear against the smaller-government faction. No rational person is opposed to all government spending, and you may be surprised to learn that there are actually many rational people in favor of reducing the size of the government.
Regarding the $60 million project, my personal opinion is that no funding should go toward that fiasco, including the $50,000 for a parking lot that’s in the proposed county budget, until they produce a more realistic and reasonable plan and a thorough accounting of the money raised so far.
Also, I would require a written statement that the backers of this plan are not eligible for the top full-time paid jobs that would eventually be created. Having the county and state build your playground and then pay you handsomely to work there is a nice deal if you can get it, and I’m not in favor of it.
There’s a wonderful park in the old section of Raleigh, NC with an ampitheatre, rose garden, etc. In summer they do plays, musical events from a fairly small stage. The venue is surrounded by neighborhoods and so AC-DC wouldn’t be playing in a place like that. The gardens are lovely and tranquil and we don’t have a Harford County garden. If anyone has ever seen it certainly worth looking at as an example of what can be done and at minimal cost. They did have some buildings on the site and I believe they had summer programs for kids inside…the buildings did not overwhelm the space and weren’t meant to be the focus of the park. Super creative use of space and something for everyone. I found it charming, unexpected in it’s location and full of people and families picnicing, strolling and just sitting.
http://raleighlittletheatre.org/photoarchive/rosegarden/
…what about Ladew Gardens?
What gives you the right to claim that the arts aren’t worth funding? The arts center poses no threat to Harford County. While a $60 million center is far more than we need, local artists could use a generalized space. The revenue this can create as a multipurpose center is massive, but you don’t seem to see that. Are you this bitter and desperate because you weren’t talented enough to get the roles you wanted in high school? Or did your paintings never get displayed in your school’s gallery? Perhaps your less than impressive writing wasn’t chosen for the school newspaper. Whatever the reason, I’m sorry that you weren’t enough. I suggest to keep trying. Without the arts, and arts programs, people like you will never actually gain the skill needed to become talented. I can speak, as I am very talented. I’d welcome you to the club if it would get you to put aside this ridiculous feud you’ve created in your mind.
I’ve devoted most of my life to performing, and at one point, was probably making more money than you do in a year. The arts are profitable if you create things that people will want to see and participate in. But by ALL MEANS- let’s open another Target! Harford county could certainly more culture and less people like you.
Well, THAT was a mature tantrum! How wonderful that you were talented in high school.
Once again: people are NOT against funding the arts. They are against incompetence, lack of transparency, incomprehensible soliloquies, and $2 million dollars contributed with only $90k in the bank to show for it. Why should we believe that these people can be counted on to plan and execute anything??? Let alone a multi-million dollar project that is on its 4th unrealistic iteration after 10 years. Have you seen their past “plans and studies”? Its embarrassing. To be fair, a lot of this disgrace is on the prior CEO; but where was the board? And what the HECK has the current CEO been doing for 2 1/2 years???? Nothing personal, but let’s frame this argument accurately. Its not about the merits of “the arts” or Target stores! Sheesh.
Good. Then let the local artists and musicians “create things that people will want to see and participate in”. And when they raise enough money by doing so, they can build themselves an arts center without complaint from people who don’t feel that compulsory subsidizing of local artists is proper.
And by the way…I’m a musician who has several music degrees and has been performing all my life.
R; “What gives you the right to claim that the arts aren’t worth funding?” What gives anyone on the right to say such an outlandish thing is called the first amendment to the constitution. Of course, if the statement doesn’t fit your narrow definition of all that’s good and holy, then just accuse the person of being a child molester or something to take away from the actual argument. The cold cruel fact is that if I go to the junk yard and gather a whole bunch of scrap and weld it together to form something in my mind, it is still junk. If someone now pays me for my junk it suddenly gets redefined as art. When government funds junk it automatically becomes art and I for one am very opposed to that. If your so called art is so good, someone will pay for it. Peddle your art the same way that the rest of us peddle our goods and services. If I want some I’ll pay for it, and pay dearly if it’s all that good.