Charlotte Arts Master Plan

[dubone]

8-3 is still a win... who cares about the ones that voted against it. They might have been playing politics and only would voted no because they knew it would pass.

Didn't the mayor already get the cost cutting he originally asked for? Discovery place is no longer doing anything substantial to its building. Mint made major changes, such as consolidating the Craft+Design museum into the downtown art museum, and keeping the randolph site open, requiring a smaller downtown museum. Bechtler is also going to be integrated within the same site, achieving operational efficiencies while still meeting Becthler's demand of a separate museum. It seems like the only thing left that could be reasonably cut would be to put the AfAmCC art into the Mint, and how much would that have really saved?

[atlrvr]

It's funny...one of the mayor's points was that a large number of lower income people use rental cars and would be disproportionately impacted by the tax increase.  I had no idea that was the case.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me either.......I have always assumed that it was mostly people from out of town (tourists and business people), and business people in town who are renting cars to take out of town....but i may be wrong......stats anyone?

[atlrvr]

8-3 is still a win... who cares about the ones that voted against it.  They might have been playing politics and only would voted no because they knew it would pass.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know the political games that are played and detest them, but really the reason I'm upset is that my representative doesn't seem to have my interests, or what I would presume the majority of her constituents' interests, at heart.....

It's ok, November is coming soon, but I fear that there will not be a decent alternative.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

so how close are we to getting started? Wachovia is not going to wait forever...

[wheatie]

Go to your local Enterprise rent a car and watch who is renting the cars. You will notice that a lot of the people are not businessmen or tourists. Many low income people do not have cars, but occasionally need one. While the airport locations rent mostly to businessmen and tourists, there are lot of cars rented around town to locals.

[poplife88]

The car rental tax would only be raised to the level that it already is in other NC cities. Plus when either Nancy Carter or Susan Burgess wondered aloud whether or not the tax hike in these other cities even had an impact on the car rental industry, the representative from that industry could not or did not want to answer that question. They even went on to say that they believed this project would even benefit car rental business. Again, no response from the representative. BTW it felt a little weird to have the tables reversed at the meeting and to see Nancy Carter and Susan Burgess championing an uptown project. Kudos to them, I thought they did a great job in explaining the benefits of this project. Didn't hear too much from John Lassiter which I thought was a bit strange. And John Tabor is still trying to get out those skid marks from his suit after being thrown under the bus after posing an alternate motion and spending over 10 minutes presenting a pretty well thought out power point presentation and absolutely getting no response for his motion. Did anyone else see that? I thought it was hilarious.

[Skyybutter]

Found this in the observer forum. Having leaders like this leading Charlotte is scary in my opinion.

How to win mayor's support for arts plan

In response to "Arts plan will likely survive veto of tax" (July 26):

Mayor McCrory had no problem whatsoever in supporting an increase of taxes on motel and hotel rooms to raise $140 million for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. But increasing the car rental tax to provide about $75 million for a new Mint Museum, Discovery Place renovations and improvements to other cultural facilities? The mayor vetoes that plan.

Perhaps the only way for City Council and the Arts and Science Council to obtain the mayor's support for culture in Charlotte would be to include a Dukes of Hazzard Museum in the package with the Mint and Discovery Place.

Donald Latham

Charlotte

[graydog]

Most of the time I disagree with anything Pat says about the arts. I will give him two points:

1. We have more than enough theaters

2. It's a good idea to consolidate infrastructure and operations for many of the requests.

The most important objective for me is to have the arts and lots of them. Fighting for separate facilities for territorial reasons is wasteful and distracting. At least with public money.

[Skyybutter]

Most of the time I disagree with anything Pat says about the arts. I will give him two points:

1. We have more than enough theaters

2. It's a good idea to consolidate infrastructure and operations for many of the requests.

The most important objective for me is to have the arts and lots of them. Fighting for separate facilities for territorial reasons is wasteful and distracting. At least with public money.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In the long run can a city ever have to many theaters? If word gets out that Charlotte is in love with art, live theater etc, I can only see this as benefiting the city. I think the forum writers main thought is how the mayor and the city(over-all) jumped on the NASCAR museum even though its not a guarantee, and they dont seem to share the same excitement regarding the arts plan.

[hueion39]

While I disagree on his vote, I do understand his political stance on it...

[ElricSeven]

In the long run can a city ever have to many theaters? If word gets out that Charlotte is in love with art, live theater etc, I can only see this as benefiting the city. I think the forum writers main thought is how the mayor and the city(over-all) jumped on the NASCAR museum even though its not a guarantee, and they dont seem to share the same excitement regarding the arts plan.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the NASCAR museum was seen as a one-of-a-kind attraction that would bring money into the city and pay for itself and give us national recognition. I doubt that the local arts package, while nice to have, will have this kind of an impact. We'd be trying to compete in an arena that we've been left so far behind in (compared to other major cities) that we're much better off doing something unique.

[rockhilljames]

I'd disagree about the too many theaters comment.

Blumenthal is overbooked, groups like the Ballet, Symphony, NC Dance, Broadway Lights, Opera, and other theatre/performance groups have to share the Blumenthal and often can't find booking nights for what they need. The last 3 shows I've been too have all been at Ovens, a theater that is below the normal standards for performing arts centers (although the acoustics there are great...). Having a second top tier performing arts center downtown will ease scheduling conflicts and create evening activity down the length of Tryon.

[MZT]

About the rental cars... It can be cheap to rent one on the weekend (sometimes you can get coupons and rent one for 20-30 bucks a day at a slow lot, away from the airport.) Perhaps even cheaper than owning one and paying taxes, insurance, maintenance, and intangible costs.

But I'll admit, I can't really make the connection between rental cars and the arts. Why this was chosen as a funding source seems strange.

[nyxmike]

I think the NASCAR museum was seen as a one-of-a-kind attraction that would bring money into the city and pay for itself and give us national recognition.  I doubt that the local arts package, while nice to have, will have this kind of an impact.  We'd be trying to compete in an arena that we've been left so far behind in (compared to other major cities) that we're much better off doing something unique.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It might be more unique (well, I think the Bechtler collection could be considered unique as well), but I think the arts are more important. Businesses interested in moving to Charlotte aren't going to care if we have a Nascar museum or not - they look at things such as cultural facilities - Wachovia and BofA CEO's said it themselves - the arts will help keep and recruit new businesses to the area. Besides, I'd rather have more artsy people walking around downtown - lets face it, Nascar fans aren't exactly "city folk." You can argue that it's become a pretty popular sport around the country (or the world), but there are rednecks everywhere. It's a common assumption to think that there are only rednecks in the south, but it's not true.. for example, I've encountered plenty here in NY and NJ.

I guess the city feels that this museum is a "once in a lifetime" thing and with the arts, well, they can wait as long as they want until they are ready to deal with it. I just think it would be pretty stupid if they ignore this plan with the banks (which apparently they haven't).

[redjeep77]

i am an artsy guy.....to be honest I have heard from other colleagues that the Betchler collection has only a few gems in it. Apparently there is a lot of crap in it too. While it would be great to have his collection (a few cubisms from picasso i believe), it really would be better suited as a wing in a new mint museum downtown imo. But mr betchler wants his own museum....thus the conflict.

on another note.....the NASCAR thing, along with the whitewater park, are the 2 essential things that charlotte needs to jump on. They are what's going to bring us the national and worldly scenes. And by the way, i don't consider myself a redneck and i am an avid nascar fan.

[dubone]

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte.../15/story2.html

it looks like huntersville leaders are once again raining on charlotte's parade.... even if the arts plan passes the city council, the local delegation to the general assembly won't be unanimous because of huntersville's rhodes and i think a few others...

perhaps this is just the process of getting compromise... but it just seems like yet another example of surburban 'leaders' trying to prevent resources from being spent in the city.

[A2]

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte.../15/story2.html

it looks like huntersville leaders are once again raining on charlotte's parade.... even if the arts plan passes the city council, the local delegation to the general assembly won't be unanimous because of huntersville's rhodes and i think a few others...

perhaps this is just the process of getting compromise... but it just seems like yet another example of surburban 'leaders' trying to prevent resources from being spent in the city.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

THIS SUCKS !!!

I guess we will stay at the bottom of the Fortune list when it comes to culture and Arts in CLT. Arts are a part of a city's fabric and until the leaders that represent the city and state understand this we are doomed for failure on the Arts front. I am just blown away by the fact that NO ONE in this so-called wealthy community has come to the rescue for the Arts, like some philanthropist, or one of the big banks. And while I am at it why the hell is there NO lighting on the Interstates around here. I mean they say we are trying to be a world-class city, but we can't even afford light bulbs for some of the busiest Interstates in the city. I have been through cities half the size of ours and they seem to have lighting on their roads. I mean it actually looks like a city when you are driving through. I have seen dirt roads with more lighting than 277 ! I am sorry to get off topic, but it just pisses me off to no end when out of one side of our leaders mouth they boast that Charlotte is a world-class city, while at the same time they won't fund the very thing that would bring us up to a world-class status. No lights on the Interstates, No arts in the city, No Culture. We are well on our way to being a world class city. YEAH RIGHT !

A2

[ilektronik]

THIS SUCKS !!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

sounds like somebody's got a case of the moooooondays

[A2]

this is true. I just get a little testy when I see crap like this. I mean we do not have any leaders that are willing to step up to the plate and make decisions that help versus hurt a community. It's politics as usual.

A2

[Skyybutter]

THIS SUCKS !!!

I guess we will stay at the bottom of the Fortune list when it comes to culture and Arts in CLT. Arts are a part of a city's fabric and until the leaders that represent the city and state understand this we are doomed for failure on the Arts front. I am just blown away by the fact that NO ONE in this so-called wealthy community has come to the rescue for the Arts, like some philanthropist, or one of the big banks. And while I am at it why the hell is there NO lighting on the Interstates around here. I mean they say we are trying to be a world-class city, but we can't even afford light bulbs for some of the busiest Interstates in the city.

[dubone]

but it seems like the city IS stepping up to the plate, but then the suburban reps to the state legislature are threatening to scuttle the whole thing because of generic statements about there not being enough police.

i wish we did have a billionaire patron for many of these things, but all we have are the millionaire belks and the mccolls and a few others.... our billionaire gave his money to his crazy daughter (doris) and a crazy college (dook).

[A2]

i wish we did have a billionaire patron for many of these things, but all we have are the millionaire belks and the mccolls and a few others.... our billionaire gave his money to his crazy daughter (doris) and a crazy college (dook).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A2

[SmellyCat]

but it seems like the city IS stepping up to the plate, but then the suburban reps to the state legislature are threatening to scuttle the whole thing because of generic statements about there not being enough police. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not enough police? Is the crime rate in Huntersville that bad?

[atlrvr]

Not enough police?  Is the crime rate in Huntersville that bad?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Apparantly it is horrible up there.

I had a sit down meeting with a town planner there last week and he told me that the town board was no longer interested in approving zoning that allowed apartments. They are looking to change policy direction to allow only "executive housing" with minimum 90' wide lots.

[cinco]

ok. i don't know if this will frustrate you more or make your day, A2? i don't want to get anybody in trouble so i will just speculate. let's say there is a new rendering of uptown charlotte, with all the new projects and more, being made. let's say i saw this rendering. let's pretend that i was blown away...that in a few years charlotte WILL look very different. if i had seen this rendering i would probably tell you the obvious - that the vue alone will change the skyline dramatically. i might tell you how suprised i was to see the shift in skyline because of 2nd st. project (wachovia). if such a rendering exsisted i wonder when it would be made public?

i bet the nascar thing this wednesday will be really cool.