New York City is looking to join Chicago, Houston, Denver and other major cities by passing legislation to create its first comprehensive cultural plan.
The legislation, which the City Council passed by a vote of 49 to 0 on Tuesday, requires the city to analyze its current cultural priorities, assess how service to different neighborhoods can be improved, study the condition of arts organizations and artists, and plan how the city can remain artist-friendly in a time of high rents and other economic pressures.
The bill was introduced by the council members Stephen Levin (Brooklyn) and Jimmy Van Bramer (Queens).
“Administrations come and go; cultural affairs commissioners come and go,” said Mr. Van Bramer, who is chairman of the council’s cultural affairs committee and majority leader. “What we want is to have this ongoing prioritization of arts and culture.”
Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, said he fully supported the plan. “We went back and forth and back and forth on improving the bill and I have completely come around to the idea that it’s going to be great for New York,” he said.
“Even though I spend all my time out looking at everything in all the boroughs, it still only adds up to an anecdotal idea of what’s happening,” he continued. “Are there parts of the city that are not adequately served by cultural resources or are there imaginative ideas for getting cultural resources to those communities?”
The plan requires the city to find out what arts groups in the five boroughs want and need and to incorporate these recommendations in a plan to be submitted by July 1, 2017.
30 comments:
I have cultural activity for you,
Put welfare offices and methadone clinics on Park Ave and everyone gets to see how the other lives
Problem Fixed.
I should be a politician 😀
I'm not anti-culture and anti-arts but wouldn't it be better to instead focus on zoning and land use and do whatever it takes to prevent neighborhoods from being overrun by rampant overdevelopment?
Not everybody is an artist and not every neighborhood can be an "arts district".
How about focusing on making neighborhoods more livable for people who have jobs and work?
“Administrations come and go; cultural affairs commissioners come and go,” said Mr. Van Bramer, who is chairman of the council’s cultural affairs committee and majority leader. “What we want is to have this ongoing prioritization of arts and culture.”
Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, said he fully supported the plan. “We went back and forth and back and forth on improving the bill and I have completely come around to the idea that it’s going to be great for New York,” he said.
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Translation: The cultural scene in Queens will now be imposed on the rest of NYC. Emphasis not on creativity (perish the thought) or pure art but on being an adjunct to development and photo ops to targeted ethnic-racial groups.
Arts will be come a creature of the one party state. Where that goes you need only to look up Germany, Russia, China, and N Korea.
“Even though I spend all my time out looking at everything in all the boroughs, it still only adds up to an anecdotal idea of what’s happening”
- So the commissioner admits his agency is next to useless. The dept. of cultural affairs like a good place to start trimming the city budget!
The problem in arts is:
1. lack of funding (that $500,000 dog run in Queens should put to bed any 'lack of money' excuses) or funding to a tiny group of well connected mediocrities.
2. being pushed out by development (don't go there people! - that is mysteriously missing from the script)
3. dispensing with core classic art values with tedious programming dictated by the needs of the party (artists don't need to be told to be diverse - but they need help in bringing in a more people. Trashing their disciplines is not the route to follow)
Great, Finkelpearl is the new Albert Speer.
So how come Councilman Jimmy took $10,500 from 5 Pointz destroyer, the Wokoffs, who obliterated a major cultural attraction that brought thousands of tourists to LIC?
Back door politics Van Bramer is owned by the real estate industry.
Poetic justice prevails, however.
Metro demolition, Wolkoff's contractor , has a lein against "big" Jerry Wolkoff's former 5 Pointz site.
It seems that "big" Jerry owes them money.
But Van Bramer got paid off early in the game for voting to approve Wolkoff's variance.
I repeat, $10,500 was contributed by Wolkoff family members to Jimmy's re-election campaign. The proof is online at the Board of Elections site.
LOL!
Ah, but it's gays that have always been pro art and culture. Without these avant garde thinkers, we would not have some of the world's great masterpieces. It is no secret that Micharlangelo "dabbled" and "experimented" with "the boys".
So if the prominent queens of Queens wants to support "culture" it's OK with me. Queens needs to be upgraded from its Archie Bunker image.
Kiss my ass, you phony!
Van Bramer is in the pocket of REBNY!
Yeah, we need more bathhouses. Isn't this where the cultural elite meet to exchange views on art, music, dance, etc?
Go on Jimmy....declare LIC an "arts district"....after YOU were an accomplice in the destruction of the 5 Pointz Aerosol Arts Center.
Like 5 Pointz or not, it drew scores of tourists by the bus load to LIC. That put money into the local economy.
Judas got 30 pieces of silver for his betrayal. Van Bramer got $10,500 from Wolkoff's family. Then Jimmy voted to approve a zoning variance which allows two 40+ story buildings to be built upon that spot.
Van Bramer sold out for chump change. Now he wants to foster culture?
I hope your face turns a nice vivid hue of scarlet for being outed as the double dealing viper that you are.
Chelsea is already what some anti culture bigots have labeled "art fag central".
It's a real eye opener to note that
some of the crap that is being foisted upon unwary dumb "art" investors is a joke. Visit some of those Chelsea galleries and sort out the small percentage of good art. That area abounds in sheeshy art proponents waiting to pry big bucks from wealthy foreigners.
Van Bramer is cultural commissioner because you always give the gay man a cultural job. Aren't gays always known for having good taste?
Oops, scratch that cultural commish post.
That's not Jimmy's title. My error.
Love that orange scarf. Love to see Jimmy in an orange jump suit.
Culture in New York City has done just fine without the city government's assistance.
Leave something that's working alone.
Finkelpearl talks about special districts for the arts then turns his back on Steinway.
But, then, there is south Jamaica he muses....
Last year, on June 20, 2014, I contacted Jimmy Van Bramer's office (repeatedly), in order to ask him to lend his support for the rightful return of 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue,' and why Van Bramer retreated into total silence, when former BP Helen Marshall evicted the statue from its home base of 71 years in Kew Gardens Plaza, in the first place!
Instead of actual help and sincere involvement from the councilman's office, I got the runaround from his Chief Of Staff, Jason Banrey.
Finally, Mr. Banrey admitted that Melinda Katz had plans of her own (carried over from Helen Marshall), for that blighted public plaza (since the statue was removed without due process, or public consent), and went on to say that he would not be interfering with Katz's plans to make over the plaza into a 'planted ruin' that will pay tribute to women in politics of Queens. Is this democracy?
Concequently, my organization, CIVIC VIRTUE TASK FORCE, continues to fight for the missing public referendum, due process and Community Board 9 approvals (for years, they've sanctioned the statue's stay in Kew Gardens--many times--before it was capriciously removed), and despite no action, input and involvement from Mr. Van Bramer and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Findelpearl, we will continue to fight for accountability and transparency that is still not evident (or visible) within the new (really?), Borough Hall of Melinda Katz.
In the end, Mr. Van Bramer continues to show a reckless disregard for public referendum, and the well established demand for Civic Virtue's return to Kew Gardens. Not only are these actions a betrayal of public service loyalty, but a total devaluation of honesty itself!
Talking about money wasted, why did Van Bramer himself allow Helen Marshall (without objection or question, and likewise Elizabeth Crowley and Peter VAllone, Jr.), to spend more than $100,000 to remove "Civic Virtue" from Kew Gardens, when it would have only cost $30,000 to clean and conserve it on site?
Then, the fountain base itself could have also been repaired and conserved so that the water works would finally be able to be turned on again, as a working testament to political leadership (that leads by example), and a working example of the powers of "Civic Virtue" itself!
Alas, if three different Borough Hall Presidents weren't even able to handle a simple budget of public art repair and conservation that had marginal costs to begin with, then I can just imagine what a tangled mess of profligate, wanton waste that has overshadowed much larger projects of epic waste and fail---like that hideous, $23,000,000 event atrium at Borough Hall that sucked up millions under Helen Marhsall's intensely incompetent monarchy rule!
Again, all of these secretive, wasteful decisions impede public referendum and democracy, under unauthorized, Neo-Fascist rule, as they continue to devalue honesty itself!
If you are an artist, why do you need a political appointee to guide you? Isn't an artist supposed to have his or her own unique view and manner of expression?
And I don't want to have to look at any government sponsored homage to women politicians of queens! I dont' want to have to look at any homage to male politicians either!
What,10 to 12 years of public schools giving the people crayons and paper ?
If your not an artist by then
FIND A REAL JOB!!!
That's exactly my point, Anonymous. No one ever requested a plaza to memorialize any branch of past or present political leadership in Queens at the site of Kew Gardens Plaza (because there isn't any), and because the people have already spoken with a resounding 'YES' to Civic Virtue's proper, speedy return to a working fountain base!
In fact, we protested in front of the plaza, on Saturday, December 8, 2012, when there was purported support (now faded and missing in action), by Councilman Elizabeth Crowley and former Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. (whose only interest in Civic Virtue buttressed a laughable run for Queens BP), for the statue's conservation to remain exactly where it has always been prominently displayed, instead of the brash and speedy eviction altogether by an arrogant, incompetent and uneducated coward like Helen Marshall, who couldn't find her own hide with a GPS!
Enter Melinda Katz, where on June 10, 2014, she spoke so eloquently about a new direction of openness and transparency for Borough Hall, that nearly a year later is as transparent as sheet rock!
Despite your hopeful speech, Madam Katz, this is not anything remotely close to what openness and transparency looks like---it's a hardly commendable example of everything that betrays it (not to mention honest, ethical leadership that leads by example).
So, I make yet another public appeal to meet with you, BP Katz, as well as all of the other members of CIVIC VIRTUE TASK FORCE, to continue talks that were initiated in a meeting with Barry Grodenchik and Nayalli Turrent, on April 8, 2014, that further support Community Board 9 due process, public referendum and working with DCAS Commissioner Stacey Cumberbatch, Cultural Arts Commissioner Tom Findelpearl and the Public Design Commission to hold open and transparent meetings with our organization (as well as the voting pubic at large), for 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' to make a permanent, return engagement to a working fountain, that is wholly supported by Jimmy Van Bramer, as well as the purportedly continued support of Councilman Elizabeth Crowley (who has since retreated into silence on the matter).
As a custodian of public trust as borough president in Queens County, such a democratic action is urgently called upon you and other city administrations, in order to restore the wishes of taxpayer funded projects with the same level of openness and transparency that you spoke about nearly a year ago before CB 9.
Also, a working fountain and restored, relocated statuary will not only beautify Kew Gardens Plaza with public art, purpose and function (that is adjacent to Borough Hall), but it will also serve as a visible beacon of government vigilance that values actual, and symbolic 'Civic Virtue' over real corruption and vice that never seems to end.
Hence, the recent admission of yet another corrupt politician, William Scarborough--and the reason why a statue and fountain that symbolize Civic Virtue is desperately needed (and publicly consented to) in the first place---now, more than ever!
Who could object to any work of art that reinforces 'Civic Virtue?'
Simply stated, why do we taxpayers' continue to allow publicly paid employees to ignore the rules of our publicly lawful rights (with impunity), as they continue to make and enforce bogus rules of their own, that no one ever publicly mandated, or consented to in the first place?
Exactly the teachings and followings of Neo-Fascism (from within city government), because this is certainly not how any branch of American democracy and public referendum that I know works like!
Authority must ALWAYS be challenged---and this is the reason why! YES, to public openness and government transparency!
" The plan requires the city to find out what arts groups in the five boroughs want and need and to incorporate these recommendations in a plan to be submitted by July 1, 2017. "
Just art groups? What about actual
artists?
Here's one for you....make all the "vibrant and diverse" individuals learn some damn English! How's That for a cultural plan? How about giving free classes to the asians on how to not be so rude? I think those cultural plans would benefit a lot of people!
Another thread hijacked by Iritano.
Crapper, I doubt I'm the only one who closes the page as soon as I see the words Civic Virtue.
It's just tiresome.
Another thread hijacked by Iritano.
Crapper, I doubt I'm the only one who closes the page as soon as I see the words Civic Virtue.
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Perhaps for the same reason I have not cracked open a Queens weekly for more than a decade with it tiresome Machine drivel.
Faced with that, the grammar challenged Iritano is almost a breath of fresh air.
So, now I am a hijacker, Anonymous, with poor grammar, no less? Time for your inner child to finally grow into a productive adult.
Ironically, I have actually challenged authority into action, created a website, and collected signature petitions regarding the public's wishes (always) to return of Triumph of Civic Virtue--the same Civic Virtue from which you continue to run, hide and criticize! Further, you've NEVER offered anything but asenine pettiness, arrogance and hostility (anonymously, and all under the protective cover from your living room), while I was getting my hands dirty and visible with personal accomplishment and achievement, that continues to be totally missing from your ZERO record of doing anything--except pettily complain!
In fact, if it weren't for your vapid, unjustified, minority complaints (since everyone else continues to encourage my community activism), then you wouldn't have anything to offer at all--except for how impressively pompous, puerile and off topic that you continue to pollute this thread with, for citizens who actually care about democracy--and getting something accomplished.
So, please can it already with the online jabs and stupidity. Either roll up your sleeves and follow my lead (with actual leadership), or simply troll your total uselessness somewhere else (for which they already have my sympathy)!
Time for you inner
Also tiresome, Anonymous, are lazy, complaining criticizers like you, who continue to offer zero work, achievement and input, while ironically continuing to criticize people like me who took a stand for what community activism represents---as opposed to whatever vacuous message that you waste time presenting, that accomplishes nothing!
Alas, I'm beginning to think that you are a politician yourself---and a pitiful one of liability that impedes any and all tangible solutions for even the smallest progress to ever prevail!
Another irony, Anonymous (among an endless loop), is how you keep responding to my posts that you yourself continue to admit that you have no interest in reading (while criticizing my proper grammar, no less, among many other vapid, unjustifiable complaints).
Obviously, I've hit a sensitive nerve with you on the topic of Civic Virtue (not to mention activism and persistence), because you are the only one complaining about it, while ironically not offering any productive path to achievement.
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