Posted on 11/08/2004 2:44:40 PM PST by Huber
Mayor McCrory questions art proposals for the future light rail system; others question whether taxpayers should be funding art at all...
Charlotte: Charlotteans can add a new phrase to the city's lexicon: "plop art". "Plop art" is Mayor Pat McCrory's not-so-affectionate term for the artwork proposed for the city's South corridor light rail project, scheduled to open in the fall of 2006.
The South corridor light rail will be the first of five light rail lines built throughout the city, and will run along a ten-mile corridor from Uptown Charlotte to Interstate 485, just north of Pineville. The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) is in charge of construction for the South corridor, which will cost an estimated $398 million. A combination of federal, state and city money will be doled out to cover the hefty cost.
Here's where art comes in: Under federal guidelines, around one percent of the total construction budget must go to funding art for the fifteen stations that will be built along the corridor. That means taxpayers will eventually dish out more than $2.5 million for art to spruce up the stations along the rail.
For $2.5 million, most folks would likely expect an impressive display of art. But since CATS unveiled the proposed art for the light rail system in September, some have been left with only bad impressions.
Mayor McCrory was the first city official to voice concern over the proposed art. After touring the Arts-in-Transit exhibit at Spirit Square in mid-September, McCrory expressed strong criticism for the project. "I wasn't impressed," he said. "I'm not usually impressed with art when I have no idea what it is."
The proposed artwork is undeniably eclectic. CATS has commissioned a different artist for each of the fifteen stations, and each artist has designed a radically different piece of art for each stop (see inset images). McCrory has taken to calling it "plop art" because, he says, "It's art you just plop down. It really has nothing to do with transit."
CATS has already plopped down considerable money for the art's designs alone: The agency has paid artists $650,000 in design fees. CATS will pay the artists another $1.85 million to fabricate and install the work.
McCrory says that with that kind of taxpayer money on the line, elected officials should have some say in the selection process. "As long as you're requesting public money, I'm going to give feedback," he said.
But CATS officials and most city council Democrats say that art selection should be left to "art professionals."; Pallis Lombardi, program manager for the Art-in-Transit program, says politicians shouldn't be selecting art. "I vote for these guys, and believe me, I don't want them choosing art," she said. "I want to leave that to people who know what they're doing."
McCrory bristles at that kind of critique. "As an elected official, I give input into a lot of things I'm not an expert in," he said. "I'm not an expert in water, or sewers, or roads, or transit. But it's my job to ask questions."
The mayor says he is fighting against what he calls CATS' "elitism that says only a few people are qualified to say what is good when it comes to art." McCrory says when taxpayers' dollars are involved "everyone is qualified to make a judgment," including elected officials.
City Councilman Don Lochman agrees: "The bottom line on this is who are you going to allow to make the decisions?" Lochman, for the record, is no fan of the proposed light rail art either. "This is some of the biggest nonsense I've ever seen," he told a recent gathering of local Republicans.
Patsy Kinsey, a city council Democrat, has also sided with the mayor, saying in a recent city council meeting, "If people elect me to make important zoning decisions on their property, I can jolly well make decisions on art."
The city council voted in October to review the city's process for selecting and approving art. The council's Restructuring Government committee will make recommendations on how the process can be improved.
Councilman John Lassiter, who is on the restructuring committee, says he hopes the inquiry will lead to a broader discussion about public funding for art. Lassiter says he is skeptical about the amount of money the city spends on art, and would lean toward spending less taxpayer dollars for public art.
Charlotte's Arts and Science Council (ASC) annually receives nearly $3 million from the city, and $2.45 million from Mecklenburg County. ASC funds go to projects in both the public and private sectors. Some county commissioners say ASC (which raised $9.4 million in the private sector last year) should be weaned off public money.
In an ASC questionnaire sent to county commissioners in October, Ruth Samuelson said "I do not support an ongoing county contribution to ASC operating funds. I strongly believe that charities such as the ASC play a crucial role in our community, and I believe that this role is best fulfilled when each charity has a dedicated donor and volunteer program."
Commissioners Dan Bishop and Bill James agreed. "I believe ASC should rely increasingly on its maturing private support and less on government support over time," Bishop said. Bill James said, "I do not believe that funding adult agencies is necessary because of ASC's wealthy endowment and contribution base."
Whether the broader subject of the propriety of spending millions of dollars in taxpayer funds on art will be seriously addressed remains to be seen. The mayor thinks city funding for ASC should remain the same.
As for the light rail art, Lombardi says that most of the feedback CATS has received from the public so far has been "positive." She also says that the agency is still open to comments from the public. The light rail artists aren't scheduled to begin fabricating their work until March or April of next year.
Mayor McCrory urges citizens to look at the art and give their opinions to CATS. And he promises to continue to voice his own. "I've drawn a lot of heat over this," McCrory says. "But I won't be shamed into not having input on public matters."
Want to know more?
Visit the Arts-in-Transit Web site at www.ridetransit.org
What's in your wallet?
What a tremendous waste of tax dollars. No wonder it costs so much to build rail, you have to put useless non-functional pieces of art in the stations now that virtually none of the riders could care less about.
When's the last time you've heard someone on the subway in NYC saying, "you know what, that piece of art is ugly," as opposed to, "where's the g-d@#m train?"
You have to understand the local mentality. The powerbase wants Charlotte to be a "world-class city", no matter how much it costs. Another recent innovation was the proposal to pay buskers (street performers) to stroll about the downtown area. We are also completing a new downtown basketball arena that the voters nixed in a recent referendum. The owner of the basketball team will operate and receive all revenues from the facility. Lite rail is simply the largest and most costly experiment in local waste.
Aside from the annoying cops on 85 through Charlotte, it seems like an up and coming financial center of the South, and is probably the second-fastest growing city in the Southeast (sans FL).
It was ironic how you lost the Hornets because of the down vote on the arena, and then were hoodwinked by David Stern to build that same arena to house the Bobcats. It wasn't like the Collesium was that bad of a facility as far as arenas go.
Light rail seems to be always a waste in medium sized post-Interstate cities. Here in Atlanta we have MARTA, but it goes from nowhere near where you are to nowhere near where you want to go.
But that's always the case when the government gets involved. One hundered years ago, three private companies began building the vast NYC subway system. Once the government has taken over, it's taken 30-40 years to build a single line down Second Avenue. Goes to show you the difference between the private sector and the government. No profit motive, no efficiency.
Don't you think that the person who came up with THIS is more deserving of hot tea with Satan than that poor chump who shot himself?
Well, natural selection took care of Whatsisname, unless he'd got one of the three girlfriends pregnant ...
We can only hope.
Back on the subject of the thread: If you want to see liberals get hysterical, just try suggesting that monetary support of the arts is not a proper function of government.
I think it could be, at the city level, if the public voted for it. Many functions that aren't delegated to the Federal government can be "dealer's choice" for municipalities.
with SO much monetary waste tied into government spending, it's the 1% funding for "beautification" of a public system that is the outrage...go figure....
I want my tax dollars to pay for a light rail system with good art, not this plop art stuff.
Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to driving to the train station, hopping on, cruisin' down South Blvd, walking across South to the Overseas Food Market, shopping, re-crossing South with groceries, getting back on the train toward Pineville, getting in my car, and driving home!
I've seen some public art around Indy, and let me tell you, from the side it looks like a hideously delapidated building, and from the front it looks like a waste of good corrugated tin.
Modern art is garbage - on purpose.
Isn't that a bit personal?
I think we're approaching this from different perspectives ... what's consistent with the Constitution, vs. what's a good idea. If a municipality has a responsive government, I don't see why the public can't agree on art.
We had a very nice statue in Broken Arrow of our local WW2 Medal of Honor winner in his Creek Indian ceremonial regalia. The Scouts would bring flowers and flags on Memorial Day.
I think you've put it just right, and I'm in full agreement!
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