“Kimerly Rorschach, new SAM director, is a museum-builder,” runs the headline in the Seattle Times the morning after Rorschach’s appointment was announced. It’s an odd lede because Seattle Art Museum–and the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Olympic Sculpture Park–are, well…built. Continue reading Cash-Strapped and Debt-Burdened, Seattle’s Major Arts Institutions Face Leadership Transitions, Too
While I was trying to make sense of this dishearteningly stupid story, Seattle Public Schools made a new announcement: “New proposal calls for return to current 2011-12 transportation plan and minimal impact to current bell times.”
Seattle Schools Community Forum, which has been watchdogging the district on this, calls the statement a “remarkable piece of dis-information.” It’s hard to argue with their concerns about how transportation logistics became a last-minute fire drill. Continue reading Seattle Public Schools to Parents: Psych! Now You Give Us $1 Billion?
I realize that with a headline like that, you expect to be told why the City of Seattle can’t budget. But–and here is where things get very devious indeed–my thesis is that most likely you already know why. So the real reason that the city keeps facing deficits is not because leaders simply don’t know how, but because they correctly understand that the populace would rather they dither than decide on a less reversible course. Continue reading Why the City of Seattle Can’t Budget
In King County, we’re facing major cuts in transit unless funding can be found. Sums up Seattlepi.com: “Without extra funds, a total of 600,000 hours of transit service would be eliminated over the next two years. This is about 17 percent of Metro’s entire system, but it would affect up to 80 percent of bus riders.” Continue reading After Carmageddon, The Buspocalypse
Those pessimistic about the Intiman’s chances said, At least we’ve still got ACT, referring to A Contemporary Theatre’s revival from a near-death experience in 2003. But not so quick. “We’ve turned the boat around,” ACT’s executive director Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi told me on the phone, “but we haven’t gotten it back to the dock yet.” ACT hopes to close this year with its second balanced budget in a row, but the theatre owes some $2.7 million in debt obligations. It’s in the third year of a five-year plan to repay part of that debt. Continue reading ACT’s Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi on How to Reinvent Your Theatre
