Longenbaugh Reports From Last Night's Arts Meeting

(image of Kwatinetz by Laura Schmitt)

A dispatch from John Longenbaugh:
Wednesday�s meeting at City Hall to discuss the crisis of arts groups leaving Capitol Hill was even more crowded than the meeting a few months back at the Capitol Hill Arts Center�all of the hundred or so seats were taken, leaving the event SRO. Co-organizer Matthew Kwatinetz, artistic director of the CHAC, posed a single question, then featured a dozen or so �inspirational speakers� who addressed it: Under what conditions would you support a Cultural Overlay District on Seattle�s Capitol Hill neighborhood?

While the dilemma is clear—arts groups and venues are leaving the Hill in droves—just what exactly a Cultural Overlay District is, and how one will solve the problem, is still a bit foggy. Never mind. It was significant to have not just artists and administrators in the room, but developers and no less than five City Council members in attendance as well. Councilman Nick Licata, Sponsor of the meeting, was clearly thrilled to have such a large turnout, and pointed out that with Godden, Harrell, Rasmussen, and Clark also in attendance, there was actually a quorum for a committee meeting.

The two speakers who proved most popular with the crowd were 4 Culture Director Jim Kelly and Hallie Kuperman, the director of the Century Ballroom at the Oddfellows Hall. Kelly, a longtime advocate of affordable venues for artists, related a heartening anecdote from his time in New York, when 20 years ago dance and theater companies were being priced out of Manhattan. Public pressure pushed Mayor Koch to act, and the result was a series of deals with developers who were encouraged to donate and otherwise make available performance and rehearsal space to companies. �This is a problem we can solve if we have the will, the strength, and the desire to do it.�

Kuperman�s emotional recounting of the 15-year history of the Ballroom, which features dancing to salsa, ballroom, and swing music, included the melancholy observation that practically every other tenant in the Oddfellows Building (sold to developer Ted Schroth at the beginning of the year) has left due to increased rental rates. Her own rent has doubled, but she�s gone ahead and signed a seven-year lease, hoping that future changes on the Hill won�t bring another cluster of condos nearby with residents complaining about the �noise.�

It�s invigorating to see such widespread recognition of this problem, even if answers still seem vague. And now�s the time to act, no doubt; a lull in the housing market has quieted the development frenzy that seemed ready to stack condos on every square inch of the Hill. But I can�t help thinking that there�s still too much talk about incentives instead of restrictions, carrots instead of sticks. The simple fact is that art groups can�t reasonably compete in rentals or purchases in the current market. If they�re going to stay on the Hill, it�ll have to be with the same preservation-minded legislation that protects any other endangered species. That means saying �no� to developers as well as �yes� to artists.

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