Who to Blame?

So Boeing’s opening a second line in South Carolina.  Inevitably, fingers will be pointed. But at whom?  Well,

“Times have changed,
the economy’s gotten worse;
Boeing in South Carolina,
I just want to stomp & curse;
Should we blame the government
or blame the big old boss
or should we blame the union for the loss?
No, Blame Canada! Blame Canada!
With all their beady little eyes
And flapping heads so full of lies
Blame Canada
Blame Canada
We need to form a full assault
It’s Canada’s fault!

Don’t blame us
because they flee
they don’t like gutter balls
but they like Governors coveting Argentines
It’s about customers
everyone likes to say
but does that make it all okay?
No,  blame Canada
 Blame Canada
It seems that everything’s gone wrong
Since Canada came along
Blame Canada
Blame Canada
They’re not even a real country anyway

My son could’ve been a machinist or an engineer,
Instead he burned up like kindling on great Mount Rainier
Should we blame the matches?
Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire?
heck no!
Blame Canada
Blame Canada
With all their hockey hullabaloo
And that witch Anne Murray too
Blame Canada
Shame on Canada
For…
The move we must stop
The line we want back
The Laughter and fun
SC be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before somebody thinks of blaming uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!!

Warning: Video contains kids with potty mouths singing.

And Then You Can Make a Movie About Building Planes!

If you haven’t been watching closely, you’ve missed the national trend of turning large industrial spaces into movie studios. This isn’t a new idea by any stretch, but unfortunately there’s a lot more industrial space these days, like abandoned automobile manufacturing facilities in Michigan. But it hits a little closer to home when you see that LA is making movie studios out of old Boeing Commercial Airline buildings.

In Defense of SAM

I feel bad for the downtown Seattle Art Museum. How were they supposed to know that the oldest bank in town was going to crumble under the weight of subprime mortgages that everyone thought would never lose value? But that’s exactly what happened. When Washington Mutual collapsed, the museum lost $5.8 million in annual rent that was supposed to go toward the $65 million debt it incurred when it build its new space.

Here’s the thing: I’m sure that a lot of real estate projects, bankers and many others have learned some lessons over the past few years, but one of them that I don’t want them to learn is that museums don’t belong in the urban core.  Which is sort of the sense you get from this article.

Arts and the Recession, Part 2

With all the budget cutting and newfound spirit of fiscal restraint these days, I’ve been wondering about how the arts will fare come next fiscal year from the state and local government. And of course, it’s also interesting to try to understand how the Prosperity Partnership’s Cultural Access Fund proposal – which was developed coincidentally in a time of prosperity – is received differently in a downturn as well.

Arts in the Great Recession

As you can guess, times are tough for arts organizations in today’s economy. Pretty much all organizations that rely on charitable giving have taken a hit, so it’s not a huge surprise. But arts organizations face the double whammy of falling donations and falling earned income, as people cut back on ticket buying and other leisure spending. Concern about the arts in this downturn are so great that The Kennedy Center has started a new initiative to provide planning assistance and consulting to struggling arts organizations throughout the United States, and their president will be visiting communities throughout the country to spread the word. He’ll be in Seattle and Tacoma next week.

Salt in the Wound, which has been re-opened just so you could put salt into it

Leilani Lanes was the world’s best karaoke bar with a great bowling alley attached to it. Then it got sold to a developer and it closed. It was going to be made into condos. It was a shot to the heart…love progress of course, just so sad to see a great place go.

Leilani then

Now (a few weeks ago actually) word comes that the developer is bankrupt and the property has been taken back by the bank.

Why? Why do I have to die this death over and over? Is it not enough that this icon of all things cool is gone, surrounded by a chain link fence?

Can’t it just become condos and be done.   I mean, highest and best use is great. Progress is great. But closing the old girl down and replacing her with nothing? It’s a crying shame. Literally. I am crying. And it’s a shame.

Leilani now

Curse you, economy. When times are good you take away pleasure, when times are bad you take away lack of pain.  Have you no soul?  No compassion?

Can you at least put a karaoke mic in the parking lot, just for old time’s sake?

Regional Elected Official Casting Contest

Publicola has a great story about the casting of a new movie in which the role of Seattle City Councilmember Richard McIver might be played by Samuel L. Jackson. (Insert about 100 “I hate motherf*#ing snakes” jokes here.)

Open comment thread. Suggest your favorite casting of regional elected officials in the movie version of the Prosperity Partnership. I’ll start things off: the role of Bob Drewel will be played by a younger version of Robert Loggia. Everybody loves Robert Loggia.

Winner of the contest gets a free ticket to the Prosperity Partnership Fall Luncheon.

The Arts Don’t Matter During a Recession

Or do they?

That’s been a relatively visible debate at the local, state and federal level over the past year, as government struggles to reduce costs and keep taxes down despite falling revenues. It can be hard for elected officials to support even a measly few million dollars here or there for arts when education, health care and everything else is getting slashed and gutted. And we know this is happening with individuals as well, as they shift their giving to different priorities.

You Can A Bus from Broadway to Broadway

There are a number of ways to get down the hill on Pike or Pine from Capitol Hill’s main drag Broadway to the little Broadway that continues to flourish downtown at places like the Paramount and the 5th Avenue.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s a pretty cool trend that’s great for tourism and for our arts community. Although I still think it’s funny that people from New York think of us as “the relative isolation of the Pacific Northwest.” There’s several daily nonstop flights from JFK, people!

I also have to say right here and now that if I see Tom Wopat walking out of a rehearsal, I am totally going to tell him all about the Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox and footie pajamas that I used to have.

Maybe I Don’t Hate Boomers

I’ve been telling people that the boomers have really screwed all us young people with this recession. A couple years ago, when everyone was rich on paper, baby boomers were all about early retirement so they could go kayaking in Alaska, enjoy their grandchildren and take Viagra, not necessarily in that order. That was going to open up their jobs for 40 year olds and then us 30 year olds would move up accordingly. But now the Great 401killer has those same boomers talking about not retiring for ten years, creating this huge logjam of pent up demand for promotions for smart, young economic policy analysts (and others).

But, interestingly enough, that hasn’t stopped a pretty significant leadership transition in our region/state. In the last few months, the economic development community has seen leadership transitions at the state “Department of Commerce,” the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Foundation, just to name a few*. These are all pretty sweet gigs, and they create new opportunities not only for people to move up but also for a significant change in vision and leadership of our region. Of course, with a huge recession and a new presidential administration, the appetite for new vision couldn’t be bigger.

So, how do we coordinate all these new leaders, and make sure that they’re building on each other’s fresh start to create a comprehensive vision for our region’s economic recovery and prosperity? I actually think it would be fascinating to get some of these folks together in the same room and have that conversation. Who knows what might come of it?

I’ll put that on my list of things to do…

*Yes, I’m including arts and philanthropy as part of the economic development community. These are major institutions that shape our region’s quality of life and economic competitiveness!

Dance Together or Sing Alone?

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of New York’s Lincoln Center, and the New York Times had an interesting article on the pros and cons of grouping arts organizations together.

Nothing can be more energizing to the cultural life of a city than dynamic performing arts institutions. But the danger in grouping them together is that the creative identities of individual institutions — a bold modern dance company, a great symphony orchestra — can blur behind the walls of an officious encampment. The promise of arts organizations working in sync can become a daily grind of competing boards and directors stifled by bureaucracy.

Of course, my immediate thought was to reflect on our own Lincoln Center: the Seattle Center.  It’s a very similar place in many ways, with a large public gathering space, a number of prestigious performing arts organizations and a vibrant home for festivals, events and other gatherings.  And we’re planning our giant makeover, just like them.  In some ways, ours is more dynamic, with Teatro Zinzanni and On the Boards expanding the boundaries of the Center past the simple geography. Yet, the Seattle Center certainly doesn’t have the geographical/transportation advantages to easily attract audiences like the Lincoln Center: “Once Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) opened in 1962, it was possible for a music lover to drive in from the suburbs, park, have a little meal, attend a performance and return home without setting foot on a New York sidewalk.” Have you driven on Mercer Street?

Traffic aside, is co-location affecting our organizations negatively? Are we seeing disconnect from local neighborhoods & communities, and a disincentive toward innovation because of the size and scope of the facilities themselves. And where are the big collaborations, taking advantage of the juxtaposition? The 50th anniversary of the Seattle Center is just three years away. It will be interesting to watch and see how that event in 2012 learns from what the Lincoln Center does today.

Insert American Auto Industry Joke Here

With all the negative economic news these days, it’s exciting to see that someone is actually moving forward with financing and beginning construction on a major new project…especially one that has major tourism attraction potential.

According to their own estimates, the LeMay Automobile Museum in Tacoma is shooting for 500,000 visitors per year. To put that in context, it’s about the same as the Museum of Flight gets.

Stand By Me World

With the world wide financial crisis still wreaking havoc and with many around the world wanting to turn inwards, this video couldn’t be more timely.

More on CAF

Lots of great input in the news these days!

Hello from Abu Dhabi

Not much time to talk – in a presentation on clean tech and the Masdar City project – but wanted to check in from the Chamber’s UAE study mission. In Abu Dhabi now, and it’s not only absolutely fabulous but also so relevant. There are so many Puget Sound/UAE connections already (Boeing, Microsoft, UW, etc.) and so many similarities in terms of their economic development strategy. Their Economic Vision 2030 is a lot like the Prosperity Partnership’s Regional Economic Strategy, not only in terms of the fact that it’s a cluster based/foundation supported strategy, but the specific focuses: clean tech, tourism, aerospace, education, arts and culture…they’re shifting from a resource based economy to a knowledge economy. Of course, they have almost unlimited funds and limited public process to get it done…