What cities need: More festivals, fewer stadiums and museums

[LuckyTheDog]

By Jonathan Wynn

Last year the Institute of Museum and Library Services offered a catchy statistic: the United States has more museums than all the Starbucks and McDonald’s combined.

It’s easy to understand why cities will leap at the opportunity to invest in new structures: “Starchitect”-designed buildings, from the Santiago Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum to Brooklyn’s undulating Barclays Center, could add an iconic image to the cityscape and garner positive media buzz.

However, such massive public investments in permanent structures (what I’ve dubbed “concrete culture”) are bad deals and bad policy for urban economic development. Once the hoopla fades, cities can be saddled with millions in debt and mixed results. Take, for example, Charlotte’s NASCAR museum. Built in 2010 at a cost of US$160 million, the facility has not met attendance projections and, according to the Charlotte Observer, is losing $1 million a year.

Given the economic costs and risks, why do museums, stadiums and other “concrete culture” receive such a privileged place in urban development? After spending the past 10 years conducting research on the topic, I’ve found that this privilege should end; as an alternative, cities should champion music festivals as a cheaper, adaptable way to bolster urban communities.

MORE HERE: http://yonside.com/more-festivals-fewer-stadiums-and-museums2/

[ghostsinthemachine]

1. Festival's rock

The cities should build permanent festival grounds, with different features every weekend.

[GummyBearz]

2. Please no

As a downtown resident it can get very annoying when the road leading into my building's garage is closed every 3rd weekend, holding my car hostage for the majority of the day. Having the roads closed every weekend would be unacceptable

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. Well like everything like that

You would have to build them outside of downtown's or where there are already facilities used for that kind of thing.

[LuckyTheDog]

4. Detroit used to have that

Detroit used to host the Michigan State Fairgrounds. But it was too far from downtown and too tempting for developers, so it's gone. It didn't help that the folks who used to host the Michigan State Fair had been losing money for years.

Hart Plaza and Chene Park on the riverfront host a lot of events -- some of them really great. But parking is a bitch and the mass transit sucks.

[alarimer]

5. Yay to libraries and museum and no to noisy, smelly, crowded festivals.

Museums and libraries are QUIET generally. People in large crowds give me hives. They stink, they're too loud, they're pushy and just fucking annoying when streets get closed off or whatever.

[Iggo]

12. People are noisy and smelly, and I like it that way.

But I remember when I didn't like it that way, and so I'm not gonna give you shit over it.

I'm also a huge metalhead. So my festivals tend to be well away from downtown...lol.

(OzzFest is back, baby. Yeah!)

[Bonx]

14. Boo to morgue-like indoor snoozers. Yay to vibrant outdoor festivities.

[PasadenaTrudy]

15. +1 n/t

[csziggy]

18. Museums should participate in the festivals!

The local galleries and museums are part of the local "Art in the Park" festival every year. They feature local artists and craftspeople who can show and sell their art to a large audience.

The local science museum has science oriented public gatherings in the open area in front and on top of it.

A local history museum has folk festivals that invites local musicians and artists to contribute to the festivities.

Just a couple of weekends ago I attended a textile and fiber festival at a local plantation that has been put into a preservation foundation. The foundation encourages fiber arts and has events for k-12 children to come to the plantation, see sheep and llamas being sheared, learn about fiber arts and about farming. They also work with the Farm Bureau to teach nutrition and cooking with an emphasis on vegan dishes.

Our library, the main one and the various branches, have events on a regular basis - reading to younger children, Lego competitions, meetings for all sorts of groups, and many things that are not thought of as "library" type activities.

Museums, libraries and other organizations should reach out to their communities to become involved in the local activities. They shouldn't sit in their quiet, isolated grandeur and expect the communities to finance and support them. They should be a part of their communities and offer new perspectives and opportunities to the people who would then clamor to keep them.

[Katashi_itto]

6. Festivals are good. Here in New Orleans we have two or three every weekend.

But we drip culture.

I can go to the French Quarter eat world class cuisine and listen to rivers of jazz.

The Quarter is one rolling, glorious, neon lit nonstop party in and of itself.

I think other cities could use more festivals, ethnic ones, all sorts of stuff.

Last week we had dragon boat races over in Mandeville.

[WhiteTara]

7. You might want to reread your post

you seem to have lost a word or something, creating a word salad. We know how much you hate that.

[Katashi_itto]

8. Woot! Strained some brain cells with that remark, did we?

There all fixsy. Is my poppet feeling better now?

[The2ndWheel]

9. Look at the Pyramids

We like standing structures that say and remind everyone in the future that we were here. Festivals that come and go, it's too much like life and death. There one minute, gone the next.

[Katashi_itto]

17. Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”


-Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822

[NightWatcher]

10. Cities need aquariums, children's museums, indoor concert venues, casual dining, and not festivals

Families and field trips are better than random music festivals that often are drastically underinsured and leave town with a mess and bother residents with late night throbbing base. Indoor venues are safer and easier to control and regulate.

Jacksonville has horrible festivals. Two weeks ago it was headlined by Rob Zombie playing till midnight. Last week it was Funk Fest. I live more than three miles as the crow flies from this outdoor "venue" (dirt parking lot for football stadium) and the noise was bothering residents and was also in violation of local noise ordinances.

[lagomorph777]

11. Music festivals can be fun, but do not have any significant educational potential

though I would have to agree, neither would a "NASCAR Museum"

Stadia are a well-known corporate welfare gigantic taxpayer ripoff.

I love good museums - but I'm spoiled, living in a city with numerous world-class one of a kind museums.

[FLPanhandle]

13. How very republican in thinking

Those museums and libraries need to turn a profit damn it!

I guess the Library of Alexandria didn't make their attendance projections...

[LuckyTheDog]

16. They don'y have to "turn a profit"

But, as an economic development strategy, festivals provide more bang for the public buck spent.

[FLPanhandle]

20. Great.

Libraries and Museums don't return enough $$$ on investment so shutter them.

Sad way to look at it.

[Odin2005]

19. What a load of crap.

I like my museums, thanks.

Festivals are mainly upper-middle class kids acting like wild animals and leaving tons of garbage.