Citiwire.net -- 6/4 -- Neal Peirce and Beth Siegel

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Date: June 4th 2009

“Welcome to Citiwire.net! My look at California’s fiscal imbroglio leads to a faint ray of hope — possibility of a constitutional convention and revoking the poisonous Proposition 13 requirement of two thirds votes to raise taxes. A practice “profoundly undemocratic”? — it’s true! … The other column for the week is by our Citistates Associate Beth Siegel, who’s done extensive work through her consulting group Mt. Auburn Associates on the issue of arts and culture for cities, regions and states. Beth suggests what the recession may (and may not) be doing to culture and the arts in our communities. ” -- Neal Peirce

California’s Agony Can’t Be Ignored

By Neal Peirce

For Release Sunday, June 7, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group

Everyone knows public finances in California, America’s once-fabled Golden State of opportunity, are in shambles.

But should the rest of us care?

The state’s ever-rising deficit has hit $24.3 billion as the legislature’s liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans remain in constant deadlock. Voters in May overwhelmingly rejected five “budget reform” ballot measures.

Even before the showdown at the polls, the crisis had forced Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to demand budget cuts topping $15 billion by slashing school aid, cutting the state’s medical care assistance program and laying off 5,000 state workers.

Is the Creative Economy Still Relevant?

By Beth Siegel

For Release Thursday, June 4, 2009
Citiwire.net

There’s more to the arts that their intrinsic value. The universe of drama, concerts, painting and sculpture also spells economic activity. And there’s something we’ve been calling a “creative economy” — the idea that beyond the intrinsic worth of arts, the culture and creativity they generate, there’s clear dollar and cents benefit for a community. And it’s not just tourism, inspiring learning among youth, drawing talented people to a city, even helping accelerate innovation in other industries.

Check the last months’ news, however, and you find the arts are struggling for economic oxygen. Every field from architecture to graphic design seems hard hit in this hard recession.

So what’s to be done — should we “forget” focus on the creative economy for the moment, or alternatively, forge strategies to support arts, develop creative enterprises more than ever?

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Our mission... to reflect a new American narrative. From a 20th century of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: resurgence in our cities, but fast-rising energy costs, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. The weekly release includes Neal Peirce’s column for the Washington Post Writers Group, as well as a guest column by one of the seasoned urban professionals in the Citistates Group.

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Welcome to Citiwire.net! It's about America's cities today -- opportunities, challenges, including Neal Peirce's weekly column for the Washington Post Writers Group and a parallel commentary by one of his valued Citistates Group colleagues.