Culver City's Own Culture Clash

Karlo Silbiger

"Principal M, we need to offer more music classes. The kids want to sign up for them, they are an important part of the state curriculum, and it is a great learning opportunity for our students. We want them to be well-rounded, right?

"I'm sorry, Karlo, but this is a college preparatory school and we just can't afford to put music ahead of academics."

This true snippet from a conversation that I had with my principal not too many years ago went running through my head on Monday, January 9th, as I sat patiently listening to our City Council Members discuss whether to fund the Culver City Summer Concert Series in 2012. I have been musically inclined for my entire life, beginning lessons at age 3, going to high school where I could focus on my music curriculum at age 14, taking college level music theory at age 15, and majoring in music while studying with a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 17. Music is what makes my life enjoyable, it is one of the ways that I express myself, and it is one of the primary ways that I understand both the current world that I live in and past events that led us to our current realities. I am trying not to oversell my connection, but it is palpable.

When I had this conversation with my principal, I sat in utter disbelief, not even knowing how to respond to someone who argued that increasing the music curriculum would somehow remove our school from the "college preparatory" designation, even though people (like me) can go to college to major in music! That utter disbelief returned at this particular city council meeting while watching 3 of our council members (Jeff Cooper, Micheal O'Leary, and Andy Weissman) each in succession say, in essence, that the city council cannot afford to pay for the concerts since they needed to focus on funding "core city services." If the arts are not a core service in our society, especially in a community with our storied film history, then that is a damn shame.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the key to prioritizing core city services is to ask about each and every program 3 key questions:
- To what extent is the government legally obligated to provide the service?
- To what extent do the residents expect the service to be provided?
- What are the service's direct and indirect impacts on residents?
You have to give those San Franciscans credit. Rather than cutting whole programs with no real discussion or analysis, the Chronicle recommends that we actually think before we act rashly. To my knowledge, there are very few city services that we are legally obligated to provide. Most municipalities, especially charter cities like ours, have a lot of leeway in the way that we provide services and prioritize our financial obligations. The expectation of services, it would seem to me, would be affected by the length of time that the service has been provided and the number of people who benefit directly by it. The concert series has been in place for decades and attracts thousands of people each week during the summer. It helps the local economy, provides recreation for families and seniors, and makes our community more interesting and livable. The impact is unquestionably positive.

But the same could be said for nearly every city service. Our community would not be the same without parks, police, fire, code enforcement, housing, public works, a senior center, and so much more. How is cultural affairs so different from the rest of the core services listed above? The answer is that it isn’t different, but it is the only one being eliminated by our council. The intelligent way to handle difficult budget cuts is to look through each cost systematically to prioritize funding and see if there are ways to trim unnecessary parts of each program rather than amputate entire segments of society. A small city with no redevelopment funding and an international recession might have to cut some cultural programs. But to cut the entire department with no debate or discussion of alternatives shows a lack of understanding of the nature of our populace.

Actually, there is one more difference between the arts and other city services: the arts contribute greatly to the legacy of our society. People may not remember policing techniques or the new type of trees that were planted at a specific park or when the roads were newly paved, but all of us understand that a society without culture is no society at all. Last month I went to see “The Night Watcher,” an incredible play at the Kirk Douglas Theater detailing the role that all people in society have in helping to raise kids and induct them positively into society. It is moving and inspirational, helping me to grasp the difficult circumstances that befall kids without the safety net of true community. This play was housed on property owned by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency and leased (basically for free) to a theater group. Had our past councils not seen the value of the arts, they may have leased this space to a developer or business and this life-altering message could have been lost to Culver City.

The council is asking individuals within the community to pay for the concert series should we want it continued, which I find insulting. As a music teacher and school board member, I often hear that the arts are “extra-curricular” and should be used to supplement the rest of the educational program. When budgetary times were tough in Culver City 2 years ago, my colleagues had no problem cutting our music program by an unimaginable 25%, much more than any other program district-wide. By asking the community to pay for our artistic experiences, we are treating them as add-ons rather than the core part of life that they really are.

In the words of Craig Johnson from the Center for Dance, “…behind every creative endeavor exists a more profound concept without which a Community shrivels up and dies: the arts remind us of our power to innovate. The act of creation is the essence of our purpose and is essential to our progress as a humanity. Imagine what the world would be like if we just stopped creating…” If our city council has their way, we in Culver City may soon find out just how quickly we shrivel.

Karlo Silbiger is the Co-Editor of the Culver City Progress Blog, the President of the Culver City School Board, and the former President of the Culver City Democratic Club.