I have just come across this project on 100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge. ?These cities will receive support including a Chief Resilience Officer who will coordinate resilience activities. ?I’m not quite sure what this is about but will continue to try to figure it out and report back. ?The global network is a sometimes unlikely conglomeration. ?Have a look for yourself:?http://100resilientcities.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/entry/33-resilient-cities-announced

In Chinese cities where years of wild overdevelopment and disregard for environmental hazards has left people choking – and dying – ?CBS News reports today that in a fit of creativity and perhaps hope there is an app that can erase the smog from your photo. ? It’s possible to see the world as many have never seen it?or smelled it. ?http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinas-air-pollution-locals-seek-creative-solutions-and-gimmicks/

Please join us for this provocative program at Baruch College on April 2, 2014 at 6.30 pm.

April 2

CREATIVITY AND THE CITY: The Arts and Profound Change?

?We cannot be a democracy if the power of imagination is allowed to become a luxury commodity.” *

Great cities big or small are receptive to the best talents wherever they may come from which in turn fosters creativity and innovation. The success of a city is determined not only by its ability to expand opportunity for all its citizens economically but to give them the freedom to imagine the unexpected and the possible.? The arts broaden our vision of the world and open us up to imaginative experiences of the other and ourselves.? Do the arts mattter to a Mayor who is primarily focused on issues of equity?? We will focus this discussion on how the arts, broadly defined, with their potential for critical and creative thinking can support this Mayor in realizing his vision.

Panelists: Fran Kaufman, Curator, Arts Advisor/Kaufman Vardy Projects, Jonathan McCrory, Director of Theatre Art, National Black Theatre, Dan Nuxoll, Program Director, Rooftop Films, Jolle Greenfield, Artistic Director, TENET NYC

Moderated by Linda Lees, PhD, Director, Creative Cities International, LLC

*Kristen Case, University of Maine at Farmington, Chronicle of Higher Education

Please join us for this program at Baruch College, NYC. ?I list here the first two of the three programs. ?I will be moderating the second and CCI is the co-sponsor for all three.

Arts, Artists, and de Blasio?s New York

Co-sponsored by the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and Creative Cities International

Mayor de Blasio ran and won on a platform of a “tale of two cities.” ?His election prompts us to ask what a vision for a more egalitarian society could mean for the arts in our city.

Over three evenings we will take a fresh look at how a progressive administration could – with public support – reshape and revitalize our attitudes and priorities on a wide range of pressing issues for the arts and culture broadly.? What value do we place on ensuring dynamic cultural experiences for all our citizens?

March 19

CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS, ARTISTS, AND PUBLIC POLICY:? The Creative Side of Life

What role should the arts play in our lives?? What role do they play now?? In a city where we trumpet the enormous benefit of the arts to our well-being in many ways – economically, socially, and artisticaly – how do we reflect that in support for them? ? In this evening, we challenge assumptions about how little there is to spend on support for cultural institutions large and small in all five boroughs, their programming for their communities, and how priorities for funding are determined.? Panelists:? Tom Finkelpearl, Director, Queens Museums, Patricia Cruz, Executive Director, Harlem Stage, Jonah Bokaer, Choreographer and Founder, Chez Bushwick.? Moderated by Randall Bourscheidt, President Emeritus, Alliance for the Arts

April 2

CREATIVITY AND THE CITY: The Arts and Profound Change?

?We cannot be a democracy if the power of imagination is allowed to become a luxury commodity.” *

Great cities big or small are receptive to the best talents wherever they may come from which in turn fosters creativity and innovation. The success of a city is determined not only by its ability to expand opportunity for all its citizens economically but to give them the freedom to imagine the unexpected and the possible.? The arts broaden our vision of the world and open us up to imaginative experiences of the other and ourselves.? Do the arts mattter to a Mayor who is primarily focused on issues of equity?? We will focus this discussion on how the arts, broadly defined, with their potential for critical and creative thinking can support this Mayor in realizing his vision.

Panelists: Fran Kaufman, Curator, Arts Advisor/Kaufman Vardy Projects, Jonathan McCrory, Director of Theatre Art, National Black Theatre, Dan Nuxoll, Program Director, Rooftop Films, Jolle Greenfield, Artistic Director, TENET NYC

Moderated by Linda Lees, PhD, Director, Creative Cities International, LLC

*Kristen Case, University of Maine at Farmington, Chronicle of Higher Education

It’s Super Bowl time! ?Okay, I must confess that I am not a football fan. ?I can manage a slight glimmer of enthusiasm for some teams. ?I went to graduate school in Berkeley so I have a fondness for the 49ers. ?I worked for the Obama campaign in ’08 and as a side benefit – besides winning Pennsylvania for him – I follow the Steelers intermittently. ?I can’t muster much energy for the hallucinatory experience of Times Square turned into a theme park for the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. ?What does interest me is how the pedestrianization of Times Square has made it accessible as an honest-to-god plaza. ?People walk through it, shop around it, play on the “red steps” at Duffy Square, take ridiculous photos of themselves in front of anything fixed or moving, and generally have a terrific time. ?Vendors set up wagons that sell overpriced (bad) coffee and hot dogs. ?Nobody cares. ?In face, they love it. ?And after Super Bowl Sunday everything will change?again. ?The tourists and natives alike will inhabit it differently until “the Square” is called upon to perform some other function. ?A wonderful old part of New York turned into its newest asset. ?Ain’t that grand!

Oh, and photos to follow tomorrow.

Mayor-elect de Blasio at his first news conference today, November 6, 2013, and how he translates his opening remarks into Spanish. ?He is evidently fairly fluent in Spanish and fluent in Italian.

That is the question everyone including those who voted for him are going to be asking themselves this morning. ?Last night Bill de Blasio scored the biggest landslide that anyone can remember. ?He was a candidate lost in the mix until he ran an ad featuring his son, Dante, with an afro. ?But New York has not seen a progressive mayor since 1977. ?The common wisdom is that social liberalism must be checked by fiscal conservatism. ?This has been the defense of Bloomberg’s top down management style. ?Can de Blasio shift this in a way that helps eradicate the glaring and dramatic inequalities in the city where the gap between the haves and have nots has expanded at a frightening rate? ?That is why he was elected. ?Let’s hope he has a plan.

In August I attended a conference sponsored by the Creative Cities Group, an amalgam of scholars from the University of Campinas and the University of Madrid. ?Among the participants were political leaders from Sao Paulo and Rio. ?I spoke an activist from Rio about the version of Trump Towers – Trump Towers Rio – being built as part of the “legacy project” for the Rio Olympics in a city with so much work to do on poverty and infrastructure. ?Is this what the future of Rio will look like? ?The Rio mayor has said that this will distinguish Rio by being the first city in Latin America to welcome Trump. ?She shrugged and recited the usual reasons for bad decisions like this, it’s a combination of money and power and in this case an acquiescent media. ?It’s worth having a look at the website for this project where they tout this: ?”the?first project to bear the Trump name in Brazil”, as if with Trump’s history that’s a point of pride. ?http://www.trumptowersrio.com/about/

David Byrne has written a worthy piece on the state of New York City (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/new-york-1percent-stifles-creative-talent). ?This is a topic of constant conversation among New Yorkers who care about what happens here – and those who vote. ?The current administration and the one before have contributed to the city’s well-being in different ways. ?But both have valued the wealthy over the weak. ?There is little housing left for even the middle class much less the poor. ?The education system is still a mess. ?Mayor Bloomberg will leave us with more pedestrianized streets and better parks but each one of this good works has been a top down decision with little or no public input or approval. ?Most of us have become used to and even embraced smokeless bars but it would have been nice to be asked. ?Like Giuliani, he doesn’t seem to believe in persuasion when he knows he’s right, which is all the time.

Can creatives stay in New York? ?Can anybody who isn’t as Byrne says, the 1%? ?The almost certain next mayor, Bill DeBlasio, has stated that we must not resign ourselves to a city based on inequality. ?Let’s hope in he can find ways to put that thought into practice. ?The future of New York City – and many others – depends on it.

Tonight I saw a screening Captain Phillips, the new Tom Hanks film or Paul Greengrass film, depending on whether you are actor- or director-oriented. ?There was a Q&A following with Hanks, Greengrass, and Barkhad Abdi who were all charming and took the questions seriously no matter how off point or ridiculous. ?After the film, my friend and I were talking about what a difference a good Q&A can make. ?And those are usually the ones where the stars and director talk more allowing less time for crazy questions. ?A good Q&A can open up a film in ways that the audience don’t often have the time or inclination to do on their own. ?That’s what a good reviewer tries to do as well. ?It started me thinking on the flip side of that: ?how important it is to know your audience and the perils when you don’t. ?That in turn gave rise to what is the point of the Vitality Index or any tool that helps politicians, office holders, etc. know the people they are serving. ?That is really the point. ?How can be get at that information and what happens when we don’t. ?Combine this with Paul Krugman’s column in today’s NYT about the Republican bubble and incompetence. ?You get some idea of why Washington doesn’t function. ?Bubble plus incompetence equals nothing good. ?Why did Christine Quinn lose the mayor’s race in New York? ?Somehow she completely misunderstood what the citizens of a city she has been serving for years really wanted in the next mayor. ?It’s hard to believe that if she had tried harder to listen better, she would have heard a different message and that is that they wanted change.

As I continue to think about the best uses of the Vitality Index and what kinds of contributions it can make to better cities, I am convinced – and this also comes from my theatre experience – that it is imperative to know your audience.