At a poetry reading, livewords, city politics broke out in the breaks. Question: Does Rob Ford just understand pennies or does he have a grasp on dollars? For instance, does he have any sense (one doubts) or can he come to understand (one hopes) the importance of funding the arts and key cultural festivals?
He seems not to understand that funding Pride, for example, brings the city a healthy profit. Neither does he seem to grasp the returns we all get from investment in the arts.
It will be important to find ways to make the case to the this council in a way that will reach the Mayor’s office and not simply be a tool to empower a left of centre opposition. The cultural vitality of the city is too important to let it be an orphan concern for the next four years. It’s also too important to be argued for in purist terms: those who care, who get this proposition, must be bold enough to make cogent arguments in a language that the current power will understand: revenue and jobs.
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