All Points Bulletins

CENTRAL POLICE FACILITY (Mar 15, 04)

THE COMMUNITY ENTRANCE PLAN (Nov 12, 03)

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On November 12, 2003 I sent the following e-mail to Councilmembers Lewis and Atkins. The Central Police Facility (the SWAT-K9-Pistol Range) is in CD-4, and Ms. Atkins has supported the Police and the Community on the CPF matter as it made its way up to City Council. The issue remaining is the design of the community entrance at Home/Federal, including a public art commission.
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THE E-MAIL
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Dear Mr. Lewis and Ms. Atkins,

You recall that when the Council approved the Central Police Facility, we recommended a focus group of neighbors be convened to decide how the entrance to City Heights, where Federal Boulevard meets Home Avenue, would look. We believe the focus group will be convened shortly under the coordination of Darren Greenhalgh of Engineering and Capital Projects. Until the focus group completes its work no one can know what the entrance looks like or how it will be arranged or what specific features it will have.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Arts and Culture commission staff
intends to convene a committee and choose an artist before the focus group even comes together. Moreover, the A&C commission staff are handpicking nine of the 13 members of the artist selection committee, leaving four votes to the community. You should understand that the A&C commission staff intends to cut the community out of effective decision making, giving the commission staff and the Commission actual control over what art goes into the entrance.

The A&C Commission tactic is to allow a handpicked artist selection committee choose an artist, have the artist make perfunctory contact with someone (yet unknown) in the community, let the artist decide what will be created, get Commission approval for the artist's choice, then install the work whether the neighborhoods or the community approve of it or not. I hope
you agree that such a system is unacceptable in City Heights.

A better system is first to allow the focus group to do its work. After the layout of the entrance is decided by the focus group, an artist selection panel which has a majority of community members should be convened. The chosen artist should then seek the advice of the neighbors and the larger community about what to create and how to fit it into the overall entrance. Finally, the neighbors and the community at large should have veto control over what is finally chosen. We should not have to suffer something ugly or inappropriate or ill-fitting from the A&C Commission procedure, when this better procedure is available.

I hope each of you will speak to Ms. Hamilton of the A&C Commission to assure that her staff accords neighborhood and community preferences and desires THE controlling role in this art project. Giving the art decisions to the artist or, worse, to the Commission is a recipe for more ugly public art. There is already enough ugly public art in San Diego. You might have to move quickly, to head off the selection panel being assembled by the commmission staff.

Sincerely,

Jim Varnadore
City Heights

THE STATUS (Mar 15, 04)

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The focus group is meeting occasionally with City Staff to decide the final details of the engineering and construction. In fact, the meeting about the landscape plan is set for 11:30AM, March 24 at the Mid-City Police place.
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The community entrance design and construction issues have not been decided yet, but despite that, the Commission for Arts and Culture is proceeding full speed. There was a meeting a year ago to choose an artist, and Ms. Kim Emerson was picked. She will be introduced to the neighbors and the larger community at the regular meeting of the Fairmount Park NA at 6:30PM March 18, 2004 at the First Church of the Brethren, 3850 Westgate Place in Fairmount Park.
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Everyone should attend, to see what Ms. Emerson's work looks like and help her decide what to do at the Central Police Facility. Ms. Emerson has indicated that she would like to know the history and character of the surrounding neighborhood, the significance of the Police Pistol Range which forms the centerpiece of the Central Police Facility, the identities of notable local residents, what the neighborhood is best known for, what prominent images and landmarks there are, what legends or other anecdotes exist about area or the Facility itself. If you would like to participate in the decisions about the artwork at the Central Police Facility, you should attend on March 18. There will be other meetings, I'm sure, so stay tuned.
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We should be quietly pleased but not smug about this process. The Commission for Arts and Culture hates the very idea that anyone other than itself might even participate in choosing a work of public art. The notion that a poor community could actually make the decision, ignoring the Commission and its staff, gives them a bad case of nerves. Be quietly pleased but not smug.
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