So we know that Regal is closing the six-plex where they tend to show art and foreign films. As I mentioned yesterday, this is consistent with their past behavior.
I'm somewhat sympathetic, in that when Linda was working there, it was clear the public really didn't support these efforts very well. Then again, it always seemed like an afterthought for Regal, and they didn't do much to support them.
There is another, persistent and consistent rumor I've been hearing for a long time, which I'm bursting to talk about, but which because of the rules of this blog (try not to publish "rumors") I have to hold off.
But if it happens, (we'll know one way or the other in October -- one way or the other, I'll either admit I was wrong, or we'll all know it) it's going to hit this town like an earthquake.
But if it happens, you can be sure I'm going to make a Very Big Deal out of the "culture and arts" myths in Bend. We like to believe we're big supporters of the arts around here, which I think is only true for "events" but not so much in the everyday sense.
In other words, we haven't had a really great history of supporting the arts, despite all the talk, in my opinion.
The arts that have hung around are always limping. Supported by other means, usually.
We want everything a big city has, but we don't really want to do the work, the daily support, and pay the price.
Ultimately, I think it comes back to the fact that the Bend area has between 150K to 200K people, which SOUNDS like enough to support the arts, but in fact isn't because we just don't really ever get any synergistic energy going.
Because we are isolated, without the infrastructure of a true university, and supported mostly by retirement and tourist industries.
As H.Bruce mentioned yesterday,
"Despite its pretensions to be some kind of highbrow culture mecca, Bend is, always has been and probably always will be a middle-brow and lowbrow town. That's why theaters showing "art" films have never lasted long here.
New York it ain't. Hell, it ain't even Boulder."
I'm not blaming anyone here. I don't think it a lack of quality citizens, or anything like that. I think it is the isolation factor.
There are no towns in Oregon, for instance, that have our situation. Towns in the valley that are similar in size, or even slightly smaller than Bend, have some major advantages over us. From Ashland to Medford to Eugene to Salem to Albany to Corvallis to Portland -- all these towns are interconnected in ways that Bend isn't to anyone else. Colleges, interstates, major industry, proximity. All have synergistic effects, which amp up the possibilities.
In Bend, we have big plans, big ambitions. But often they fall on one person's shoulders, or a very small group that over time loses its cohesion.
We don't have any extra, so to speak. We may have enough to get something started, to keep it going for awhile, but we don't have any surplus energies to fall back on.
No one's fault. Indeed, it's impressive we have as much art as we do -- because of our tourist seasons, they are at least viable part of the year. We seem to attract people who want these things to happen, which is great.
But we also shouldn't be surprised when they don't quite hold up over time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
The reason I talk this way, is that I feel like I've had some experience with these realities.
It took me a long time, but eventually I realized that I had hit some kind of glass ceiling when it came to comic sales. That is, increasing stock, or advertising, or discounts or anything else couldn't budge the needle very much.
More alarming, though, was the glass ceiling was lower than it should have been, considering the size of the town. (Industry averages and other's experiences...)
So I started looking for reasons. (Besides my own incompetence, of course, which I suppose is possible except that so many years have passed that that should have evened out, somehow.)
Anyway, I looked at demographics, and yeah, they weren't in my favor -- retirees and spandex wearers aren't known for reading comics.
But that still didn't explain it all.
I think you not only need a base population, but also synergistic outliers. And we have little or none.
In fact, we are a rather extraordinary town in how isolated but central we are.
From what I've read, we are the biggest metro area the farthest away from any interstate in the country -- our airport is in another town -- our outlying towns are dinky.
No college, not really, even now more or less a glorified community college. No major intellectual industry (yes, we have some small tech startups, but who doesn't?).
Tourism allows for stores that couldn't exist otherwise. But it's a tough go, and only those who accommodate themselves to local clients as well as tourists survive in the long run. (I'm always amazed by the joints that think they can ignore the locals.) Only those who understand the tourist seasons survive.
If you can imagine a base line of 10, Bend hovers at or around 8 or 9 or 10 in lots of things, but we'd be better off if that needle could go to 12 or 13 or 14, and survive at 10. If that makes any sense.
By this way, I haven't said this in awhile and it goes without saying -- but I'm totally open to people disagreeing with what I'm saying. I have my perspective on Bend, but it's somewhat limited to my own little downtown world, if that. The rest is mostly theory, which feels right to me.
By the way, my solution to the glass ceiling was to bring in cards, then toys, then books, then games, and so on.
This town has a history of supporting one gamestore at a time, which usually doesn't quite make it. One or two bookstores at a time, which usually don't quite make it. Ditto cards and toys.
Why not combine them -- try to do 80% of each subject, and not depend on one thing?
It's difficult and expensive and space/time consuming, but I don't have the luxury of being pure.
And I keep talking about synergistic effects --well, books and graphic novels and toys and cards and so on, they are totally synergistic in a pop culture sense.
You put into cohesive, intelligent words what SO many of us think. Thank you for that!! I've lived in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Atlanta, Orlando, Washington DC ~ large cities to be sure .. if Bend had a tiny fraction of their 'synergistic outlier' support, things would change. I embrace everything Bend has to offer ... from concerts at the Old Mill to Tower Theater events to community theater to local artists. And feel blessed to have what exists ... (the 6-screen Regal my favorite place for movies)
Mrs Elliott and I will miss the Regal Pilot Butte, it being the only place in town that reliably shows movies for grown-ups.
Re the possible upcoming big-box shutdown: if it's Costco, that would hardly be earth-shattering to me as I seldom shop there. It won't be WalMart, they're bottom-feeders and like cockroaches, nothing can kill 'em. Home Depot? Got Lowe's. Harbor Freight -- now that might be a problem for me.
"I don't think it a lack of quality citizens, or anything like that."
The quality of the citizens is fine, as far as being good, decent, upstanding people goes. But the local culture isn't oriented toward the arts or intellectual pursuits. What it IS oriented to is sports. Ashton Eaton -- whom I admire greatly, BTW, and I'm tickled pink that he won the Olympic gold medal -- got enormous local press coverage and will be honored with a parade and maybe a monument. And let it be understood that I think he fully deserves the recognition. But do you imagine for an instant that he would have gotten that much recognition if, say, he won the Nobel Prize for literature or became the world chess champion?
"We like to believe we're big supporters of the arts around here, which I think is only true for "events"
Even the "events" have a hard time sustaining themselves, viz. the extinction of the Cascade Festival of Music and the struggles of the Bend Film Festival.
Tower theater. Again.
Best Buy
and the Tower Theatre downtown.
nope and nope
I want it to be Sears. Those guys suck.
If Duncan has gotten the big box store from an insider than I would suspect it to be a book store big box, Barnes and Noble.
As far as the arts goes the only thing I can think of that would have the impact Duncan is hinting at would be the Les Schwab amphitheater or based upon the October date the end of the Bend Film Festival.
LSA is having had a great year from our experience. We attended almost all of the free summer concert series and found the largest crowds to date by far. Summer concert series is also doing the best business in years - consistent paid attendance in the 4000-6000 range.
Duncan, You classified your rumor as "arts and culture" that would shock people. This leaves the high desert museum as an option. Last time I heard they were doing well but maybe grant money has been hard to capture in the past few years.
Your said: "The arts that have hung around are always limping. Supported by other means, usually."
So true. Visitors and newcomers and the bump the visual arts received from the building boom.
Look at lahaina gallery ... Closed their Bend location after 10 years of which only 2003-2008 where likely good strong years. Can you imagine how much their rent was and then a % of net to the Old Mill?
You said: "Because we are isolated, without the infrastructure of a true university, and supported mostly by retirement and tourist industries."
So very true. Look at other communities and how a 4 year school has shaped and influenced the community they are located in. Where do you think Ashland would be with out the university? How about Chico California and the list goes on and on.
You said: "In Bend, we have big plans, big ambitions. But often they fall on one person's shoulders, or a very small group that over time loses its cohesion."
I would agree with exception to Bill Smith Properties and the Old Mill. And no I don't think that the Les Schwab Amp is closing anytime soon. Maybe restructured or the selection of performances tweaked.
How often do people say they love the arts in Central Oregon but when you press them for tangible support you will likely find their contribution to support the arts is drinking free wine at First Friday. When did they attend a theater show, buy a ticket to a play, support a local artist at an opening, pay a cover charge vs free shows at LSA? The arts have historically been supported by the few and Central Oregon, due to it's population base, needs a lot more of the FEW to have it supported at the level we saw from 2002-2010.
I've always believed High Desert Museum probably needed to be supported by charitable contributions.
LST? From the outside they look successful, and I believe they've been basically supported by the Old Mill for reasons beyond the concerts themselves.
Again, I have no inside knowledge of either place.
yeah, the gallery.
I watched a lot of high end businesses come and go Before the big boom. It has always been my guess that many of the high end businesses were going to find it much more difficult After the bust.
Post a Comment