funding the arts is good, actually: part two
begging for arts funding and other comments on San Diego's May revise
Once again, I am an employee of an arts institution in Balboa Park, San Diego; the views expressed here are my own as a museum worker, fundraiser, arts patron, and resident of District 9. If one of you gets me in trouble at work for writing an essay, I’m blocking you.
still no arts funding
An April 10th blog from a local architecture firm features a Q&A with Mayor Todd Gloria, where he said the following:
I think this is a renaissance period for art and culture and sport in San Diego. We have built a new football stadium, Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley. We’ve opened [or revitalized] The Conrad, The Joan, The Shell, Jacobs Music Center, Mingei, a new contemporary art museum in La Jolla. All this was done in the last five years, which is extraordinary and really representative of what I think our city’s capable of doing when empowered by its philanthropic and public-side partners.1
Mere days after this interview was posted, he introduced his FY27 proposed budget. If you haven’t been living under a rock in San Diego, you may have heard something about the proposed arts funding cuts—maybe you even read my little essay about it.
Then, after a full week of budget review committee hearings, most of which he declined to attend2, he released the May revise without restoring any arts and culture funding. Not a penny! He even said this when asked why restoration of those funds wasn’t on the table:
ABC 10News reporter Gabe Salazar asked Gloria if there was any chance funding could be restored.
“No, and that’s regrettable. Arts are very important. I have a very long and positive history with our arts community. It pains me greatly to recommend this reduction. But in this environment, where we’re trying to close a nine-digit budget deficit, we have to be very specific and focus on the priorities of San Diegans – and that’s keeping people safe, repairing our roads, housing our homeless, and building more homes that people can afford,“ Gloria said.
So many of us have written about the economic impacts of arts and culture and the moral implications of cutting this funding. There is one point I haven’t yet seen made that I think is worth making:
No city to which we compare ourselves has zero arts funding at a municipal level.
Think about cities with roughly similar populations that we like to compare ourselves to3: Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Jacksonville, Columbus. Every one of those cities dedicates funding for arts and culture, and every one of them is facing the same economic headwinds and deficits faced by San Diego. Many are reducing allocations; some have restricted funding streams guaranteeing the funding—none of those are cutting every cent from their grant programs. Cutting the entire grant program is a choice to fetter the soul of the city until the miracle of “enough” funding is realized.
budget specifics
Budget questions still unanswered that likely (hopefully?) have a great explanation4:
Why does the City do consumer protection? Why not the state?
A 25% increase in workers’ compensation for FY27 is really high. What are we doing to city employees?
What is the plan to lower the payouts from police misconduct? How do you project expenses for future liabilities caused by purportedly well-trained City employees maiming folks?
I have really tried to identify additional savings in this budget, but I bailed out of the business school with merely a minor in accounting and am way out of my depth. However, broadly speaking, here are where I would be okay seeing cuts:
No outside consulting contracts. No consulting engagements! The Chief of Police says he needs a marketing firm in order to recruit better; the golf courses need a consultant to develop a business operations plan; stormwater needs consultant support for levee operations and engineering studies. But, the City employs some well-paid experts as full time staff in departments like Communications, Performance and Analytics, and Engineering & Capital Projects. This seems like an opportunity to find some cost savings.
The City started hassling even more homeless people through a much-touted deal with Caltrans, where the City is able to access the highway and freeway encampments typically managed by the state. A pretty damning report demonstrates the inefficiency of these sweeps, and they aren’t our responsibility anyway, so stop doing them. The budget proposes adding two FTE Code Compliance officers in Environmental Services and increasing overtime in the Police department, all in support of this Caltrans DMA that has not driven meaningful impacts, exceeds the amount that Caltrans will reimburse, and is not within the purview of the City anyway.
You have a police officer recruiting crisis, so as many roles as can possibly be filled by civilians should be filled by civilians. Councilmember Von Wilpert said something to the opposite effect in a BRC hearing last week, and it was really disconcerting: “I don’t think a civilian can ever replace a police officer ever.” To be fair, that was in the context of front desk roles, but I’d imagine it’s easier to recruit for civilian service roles than officers, too, and they make so much less money.
Lots of talk about the reining in of police overtime, which is great for many reasons, not least of which is that first responders should probably be well-rested. Rein it in more!
According to this budget, parking tickets are a core service, public restrooms are not. I would be very curious to see the total cost of parking enforcement (salaries, and fleet maintenance, and court costs, and administrative costs) vs. the actual revenue earned from related fines and fees. I would especially like to see that ratio when it comes to newly-implemented Balboa Park parking rules.
political bravery
I understand that, when you’re on the dais, saying something like “cutting public safety” or “consolidating infrastructure jobs” sounds like such a frightening political taboo as to guarantee the end of your career if you even consider verbalizing those options. But they are options, and choosing not to verbalize them limits our shared conception of what is possible.
Similarly—I am continually perturbed by City leadership’s willingness to refer to the 2024 sales tax failure as a mandate that the City “live within its means.” The sales tax, proposed in the midst of a contentious presidential election year, failed by a minuscule margin. It was a regressive measure presented to voters alongside economic uncertainty and a romantic vision of a 1,000 bed homeless shelter.
Finally—our City Council and Mayor face a difficult comparison on the east coast. Enter New York City: a municipality that entered 2026 with a budget deficit twice the size of the City of San Diego’s entire budget. Yes, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is getting a lot of well-deserved credit for cutting bloat and inefficiencies to fill ~$1.6 billion of that gap, but he also deserves credit for building a relationship with Albany and Governor Hochul. Most of the $12 billion gap was filled by increased revenue directed by New York State, and that would not have happened without his intentional efforts to that end all year. On our end, Governor Newsom reduced some homelessness funding allocations and was met with this tepid response from the Mayor. I understand that the states are drastically different, that NYC’s contribution to the state GDP is significantly higher than San Diego’s contribution to California’s GDP, that Mamdani’s fixes rely on some short-term fixes and one-time cash infusions. And yet, the comparison will persist.
I’ve seen Facebook comments from a lot of smug Republicans trying to say this is an impact of “one-party rule in California,” with the implication that we should instead vote for Republicans, famously in favor of both government spending and creative expression. I promise you—the pendulum is not swinging to the right on this one. It’s swinging left.5
It feels very much like we’re being told to throw up our hands and accept that the needs of the people do not actually drive the fiscal priorities of the community. It is a major bummer, and it feels like I’m shouting into the void. sos
These accomplishments are undeniable, but the City provided very little support to any of those projects, all of which were being conceived of well prior to five years ago.
Where is the mayor? Seriously - where is the mayor? Why would he not be in these hearings? Why would he not even pretend to listen to the hundreds of people who came out in the middle of the work day to express what they need from their city?
This is how I’m justifying ignoring Forth Worth.
These don’t sound sincere but they are and I would gladly take real answers!
DINOs, cut arts funding at your electoral peril.