Why I’m Not Saluting
By Carol Jean Delmar
Eli Broad
A few hours after I filed my last post, I read Tim Rutten’s op-ed in the LA Times, and he made it appear that Eli Broad’s museum in downtown LA is just about a done deal, or at least he’d like it to be. His piece definitely aimed to encourage the powers that be to secure the museum for downtown LA, which probably pleased Broad.
Yet both Beverly Hills and Santa Monica have been under consideration. Beverly Hills has officially concluded discussions with Broad. But according to a press release dated April 15, City Manager Jeff Kolin said that “should alternate sites not come to fruition,” the city remains “open to further partnership discussions.”
City of Santa Monica spokesperson Kate Vernez confirmed that “Santa Monica is still definitely being considered for the Broad museum” and “the decision will be made in the spring.”
Just as Ring Festival LA has been pushed through as part of the downtown political enterprise I described in my previous post, with a little help from the LA Times, the LA Times is also promoting the Broad museum for Bunker Hill.
After Rutten listed a number of Broad’s accomplishments as a patron of the arts, he wrote: “None of this is a secret, and penalizing him for the breadth of his civic engagement is, at this point, worse-than small-minded.”
Well, I guess I’m small-minded because Broad’s actions are hardly altruistic.
First, if Broad is really interested in “civic engagement,” I recommend that he secure a job in public service. About the only “civic engagement” I see from Broad is Broad writing a check.
I do not fault him for spreading his wealth around. At least he comes up with the goods which he has acquired righteously unlike Alberto Vilar. But as I mentioned in my previous post, his contributions come with ropes, and everyone in LA is bowing down to Allah because whatever Eli wants, Eli gets.
LA Opera wanted to perform the “Ring.” Broad enabled it to happen. LA Opera wanted a Wagner festival. Broad enabled it to happen, all the while knowing that it would be honoring a man who advocated racism and genocide and whose family members were Nazis. “It’ll be good for the city,” he was no doubt saying. “Great way to promote my museum.”
For Zev Yaroslavsky, it is a win-win situation no matter where the museum lands. His supervisorial district includes the cities of Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. But he no doubt aims to please Broad.
So Broad and Yaroslavsky have enabled Ring Festival LA to move forward in their quest to achieve other goals that have nothing to do with opera or Wagner. For them, Wagner’s racist agenda has been an obstacle which they have managed to cover up and overcome so that city and county leaders could envision the larger picture.
So all the elected officials; city and county leaders; educational, religious and arts leaders have gathered around the new King of Bunker Hill, and the LA Times is right there beside them.
They were dead set on a Wagner festival. When LA County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich presented his proposal to balance it, county leaders stood behind Broad’s Siamese twin, Yaroslavsky, and sided with the Wagnerians.
To this day I have no idea why expanding the festival would have been offensive to Wagnerians. Oh, yes – they’re Wagnerians. They do not believe in cultural diversity.
So “Heil Broad.” At least this time one of “our” guys is commanding the forces.
Since Broad has been co-chair of the Grand Avenue project’s board of directors, Rutten pointed out that there might be a conflict of interest. But never mind, Rutten explained, forget all of that. Broad has saved so many other downtown ventures that he’s beyond reproach.
Hmmm. The Grand Avenue Authority – which consists of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and the County of LA – is implementing the project. The Grand Avenue Committee, which is the public and private entity of the project, is assisting the Authority. Its supporters include the city of Los Angeles, LA County, and the Broad Foundation. Broad has been co-chairman of the Committee and has therefore negotiated on both sides of the table. And who’s on the governmental decision-making side? Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina is the Authority’s chairperson, who just happens to have voted in favor of the Wagner fest. How’s that for cronyism?
Rutten wrote in July that the festival would be “an important step toward attracting the sort of arts tourism many believe will be an increasingly crucial part of the city’s economic future.”
Yes, well, look at the city now. If anything, the festival has become an extravagant $32 million monkey on the city’s financially beleaguered back. About the only substantial tourism to come out of the festival is the Opera America conference, but LA Opera could have hosted the conference and brought in the same tourists without it.
Rutten is now talking about tourism again; only this time he is using economist Jack Kyser as his mouthpiece: “Construction of the Broad museum downtown would be a major event for all of LA County, because tourism is our No. 1 industry. Retail, on the other hand, is the most toxic part of the property market because we’ve overbuilt to such an extent there.”
What? There? Where? A parking lot?
On the other hand, Kyser continued: “Cultural tourists who will be attracted in even greater numbers to Grand Avenue if this museum were built, [will] stay longer and spend more than any other tourist.”
I don’t think so, Mr. Kyser. The No. 1 industry in Los Angeles is the motion picture industry. If you want to see real tourism and spending, build a television-movie museum there. The Museum of Contemporary Art couldn’t be bringing that much tourism to LA. Rutten wrote that Broad “bailed it out” recently when it “flirted with financial disaster.” I guess Broad wanted to save it to advance his own venture across the street.
Jon Regardie wrote an amusing piece in the LA Downtown News: a timeline of highlights before, during and after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s State of the City address on April 20. He writes that at 3:58 p.m., “Eli Broad enters, and in the next couple minutes it’s like the nobles who used to line up to pay their respects to French kings. Greuel speaks with him, followed by Garcetti. Then Zine approaches. Then holy cow, Councilman Bill Rosendahl comes over and gives him a hug! Are you allowed to do this? I thought King Eli had that look-but-don’t-touch thing. Can Rosendahl get whacked for this?”
At 4:10: “King Eli sits first.”
Then at 5:25: “Forty minutes after the speech, I see Police Chief Charlie Beck giving a tour of the new LAPD headquarters to Eli Broad. He points out the collection of motorcycles in the lobby of the building. Wow, a personal tour from the chief. It’s good to be the king.”
Please note that Villaraigosa has also endorsed the festival, yet speaks every year at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in the Pan Pacific Park. I fail to understand how he can commemorate the victims of Hitler’s National Socialism one day and celebrate Wagner the next. I guess it’s the Broad thing.
So, yes, I penalize Broad for his “civic engagement” because it isn’t done selflessly. We, the people, have elected our local leaders, but they are not leading – Broad is. His museum will not generate the tax revenue the county originally calculated. Delayed construction with fee deferrals will impact the county as well.
People have told me not to get involved in the politics of the festival – stick to the truths about Wagner, they tell me. Rabbi Harold Schulweis says that he wants everyone to know about Wagner. Well, as long as Broad has a follower like Zev Yaroslavsky who has forgotten his Jewish roots to please another Jew who has also forgotten his, Wagner’s truths cannot be told. When a financier becomes so powerful that the city revolves around him so that all the elected leaders, religious, arts and educational leaders stand in line to kneel before him — then our democratic ideals are being sacrificed. It is normal for art to be the most significant consideration of an opera company, but when LA Opera wanted to use Wagner to celebrate its existence, city and county leaders should have put the brakes on. Broad should have put on the brakes and Yaroslavsky should have put on the brakes.
It is not acceptable to move forward with an event which is diametrically opposed to the democractic ideals that have been imbedded in us since elementary school just because our political leaders are beholden to a despot and want to further their own self-ambitions.
So I have taken it upon myself to speak out because I believe that this festival is toxic; but since it is happening, as Rabbi Schulweis has indeed suggested: We would like everyone to know about Wagner.
