Cultural Commission Essential to City

Irvine is no exception this year in facing a budget shortfall. Understandably, if regrettably, the city manager has proposed a 15% reduction in expenses and a 20% reduction in staff for Irvine’s Cultural Affairs Commission.

Although such significant cuts will certainly curtail arts initiatives, those of us concerned about the arts in Irvine believe that the important advances the Cultural Affairs Commission has already made can yet be kept alive within the city manager’s reductions. But Irvine’s Finance Commission is now recommending the elimination of the Cultural Affairs Commission, its staff and its programs.

In Irvine, we take pride in the efforts our city has made to foster the many dimensions of civic activity, including broad participation in the arts, that together transform a blueprint for housing and business districts into the human mosaic of a city worth living in. Now, as Irvine becomes home to an ever more diversified mix of people, we must continue to look ahead with clearsighted confidence rather than succumb to myopic retrenchments. I urge all Irvine residents to contact members of the City Council immediately in support of the Cultural Affairs Commission.

ROBERT J. FAUTEUX, Member, Multicultural Task Force, Irvine