When ‘Pride of Ownership’ Carries Far Too High a Cost

Regarding your article about the proposed merger between the Pacific Symphony and the Orange County Philharmonic Society (“Merger Talks Worry Some Arts Advocates” by Randy Lewis, Oct. 23):

Immediate past OCPS board president Ed Halvajian posed “the age-old question. . . . Do you buy your own home or do you rent?”

What if the choice is between buying a two-bedroom house in Costa Mesa (the Pacific Symphony) or renting an oceanfront five-bedroom house in Irvine Cove (the Chicago Symphony, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Cleveland Orchestra)?

Waking up to the fact that the Costa Mesa house is far more expensive--the budget of the Pacific Symphony is double that of the OCPS, and its deficit nearly four times greater!--there comes a point where considerations of quality of life, and listening, outweigh any misguided Calvinist notions about building “something of our own” and simply deem the spiritual/artistic cost of “pride of ownership” far too high.

BENJAMIN EPSTEIN

Costa Mesa

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