Episode 5: Casemaking for Collaboration Building Better Bridges - Transcription

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Case making for Collaboration: “Building Better Bridges in the Arts Economy”

Tracy Hudak: [00:00:00] Some of us recognize that cultural planning can often happen in a really siloed place. So starting with the fundamentals of land use planning and economic development planning and making sure that cultural planning is integrated into some of these can help cultivate the political will and the accountability tools necessary to get the leadership and the resources on the civic level to move our projects forward.

Tracy Hudak: All right everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for the conversation case making for collaboration.  my name's Tracy Hueck. I'm the director of Field engagement for California for the Arts. I'm also,   a performance artist and collaborative theater creator, and I've worked at the intersection of arts and community development on projects and planning and all kinds of things for over 20 years.

Tracy Hudak: And I'd love to also,   have my partner introduce herself.

Jackie Melendez: Hello everybody. My name is Jackie Melendez and I'm an economic developer. I've been in the field for [00:01:00] about 20 years.  I wear many hats Today I am wearing several hats. One of them is my city hat. I'm the assistant city manager for the City of Chino.

Jackie Melendez: And, anybody know where Chino's at? All good? Yes. Okay. So IE SoCal up in here. Awesome. And, So one hat that I wear is the city hat. So your city manager, that's the CEO of the city. Um, your assistant city manager of the a CM, we like to say is the number two. That's me.  and so that's one hat I've been in.

Jackie Melendez: Government, local government. Anybody else in local government in here? Awesome. I love it. Yes.  okay, so we all smell like city hall. Yes. So,  20 years in,   local, eco, economic development redevelopment back in the day.  I am a board member for music changing Lives. Any of you know who Music Changing Lives is?

Jackie Melendez: Yes. Couple folks. Yes.  and then also I have my own company,   and that's the Mud Lab, Melendez Urban Design Lab. So I consult.  and I help communities try to figure out some of the things that we're gonna be talking about [00:02:00] in a few minutes.  our goal here is not to tell you how to run your organizations or what is right or wrong for your communities.

Jackie Melendez: Only you know that.  I have a sense and a feeling that a lot of the things that I do on a day-to-day basis in economic development,   a lot of folks.  in the arts, they're not a part of those conversations and part of the reason why,  I just came back from Washington, DC now I'm here in Sacramento, um, having these conversations with folks,   is because we've gotta get into the conversation.

Jackie Melendez: So I'm gonna share a little bit about that.  Tracy's gonna share a little bit about planning. I am a planner by trade.  I have a master's in urban regional planning,  from Cal Poly Pomona. And,  I also have, a  background in,   urban studies and Chicano studies. From Berkeley. So I've been studying cities since I was about eight years old.

Jackie Melendez:  I love cities and, um, and what works in one community may not work in every community, what we hope.  and at the end we'll have a little discussion,   to try to figure out some of the takeaways that you might be able to take back to your communities and also [00:03:00] give you an opportunity to share in the context of the conversation what might be happening,   in your community that we all can learn from.

Tracy Hudak: Great, and if you could get our slides fired up, that'd be great. Thank you so much for your support up there. This workshop really is a, a, came out of an observation that we shared in, in terms of the surf process, the community and economic resilience fund, statewide regional economic development.  projects that were going around and Californians for the arts.

Tracy Hudak: Oh,   California Forward, who was kind of facilitating engagement in that statewide project, really embraced,   making sure the creative economy and artists,   we were included and at the table and,  Californians for the arts and made resources available. We are, we're are, have a working group with California Forward, and what we observed is that.

Tracy Hudak: There, uh, the, the ability of members of the arts community to participate in this process was really uneven. So many of us do the advocacy work, unpaid,   even the work [00:04:00] of art making and placemaking and all the things that you're doing are under resourced.  so sustaining engagement in a multi-year planning, pro planning process, knowing where to step in, how to be in those spaces, all those kind of, all those kind of issues we identified within the community.

Tracy Hudak: In terms of barriers to participating in. Surf and Jackie will probably reference that a little bit more. And so really we're, we're interested in giving just some fundamental tools and starting points,   having,   knowing that you all are the experts also. And,   next slide please. And, um, and, and, and, and giving some tools and insights into how to step in those space spaces.

Tracy Hudak: And for those of you that do that work or have done that work, sharing your insights and strategies as well. And,   we have  a slide swap going on. So just, Jackie's gonna be talking about leveraging the tools of economic development and our contact information will also be shared on the last slide.

Tracy Hudak: Next slide please. And then what we'll be covering, talking about economic development. Um, oh, that's got changed. Uh, no back please. And we'll be talking about economic [00:05:00] development, land use planning. We'll be talking about the, the elements of political will and opening the discussion. We're gonna cover those, some of our introductory concepts within the first half, and really wanting to open the floor to hear from you, your questions, insight strategies, and identify some places to start in the work or to build on it, and whatever's happening in your community.

Tracy Hudak: Because we're in the larger theater and we anticipated a larger group, if you, oh, the QR code. I don't know if everybody can get to it, but it'll be shared later when we open the floor for discussion. But if you don't get a chance to speak and you do have stuff you wanna share, we would love for you to,   drop stuff into that shared Google document so that we get to learn from you.

Tracy Hudak: And that also will help Californians for the arts. Plan its training and resources and identify, um, places for us to further support this work. So I'm gonna turn it all over to Jackie.

Jackie Melendez: I take it away. Thanks. Okay. So I could talk all day long about economic development. Gotcha.  so I'm gonna try to keep it,   short and give you some [00:06:00] tidbits.

Jackie Melendez: Like I said, for those of you who are just walking in,   I'm an economic developer and quite often when I'm in economic development circles, when I'm at economic development conferences or I'm at a chamber event, very  not very often do we see folks. That are part of the arts community in those spaces.

Jackie Melendez: And then when I go and I wear my arts hat, I'm in those spaces. I never see economic developers in my community. There was one guy that I would see in both places,  and he recently passed RIP John Mecado, if you guys know him.  he was an amazing person and amazing connector. And that's really what this is all about.

Jackie Melendez: This is about connecting.  so I'm gonna jump right in and I'm going to ask you before we go to the next slide, I'm gonna ask you.  to think about what is it that you think about when you think economic development, when you hear that, and also any economic developers in the room. Raise your hand. Yes.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. Okay. Okay. Awesome. All right. Any planners? MURPS? Masters of Urban and Regional Planning. Yes. Awesome.  okay. That is like the ugliest,   acronym in [00:07:00] academia, the MURPS. But we need you,   don't go home at five 30, come and help your communities plan and you'll see why. So what are some of the things?

Jackie Melendez: Yell at me. It's okay.  what are some of the things that you think about when you hear economic development? Money jobs. Money. Jobs. Who said jobs? I like you. housing. Okay. Oh, that's controversial. You can get in trouble for that. Prevailing wages. Prevailing wages, yes. Zoning. Workforce development in the back systems, ecosystems.

Jackie Melendez: Oh yeah, we love that word. Budgeting. Say that again? Budgeting. Budgeting. Okay, great. So next slide please. This is the definition from ced, California Association for Local Economic Development. It's the largest professional organization for economic developers in the country with over 900,  folks as members, including myself for a hundred years.

Jackie Melendez: This is their definition, and I'm gonna read it. It's the only thing I'll read from the slides. Okay. Okay. [00:08:00] The creation of wealth from which community benefits are realized, it's more than just a jobs program. It's an investment in growing your economy and enhancing the prosperity and quality of life for residents.

Jackie Melendez: What's, missing from that? Do we like that definition? Community. You, do you see the word community up there? Yeah. Right. Community benefits. What is that? Do we know what that is? Anybody else? Equity. Equity, yes. Who said that? Yay. Right there. Thank you, sir. What's your name? Kev Choice. Ke Soy. Kev Choice.

Jackie Melendez: Kev Choice. I got that wrong. That's right. You got it right. All right, thank you. What else? Yeah. Sustainability. Sustainability. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. What else? Diversity. Diversity, yes. So I bring this up and I problematize this, this ge, this definition,   which is generally accepted,   to problematize this,   distinction between traditional economic [00:09:00] development and inclusive economic development.

Jackie Melendez: So when I first started in economic development and redevelopment in California, back in the day, that was my first job in local government.  everything was about location, location, location. Okay. Then it went to jobs, jobs, jobs. And that meant, okay, hey, these folks want to bring a,   business to the community.

Jackie Melendez: They wanna meet with the mayor. Okay, alright. How many jobs? Oh, 200 jobs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's meet with them. Okay. Then it turned into, hey, these folks wanna meet with the mayor and it's,  they're gonna bring 200 jobs. Now the question is then the question became, well, what kind of jobs. Oh, well, it's gonna be some middle, some mid range, some entry level.

Jackie Melendez: It's a good mix. Or some c-suite. Okay. Yeah, yeah, let's meet with them. And in economic development, we're always asking, well, what's next? What's the next thing? And usually they use some sort of sports metaphor or something.  they love that. It's a, it's just a cultural thing.  and so then the thing that's next is what, what do you guys think?

Guest: Profits,

Jackie Melendez: profits is now? [00:10:00] What's next? Technology. Technology. That's a good one. We've already said it. Tourism. Tourism is a good one. That's part of economic development now. Economy, housing, creative. Yeah. Well, we, that's, that's why we're here. So that can be the case. The next, the next step is inclusion. It's inclusion.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. City hall is woefully, woefully, Ill prepared to deal with inclusion and economic development in a marriage. You all in this room deal with, diversity, equity, inclusion all the time, right? It's like part of the, it's part of the DNA, it's the air that we breathe, not, not so much in some of these other spaces, and definitely not so much in economic development and in those places and those spaces.

Jackie Melendez:  and so that's why we need to sort of come together. So the folks that over here that I heard that said the creative economy, that's what this is about. This is about bridging, and, and learning,   each other's languages so that we can have better [00:11:00] conversations in support and in service of the various communities that we serve.

Jackie Melendez: Next slide please. So, traditional economic development. This is, these are sort of the tricks and the tools of the trade. It is, remember I said location, location, location, jobs, jobs, jobs.  and really it's about land and labor and kind of like all those things that, that that, you know, you sort of traditionally think about when you think about, okay, what's businesses coming?

Jackie Melendez: What development is coming into the community? Are they going to the community knocking on doors and saying, you know, Hey, what do you think? Hey, arts community, what do you think? What would you like to see in your economy? Has anybody ever asked you that question? Yes. Yes. Ooh, I like it. Where in Bakersfield?

Jackie Melendez: In Bakersfield. Okay. Bakersfield's doing some good things. Arts districts. We wanna hear more of that. Yeah. Arts districts  are,   really cool tool. We'll talk a little bit more about that. We're gonna jump into some of the planning,   pieces. Anybody else? Were any of you part of the surf conversation?

Jackie Melendez: How did that go? Fun, [00:12:00] good times.

Guest: There's an hard representative for, um, north Valley. Guys steering committee.

Jackie Melendez: Awesome. I love that. Yeah. The arts, the arts groups, y'all really fought to be in that space and I thought that was a really valiant effort. I helped lead,   the effort   in the Inland Empire region.

Jackie Melendez:  in that space we already had a, um, a, uh, collective impact group called IE Go. Anybody ever heard of that organization? Yay. Good.  so I was the first executive director for that organization and we used the collective impact model to start to move forward inclusive. Um, inclusive,   economic development.

Jackie Melendez: And,  we'll talk a little bit more about that  and share some of that. So these are the things, these are the tricks of the trade and when I turn back my, you can't really hear me as well, so I'm gonna try to make that work.  so business attraction, business retention, expansion, workforce, what I call brew.

Jackie Melendez: I created that term,   in the business best in highest use. Anybody know what that is? Best in highest use? What does that mean? It's gonna be on the quiz. Okay. Best in highest use means I have a piece [00:13:00] of property, I'm a developer and I wanna get the most money out of that property. Okay. Best in highest use doesn't mean what's the best thing for the arts.

Jackie Melendez: It's right in the arts district. It probably should have something to do with the arts. No. What's the best and highest use of that property? Which means what? How much, what can I get out of it? Dinero Yes. Thank you. so real estate development, PPP, that's not the loans that,   folks got.  that's public-private partnerships in, in this world.

Jackie Melendez: Okay, so City Hall wants a, wants something, the community wants something, government goes down and uh, the people say, Hey, we want  this thing. We want a theater in our community. We want,   you know, fill in the blank. What are some of the things that you all want in your community that you don't have right now that's gonna take Big Money?

Jackie Melendez: Art Center. Say it again? Art Center. Art Center. What's your name? Daja. Daja. You're awesome. Thank you. Mixed use spaces, right. Affordable housing for afford affordable housing for artists. That's your friend right there. You all need to, yes. Thank you. Say that again. Work live. Work [00:14:00] live. Yes. Okay. So how many of you are actively having conversations in your communities about some of the, those types of projects we just talked about?

Jackie Melendez: Excellent. That's exactly what we wanna hear. Wonderful. Next slide please. Okay, so the new tools  and tricks. And again,   don't think that just because you believe in dive diversity, equity, inclusion, and you, you know, have all  these wonderful things, jobs, programs that a lot of arts, arts organizations are doing, don't think that because it's important to you.

Jackie Melendez: That it is important in the economic development world. This may be stuff that is vastly, vastly,   just outside of the lexicon for a lot of folks. And that doesn't mean they're bad people, it just means that this isn't their every day, okay? They haven't gone through the trainings that you all have. They haven't sat with community groups the way that you all have.

Jackie Melendez: But here's, here's what's happening,   in, I would say almost every community in California, some more than others.  but there's something that has happened whereby, and especially where I, where I live in the Inland Empire, which is,  40% of all of,   goods and services go through the Inland Empire, through the logistics,   [00:15:00] industry.

Jackie Melendez: So we are feeding the world, we are shipping everything. When Amazon,   or you order something or your friends order something online, it's coming through the Inland Empire. Okay? So, uh, so what happens there in our economy  is very,   interesting.  and what a lot of folks and community groups have gotten together and said, Hey, we don't want any more warehouses next to my schools, next to my houses, next to all of these things.

Jackie Melendez: And so,  there has been a backlash.  and,  in my world, in cities, you don't want your city manager to get fired. You don't want your mayor to get recalled. These are bad things in my world. They may not be bad things in your world, but in, when I'm wearing my city, manager hat, those are bad things.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. People don't wanna get fired or not get reelected. And so those folks are afraid. They are listening and they're saying, Hey, I can't, I can't approve this project because if I approve this project, that's gonna be more trucks and that's gonna be more of my constituents upset with me. So this advocacy work is working and it is changing things, and it is pushing the conversation about inclusive economic [00:16:00] development.

Jackie Melendez:  but we have to stay vigilant.  'cause you win one, uh, you know, one, uh, you know, project. And that doesn't happen. That's one way of doing things saying no to something. But we need to move forward,   and figure out how do we say yes to things. I mentioned redevelopment was my first job.  in local government,   we had tools during the redevelopment days that went away in 2012.

Jackie Melendez:  but we had tools in the redevelopment day where  we would be able to come up with projects and project areas and we would say, okay, what's gonna happen in this area that's been blighted? Which was the word,   that was part of that legislation. So here's an area of town. Think of the area of your town that is blighted.

Jackie Melendez:  needs love, I like to say.  so that area of town that is blighted needs some love and attention. We had a tool to be able to,   to inject into the economy.  I say, and I was there.  so I'd love to, uh, fight with anybody that, uh, tells me different.  and that's that,   redevelopment wasn't very responsive to the community.

Jackie Melendez: So when redevelopment went away and it got,   challenged from the court, [00:17:00] nobody came up to protest to say, no, we need redevelopment. Even though every single day, if you're shopping in some of your communities, probably that. Area that you're shopping in or that district that is really cool and it used to be maybe not so cool.

Jackie Melendez:  or, you know, we're not  where, we can go into the gentrification conversation if we want to.  but really this is about money and tools to revitalize areas that,   that without investment,   you don't have economic development. That is the, that is foundation and base of economic development.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. So, okay, perfect. So these are some of the things  of,   a language that you all, how many of you know human-centered design? Excellent. What about my planner up there? Yeah. She raised her hand, right? Yes. There's so few of us, and especially, you know, folks of color and women,  who are MURPS and urban and regional planners.

Jackie Melendez: We just, we gotta stick together, you know, we just gotta,   okay. So,  co-creation,  You know, diversity, equity, sustainability, all the things that you all said, yes. This is economic development [00:18:00] right now in some places, yeah. But as a whole, if you go to the economic development conferences and the national and the international, they struggle with this stuff.

Jackie Melendez: So we need you, we need you to come and like roll your eyes and be like, come on, this is basic. Like figure this out. Right? But on the other side of it, on the other side is there's things that you all don't know that happens, you know, at lunches, most developments happening at, you know, a lunch, hail, what do you think about that?

Jackie Melendez: Corner on da da da da. Oh yeah, my friend owns it. That's all. That's Colin. And see what his highest best use for that property. That's how economic development, that's the seed of it. Okay. That's most of it. So if you're not in those conversations, have you, any of you ever been in one of those conversations with that, you know, yeah.

Jackie Melendez: Hey, what's, tell me, gimme an, uh, without giving out names and, you know, criminalizing yourself.

Guest 2: Uh, a lot of it's been like

Guest 2: a mix of like public use of land streets that is, uh, a major closed down pandemic became a walking cap. Yeah. And I've had a lot

Jackie Melendez: of conversations with, like business owners about how they use that space.

Jackie Melendez: Yeah. Lots, lots of [00:19:00] complaints about. Yeah, always the parking. Okay, next slide please. Okay, so I just really quickly wanted to show this. I know in this group, I just came back from DC and when I show this, these slides to folks, I have to do a little convincing and conjoling. I don't have to do that. Y'all are my people.

Jackie Melendez: You understand the vital, uh, importance to the arts on all these different multiple layers of this right here. What happened with McDonald's? Agree or disagree, doesn't matter. That's impacting our economy, okay? The robots, they're not only coming, they're here. That's gonna impact our economy. That's already impacting the arts.

Jackie Melendez: So these, these aren't values, they're not, it's not a value judgment either way. I like it. I don't like it. It's just this is happening. Um, and we have to get ready for it. Bernie Sanders, like him, or not, doesn't matter probably. Uh, you know, the, the 32 hour work week, that's gonna be something the business community is gonna come after hard.

Jackie Melendez: That's gonna impact the folks that you serve and artists and all that other stuff. So these are just trends we have to be, um, ready for. How many of you read the [00:20:00] Wall Street Journal business? Yes. Love it. Maybe read a newspaper, right? That's a better question. Next slide, please. Okay, so this is the arts economy.

Jackie Melendez: What just happened  with the Swifties and with the Beyonce,   concerts and all of that. We're looking at Olympic size,  economic impact in these communities. So anybody that tells you like, oh, why is art on the table, then that's how they'll talk, I promise.  so this slide really basically tells, it tells it all in an economic development context.

Jackie Melendez: Like some of your stuff that you do might say, oh, I don't see myself up there, but this, this is how you speak to economic developers right here. Mona Lisa, how many visitors go and see the Mona Lisa every year? Anybody know? 4 million. 4 million? A little higher? Yes. Dasia, how much? 10 million. 10 million. Who said it?

Jackie Melendez: Right there. You're right. 10 million. That's the power of one painting. Now, now I'm an [00:21:00] economic developer, so my brain just goes like, okay, how many dinners was that? Okay, how many,   Uber drives was that? How many,   all these different multiplier effects. That's how we start to look at the economy. And that's how you all have to be looking at, you know, the impacts of the things that you're doing, the artists that you're bringing in.

Jackie Melendez:  so I'm not gonna go too much. The Cheech, just shout out to Cheech, I'm Chicana.  to be, to have the Cheech to be in  the opening gala.  when all that was going down,   you know, our art wasn't even, just, wasn't even looked at as art. We weren't allowed to be in museums. So to have our own museum, if you hear us bragging about this, this is a big deal for us.

Jackie Melendez:  how many of you have been to the Cheech? Yes. If you haven't planned a trip, come down,   spend some of your economic development dollars in the Inland Empire. A All right, next slide. And I'm almost done. I'll turn it back over. Creative economy. I just want,   share this with y'all. And that's that we were at the,   creative economy workshop that Californians for the Arts,   put on.

Jackie Melendez: And this was the workshop they had the, uh, you know,  artist drawing. [00:22:00] And so I just wanted to share this with you so you can see. How multifaceted the creative economy is. If I were talking to purely economic developers, I'd have to explain this slide. Yeah. But I'm not going to explain it to you 'cause you all know.

Jackie Melendez: I just want you to be aware of it. Mm-Hmm. and then finally, next slide, please.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. Next slide I wanna talk about a little bit,  wear a separate my other hat,  with music changing lives. So I've been doing this.  I've been doing some form of this inclusive economic development workshop for five or six years now, going wherever. They'll, they'll let me come and, you know, tell my silly jokes.

Jackie Melendez:  and,  you know, get my cheap laughs and, um, thank you. Gracias. Um, so what ended up happening is I started to work with music, changing lives.  and you can read up about them,   and Josiah's in the back here, you can talk to him.  he has a flyer in his pocket to give you, I promise you.  and so what we, what we were saying is.

Jackie Melendez: You know, it's not enough for me as an economic developer to get up here and talk about all of these things. We really have to be partnering with the organizations that [00:23:00] are putting this into the ground. So music changing lives. These are some of the programs that they have, artist development,   music programs and all those kinds of things.

Jackie Melendez: And that's wonderful and that's great. But what we have to do is,   in this examples, we have to take it to the next level. And that next level really is,   how are we making sure that we're not just creating one gig? Or one more mural project,   or one more, you know, hosting or music. Maybe a small music festival or concerts in the park or something like that.

Jackie Melendez: How do we teach the artist,   how to be thinking about generational wealth? How do we start to,   to impact the economy so that, you know, if we had, we could do one music festival or we can have, we can raise money and collaborate and get that theater art. Center that we want, now we're creating more opportunity.

Jackie Melendez: So we're talking about scale, we're talking about magnitude. So the tho So those things,   those things that you're all doing. They're important and they're necessary, but we've gotta take it to the next level. Music, changing lives,   took a,   I talked about it a little in the last workshop so I won't spend too [00:24:00] much time on it, but took a, the biggest dump site in San Bernardino, in the city of San Bernardino.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. And turned it into a community park and a community garden. Okay. So these are things that are transformative. The city didn't want it. City tried to arrest him because,   they were doing this. And so, so they had to fight and they had to, you know, connect and communicate. And now that's turned into that one garden has turned into going to schools throughout Southern California, Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County.

Jackie Melendez: Riverside County and teaching,   students how to build their own gardens, teaching students how to create art and,   and beautification and revitalization projects. So an economic developer, and, you know, a, a former artist,   or, you know, uh, music,   industry,   you know, person, I'll let him tell you his story.

Jackie Melendez: But us coming together and really figuring out like, how do we do this differently? How do we make it so that 10 years from now we're not having the same conversation, that we're actually impacting people's lives,   and we're impacting our economy. So with that, I'm gonna turn it back over. Next slide though, please.

Jackie Melendez: Before, 'cause that you, I have one more. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about tips for an [00:25:00] economic developer. That's me.  I love the quote above me. What is the city but the people that Shakespeare and,   and so I took these photos in front of that park.  intentionally because none of this economic development money, you know, none of it works if it's not for the people, if it's not for the planet.

Jackie Melendez: And we have to be the ones that are learning the language,   to be able to move this through. We have, in our, in our conversation, I'm gonna talk about some of these things, changing the narrative,   showing up, you know, understanding these things. We'll talk about some of that, but next I'm gonna give it over to Tracy.

Jackie Melendez: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Tracy Hudak: Next slide please. Great, and next slide. Working with the tools of local planning, how many folks have been involved in cultural planning in your community? Show of hands. Great. How about economic development planning? Great. Great. How about land use planning? Great. Great. So, I'm gonna focus a little bit on land use planning, but a lot of the,   principles of planning and the planning process on a municipal or county level apply to these other, these [00:26:00] other,   activities as well.

Tracy Hudak: And for those of us, some of us recognize that cultural planning can often happen in a really siloed place. So starting with the fundamentals of land use planning and economic development planning and making sure that cultural planning is integrated into some of these can help cultivate the political will and the accountability tools necessary to get the leadership and the resources on the civic level.

Tracy Hudak: To, to move our projects forward. So in land use planning, one of the key documents is a general plan. Every city, county,   in the state is required to have it in the state cons, and they, the general plan essentially serves as the constitution of the community. What are the land use goals, regulations, zoning, aspirations, jobs, population.

Tracy Hudak: Over the next 20 years. It's a 20 year document. And the process also by state law of building the general plan and updating what they call the general plan [00:27:00] update is a multi-year. The each,   locality has to have a really in-depth,   civic engagement process in their plan. If you go home and you've got some time to kill.

Tracy Hudak: Take a look at your community's general plan. It also gives a really great blueprint for how government works and what are the tools of government, things like that. So, 'cause it's meant to be, they're meant to be in a language that the community can use.  next slide. But some of the principles in the plan, in these plans, these constitutions for the communities apply to all planning and you're familiar with them.

Tracy Hudak: But,   I just wanna unpack this a little bit specifically. So, uh, civic plans generally have a vision and guiding principles that the community has weighed in on. And then it'll,  provide background or conditions,   and a snapshot of where a time and place of when the plan as it is, was developed. Data, stories,   not really stories, but data and analysis, right?

Tracy Hudak: To, to create a fundamental, a foundational,   [00:28:00] baseline from which the goals and strategies. Or the implementation, uh, planning, is, is laid out. So where the arts can see themselves in all of these are throughout, and I really recommend this and I participated in help lead the,   arts activism and advocacy.

Tracy Hudak: With the update of the Ventura County general Plan, and I'll talk through some of those results and what that built and what that has laid,   for us. And then we'll get to the open conversation, I promise.  so just a couple of things. It's really important for arts advocates and tradition bearers, artists, cultural organizations to participate in the visioning and guiding principle process in your plan to get named in the vision statement of the community.

Tracy Hudak: To get named as a guiding principle, access to the arts, strengthening the creative economy,  retaining and keeping artists in our community  to be named within the vision and the guiding principles. Additionally, [00:29:00] advocates can provide the data for the conditions and background report for those communities that participate in the a EP six from the Americans for the Arts.

Tracy Hudak: The economic prosperity, data, data sources, you can provide those to your planning commission.  and you, when you provide those via email or through public comment, that is public record, you know, it's a process of like, yes, government received this.  and whether they include it in edit or, or, or, or all of that.

Tracy Hudak: But providing the data expecting to be named and identified within the conditions is also really great foundational step. And then contributing, being prioritized in the goal, contributing ideas for strategies.  let's say one of the goals is,   your general plan or your economic de dev development plan wants to help diversify the economy by growing small businesses.

Tracy Hudak: Well, folks in the arts community can step up and say, well, our nonprofits and within this budget range our independent artists and [00:30:00] creative businesses, we are that diverse. Sense of small businesses, right? In the old economy,   towns used to be one company towns and then with huge technological shifts  or off offshoring of manufacturing towns were devastated.

Tracy Hudak:  when it relied on one industry. But when we can step forth and say, you know what, we are your small businesses and you know what else we do, we provide the things that attract talent, keep families here, keep young people here. We are part of your future planning because of what we provide. So that's why we deserve to be in the strategies, in the goals, in the implementation steps outlined and plans.

Tracy Hudak: And also we can be partners in civic engagement. So many of you provide trusted spaces in your community to invite the community in, in a place where they're comfortable. Like how many of us have worked in art centers that also provide childcare so folks can, so parents [00:31:00] can participate in the process and their kids are making art.

Tracy Hudak: Right. That type of partnering, stepping forth as a partner, how can we help, we have this space and  and also setting the terms of the scope of the plan. In one of the cities in my county, when they're updating their general plan, they put in their survey, how important are the arts to you? And that is  a virtually useless question, right?

Tracy Hudak: Terrible, terrible survey question. It doesn't ask, it doesn't specify. Some people see the word arts and they think ballet, symphony, and they think, not me. We like. No. Unpack that and ask, how important is it to the you that you and your family members have access to tools for creative expression? How important is it that you have access to places of cultural and tradition building and expression?

Tracy Hudak: How important is it to you to,   have artists stay in your community and have acts and and so on? Help them unpack that question [00:32:00] that when the ways that are meaningful  to your community that you know are meaningful to our community so our community can see themselves in the question and say, oh, yeah, sign me up.

Tracy Hudak: Right? And um, yeah. Next slide please. And also something that I learned that I thought is really interesting,   is that government thinks a lot about itself, global,  local government, spatially, right? They have very specific jurisdictions over which they have authority and they have very specific tools, federal or state level tools that they can use to shape that, that, that, that space.

Tracy Hudak: And counties often, if some of you live in counties that don't already have a robust commitment to the arts or aren't thinking about themselves in that way, a lot of times that because, is because county staff and county electeds think about arts being the facilities and cities. Right. So what we can do is lead county government to seeing themselves also as regional agenda centers [00:33:00] and conveners what's important to our region.

Tracy Hudak: Because artists don't have done surveys. Artists will move to where there's opportunity in affordable space. Mm-hmm. Right. We are not, we're agnostic,   to any of these.  boundaries. So, so if you run up against that, like, 'cause they don't think they have the tools. They do have the tools, they're the agenda setters.

Tracy Hudak: They're, they're setting the agenda for the region. So that's a way to break in there. Next slide. So where the arts traditionally intersect with land use planning is the percent for art programs where a developer or even a local government would pay a portion of that has to provide a portion of their built project has to be public art, or they can contribute fees in lieu of providing public art.

Tracy Hudak: Right. And that, that's a really great tool. That's a really important tool to advocate for.  we could, you know, work on that together. But there's, how many

Jackie Melendez: people in here have one of those? The diff or Arts and Lou Hmm. [00:34:00] Suppo supposedly proposing it. Great, great, great, great. Okay, so raise your hands again real high so people can see you.

Jackie Melendez: Talk to those folks. 'cause if your community doesn't have one, you need to be, this is, that's huge.

Tracy Hudak: Yeah. Yeah. And one an interesting thing is that there's some, there's governments do run into snarls with public art, right? And freedom of expression. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of issues around, uh, government setting this tone for what is art and what isn't on behalf of their community.

Tracy Hudak: So what we're really wanting to also encourage, and I wanna, um, is maybe is having, suggesting that instead of it being aesthetic. Develop, contributing to a pool to fund access to the arts. So what's interesting about the percent for the art fee, they're called a design. Im, they're, it's called a design impact mitigation fee.

Tracy Hudak: And it's supposed to be, I, mean it's a development mitigation, and it's supposed to be, technically, the technical tool is development. IM impacts communities, it [00:35:00] impacts infrastructure, it impacts. Uh, parks and, and uh, transportation and roads and all that kinda stuff. And so developers are supposed to contribute money for the public good to help mitigate those impacts.

Tracy Hudak: And a lot of times that money goes to what's called essential services, parks and rec and police and safety and things like that. And so really having that story of we are not the aesthetic, pretty part of the building, we're essential services. Is so you can use this funding to, to fund central services.

Tracy Hudak: Does anybody who has percent for the art  have a clause where it can go for programming and grants and not just the built environment? No. Right. Okay. Well, we'll, we'll, we'll look for resources and models for that. 'cause we know also that cities don't like to do things that others haven't already done.

Tracy Hudak: So if we can find those, Hey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's true. Because of the litigation, right?  they have to protect the city,  from making mistakes and costing everybody money.

Jackie Melendez: No. Getting people fired. Remember what I said earlier about  getting city manager fired, mayor, or not [00:36:00] getting reelected.

Jackie Melendez: They may not be big things in your world or, you know, like, who cares? That's a big deal. In my world, I'm fired if I do something that,   triggers,   the community, the constituents, uh, good call. Yeah. In, in a, in a weird way. So that makes us as government, that makes us very risk averse. So if you get frustrated with us.

Jackie Melendez: you know, just, just stroke our little wrist. Goblin.

Tracy Hudak: But there's other places where we intersect with land use. special, special districts, cultural district, nighttime entertainment zones, those that can be often districts are associated with funding.  with funding, like for example, property owners can be en list enlisted to agree that this district, we want these certain things happening and we.

Tracy Hudak: Pay in on a little extra on our property tax to fund certain things. Cultural districts are often just,   statutory. They're not as associated with,   with funding all the time.  but that's something that could, that you could be advocate for. Did you have a thought?

Guest 3: Yeah, well, uh, yeah, because something was proposing creating a district in [00:37:00] our area, but then the question came up is this is like the, the fees that go will go to fund that.

Guest 3: Is it gonna be for the landowners or is it gonna go to the businesses? Because sometimes they're different. You know, it's like the person that owns that property is different from the business. That

Jackie Melendez: correct that? That's a, that's a huge, that's a huge question. In,  in communities

Tracy Hudak: and if we have space for it, maybe we can talk a little bit about P Bids and Main Streets and some of those organizations generally that are,   authorized to allocate that funding.

Tracy Hudak: Like we set the priority. And, you know,

Jackie Melendez: I I, I do think though that like that's a tactic so we can chat a little bit more about strategy on that because that's more of  a tactic. That's why all those people raise your hand again. You gotta talk to those folks because,   sometimes it's just we don't wanna do it.

Jackie Melendez: So here's all the things that we're doing, why we can't,  do to kind of like stick our heels in. Yeah. And that's what that sounds like to me.

Tracy Hudak: Yeah. Because smell it. Yeah. And then also,  zoning. Zoning issues. So like live workspace and a [00:38:00] lot of art production requires light industrial zoning. So if we need spaces for us to produce and present art, land use is land use and activities that are zoned for activities, we run up against this.

Tracy Hudak: Stuff. So just be aware of that if you're, and, and, and maybe strategizing the change of a zoning requirement for an area which is, would be right for space that could be re, re, re adapted, reused for arts production. And of course business and regulations sometimes when, when local governments don't, might not have the money to fund things.

Tracy Hudak: They use regulations and reducing, reducing friction of regulation or reducing fees to incentivize what they wanna make happen. So that's another zone where we can advocate next time. Next slide. So,  in working in the Ventura County General Plan, we,   advocates got very specific language that we recommended before commissioners and in writing just to be in the vision.

Tracy Hudak: And you'll see like stewardship of our cultural and [00:39:00] natural resources that are cultural resources, both the indigenous, the, the local indigenous living tribe, cultural artifacts in the ground. A lot of land use planning deals with artifacts, found artifacts and how to manage  and respectfully manage them, but the larger cultural social sphere.

Tracy Hudak:  kind of opening them to that.  and then talented people, like we named people as a resource in our, in our vein, and that that had to, that came from the arts,   and,  commitment to collaborate. And also non-profit organizations were not named, were not named in terms of economic priority in, in, in, even given the vast impact.

Tracy Hudak: That they have. So  we had a coalition with nonprofits and just naming healthy, vibrant, diverse communities,   how we name our communities.  we contributed that language to the vision statement. Next slide. And then we also made sure that this, our general plan had an economic element for the first time, an economic development element.

Tracy Hudak: And we made sure the creative economy was in there and prioritized. next [00:40:00] slide. And, and there were other parts of the plant. I'll get back to that.  but really what has, because though those elements were embedded and we also were identified in some strategies,   that created the basis, an accountability document, a basis for further action, a further investment, further commitment.

Tracy Hudak: And, but, and,   the land use plan. Now most people's general plans are already adopted and they're, they're happening and they go out to 2040. But there are amendments. It is a living document, but that kind of change requires political will, it requires leadership, it requires continued conversation,   and decision makers that, that, that might lead, that would be elected in.

Tracy Hudak: Officials to influence,   commissioners and, and, and commissions and key staff member. Now in local government, most of you probably already know this, but most much of the directive and the thrust of what happens has to come from elected officials. It's the, it's the, they're, they're the representatives [00:41:00] and commissioners and staff don't often have advocacy power, but they do have influence.

Tracy Hudak: You know, they are the trusted,   knowledge bearers. And,   so those relationships and staying in conversation. And then there are other change makers  in our community folks, and they can be, oops. Us individually meeting with,   elected officials and letting them know what we're making happen in the community.

Tracy Hudak: We can be those influencers, but then also be thinking about civic leaders, your community foundations, your board, your chambers of commerce, your business improvement districts.  the groups of folks who, who convene, who, who, who talk about what's important to the community, who are trying to make communities thrive.

Tracy Hudak: They're eager to partner with us. They're eager for ideas. Often, and with a caveat, and thank you, too. Good. I'm perfect on the timing. Universities and researchers also can provide the local data, can do the footwork for you to make the case and, and, and, and build the data for the stories.

Jackie Melendez: [00:42:00] How many of you have a data committee for your organizations?

Jackie Melendez: What's your organization? I'm at a community college. You're a community college. I got the resources.

Jackie Melendez: Nice.

Tracy Hudak: Okay, great, great, great. So if you don't have that data resource, you can partner with local, local scholars, academic teachers, professors, or departments in your universities or community colleges. Oh, your Merp and your meps. Yes, yes, yes. And then,   also, uh, those folks who are tasked with systems change your disaster recovery coalitions and groups, right.

Tracy Hudak: folks that are trying to,  anybody, any of the relationships that were built for the census outreach that California worked really hard. Bringing all kinds of diverse people together to make sure folks were counted. If you wanna get involved in, in, in and,   partner in terms of engagement in this year's election, those are great people to build relationships with in terms of getting the vote out,  supporting their efforts to bring people to the table.

Tracy Hudak: Those are great partnerships [00:43:00] because that those are the people that are meeting and continuing to talk about. How do we build those partnerships  for system,  systems change, collective action, some of the stuff that we'll talk about next, next slide. And, um, just, uh, two more slides. So the,   inclusion, the general plan led to an action item, a strategy area, and a strategy area in County of Ventures, economic development plan.

Tracy Hudak: We, uh, creative economy was prioritized as a potential asset.  and the political will for that was in the general plan were two key art supporter supervisors that had to have a lot of data, a lot of conversations that,   embolden their staff to. To lead the way.  advocates constantly in conversation and a funding and a funding resource as well was activated.

Tracy Hudak: But there are other parts of the general plan workforce readiness in, in increasing diversifying and, and, and small businesses, marketing and branding. That was a big focus of our plan and it's, and it's, we didn't have enough art advocates, I think, to get  into [00:44:00] those strategies, but we are the stories that they wanna tell.

Tracy Hudak: About come to our community, here's what there is to do, you know, and, and, and how to connect with the community and have an authentic experience of it, et cetera. Next line. And then just another example of a confluence of political will built from plans is working Artists Ventura. This is a live workplace that opened the doors opened in 2006.

Tracy Hudak: It's an old story, but this is an essential arts infrastructure space in venture account. Because of these affordable, this affordable housing, some of the most important leaders of diverse organizations and traditional traditions, group. Live there and are able to stay in our county. This is just, this is  a pivotal,   win and that a lot and, and, and Jackie's gonna talk a little bit too about  this kind of key infrastructure for the creative economy.

Tracy Hudak: Next slide. And so with a confluence of political will, there was the planning d, there was a planning issue, there was a downtown specific plan that wanted to revitalize downtown. That was, there was a 19, 19 [00:45:00] 92 plan, an update in 1998 that proposed a cultural district. None of that happened.  a cultural plan that is, that said, the arts identity of vent City of Ventura was really important.

Tracy Hudak: And then artists were at risk of leaving because they couldn't stay. And, and then political leaders,   we had art strategy focused council members that got it.  and we had a really trusted staff person within the city of Ventura. There was several, there was a lineage  of trusted staff people,   and, um, and then  a visionary developer who could tell the story.

Tracy Hudak: A brownfield that had made the land cheap and had to be, got federal funding to clean it up. And other forms of,   federal funding. That, that allowed that space to, to be built. But the foundation of that were the planning documents, because I will tell you  that leadership, that that made this happen is gone.

Tracy Hudak: The city of Ventura closed its cultural department, swallowed it into community partners. those leaders passed on some, and, and, [00:46:00] but  the documents live. On and again, as a basis of accountability that this was a vision that was established.  so I'll stop there and we'll open it up. Thank you so much.

Tracy Hudak: Next slide.

Jackie Melendez: So we wanna do a thought exercise with y'all in the remaining,   minutes and seconds. We have left Precious time we have together. So, but before that, I wanna say, when I came,   to the city, one of the first things that I did was,   I convened the Chamber of Commerce, a couple of our, uh, local nonprofits, one in, um, in business.

Jackie Melendez: Music, changing lives.  and also, so brought a couple folks to the table and I asked them the question that I'm gonna ask you. And that's that. What are the five projects that would be catalytic to our economy right now in your community? In our community? And so what is, what happens in Ventura may not, you may already have that, or you may say like, oh, that's never gonna happen here, and, or, we don't want that.

Jackie Melendez: Right there. There every single community is unique. But what I want you to do is just take one minute right [00:47:00] now to think about inventory in your brain. Question one, what assets do you have in your community right now? And you can drop them down. And then what's missing? And I want you to think, place, play space.

Jackie Melendez: Okay? Think of three things that are missing.

Tracy Hudak: What did he say? Time. He said, oh, have five. We're gonna take 10. Okay. Cool.

Tracy Hudak: Question. Yeah.

Guest 3: The last part you said kind of stuck with me was like the, like the people are gone, you know, and, and like the, the arts, the, the arts development,  We, our city used to have one, but then got, you know, it disappeared.  and then I'm with the Garcia Center for the Arts in San Bernardino, and I think about like, how that came to be.

Guest 3: it took times and, but it's, you know, it's like it took leaders that were committed to the community, not just for a year or two. Like they were committed to the community for decades and. So how like, and just kind of like, like be, I'm sure pe people are gonna have, are gonna share like what things are missing in [00:48:00] their community that they would love to see.

Guest 3: But like, what is it gonna take to actually see those come to fruition? Yeah. Like, is how, how many, you know, what relationships is it gonna take? Yeah. Like, because part of that is like the relationship building. Like,

Jackie Melendez: yeah. So Jorge, it, it starts with this exercise right here. It starts with what do you want to know and see for your community, and then those things.

Jackie Melendez: There's not a one size fits all answer. Right to, to your question. I feel you.  what I, what? But it starts right here of us taking ownership. Back in 2012 when redevelopment went away, we lost the ability to think of projects,   at City Hall predominantly. And I would say, I don't know how much of it we have in the community,   but we lost the idea to dream about the things that we want because we start with all the things that, that,   oh, well we can't do it 'cause of dun, dun, dun, dun.

Jackie Melendez: Okay, so starts step one is this exercise right here, and that's what are the things that, that you need and you're, we're not gonna solve it in this space, but we're gonna [00:49:00] start with ideation. That's step one. And then we make friends. Okay. We start to make friends.

Tracy Hudak: I would also recommend going to the plans that do exist and finding ourselves in them.

Tracy Hudak: If there's something about the social determinants of health and guiding communities to healthy communities, show up and say, we do that.

Jackie Melendez: We're already doing that. How many of you are part of your Chambers of commerce? Okay, couple a couple folks. That's a good, good hand. And then some people are like, maybe you're like, well, I don't see myself there.

Jackie Melendez: I don't like that. Or maybe I'll start my own chamber of commerce. Right? That's very, here's what I would say. Start the chamber of your own Chamber of Commerce for the creative economy. If you want in your community, here's a better idea. Go and chat with them and say, Hey, can you start a committee? Can you create a committee for the arts?

Jackie Melendez: We'll handle it. We'll be a part of it, and let's go and have that conversation. So now what we're doing is we're being collaborative. We've had, bless you, we have had,   decades and centuries of fighting right at each other's throats. [00:50:00] So  the tools of the future and the tools of the youth really are about collaboration.

Jackie Melendez: I was, you know, uh, you know, a protestor and, you know, all the things.  I saw a lot of machismo in that space. And today, you know, what I care about and what's in my heart is how do we collaborate? How do I go and sit across from folks that don't look like me, don't talk like me? They didn't come from gangs and violence and drugs and craziness and chaos the way that I did, but I'm gonna sit down with them because they have something that I want.

Jackie Melendez: Yeah, in the back, right there. You,

Guest 3:  I just want to say also as an artist, capacity's an issue just being an advocate. Yep. This is a strategy, economic strategy as an artist is you as,  a practice artist, engage process for money and their funds available to you. Brand experience, participate in sort process.

Jackie Melendez: This is about shaking ourselves. We gotta shake ourselves out of our silos. Huge,

Guest 3: huge opportunity.

Jackie Melendez: Yep.

Guest 3: And advocate

Jackie Melendez: yourself [00:51:00] as being part of the process,

Guest 3: because we

Jackie Melendez: have the skills 100%

Guest 3: as artists to help the communication, which they are really, really struggle with in government, of how to engage with folks in a

Jackie Melendez: way that, oh, we struggle in government.

Jackie Melendez: What's your name? I'm Joseph. Joseph, thank you. Okay, so your one minute's over. I see you. I'll come right back to you. We

Tracy Hudak: are getting the Yeah, we're, we're getting this. Okay, so wait, wait, wait. One more,

Jackie Melendez: one more thing. So, come, come and take me off the stage. I can fight. No, we, I'd rather, I'd rather take you to dinner though.

Jackie Melendez: Okay. So just give me a couple of something that you're like, we desperately need this in our community. And let me, anybody? Transportation. Transportation. Okay. In the, in the art space, we we're very rural community. Rural community. Okay. That's land use planning, transportation, land use planning. Live workspace, land use, live workspace.

Jackie Melendez: Yep. Absolutely. Okay. What do you, what do you want?  more specifically, a large city owned performing venue that isn't tied to Zar Box. uc, Berkeley, or to a a, a a. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Go bear. So I gotta do it.

Tracy Hudak: I just [00:52:00] wanna,   I wanna offer for those folks that wanna keep going with this conversation, so that we we're running behind for,   all reasons.

Tracy Hudak: And we want to kind of respect what folks are expecting,   to come in here next. But if we really want this to continue, we can go in the lobby. Yeah. And for those that wanna stay with this conversation, let's talk some more right now. So when you had your hand up, what do you Um,

Guest: yes. Around, excuse me. Um, the city providing things.

Guest: So the city will provide a space they want the arts organization to fund building the space, redoing the space, making the space functional. The arts organizations can't get funding because funders don't wanna give them money for a building they don't own. Yep. The cycle of artists saying that the city's not providing.

Guest: City saying that the artists aren't grateful enough for what they do

Jackie Melendez: provide and that nothing gets done. Yeah. Okay. So if you take nothing, and this is final thought, and we're outta here, okay? But we can go, we gotta go to dinner.  and we're gonna, I'll be out over there. You can't miss me.  what I will say to this [00:53:00] is this, we are disrupting the conversation by our very presence.

Jackie Melendez: By us being here in this space, we disrupt the conversation. The more we stay in the world is come crumbling around us as we know it. Okay? So the more we stay tied to old ways of organizing, old ways of operating, old ways of just doing business, we're gonna crumble with those old ways people in other communities are doing it.

Jackie Melendez: And I'm here to tell you, as an economic developer, money is the easiest problem to solve for. Hear it again. Money is the easiest problem to solve for. Look to your left, look to your right in your communities and figure out who you should be collaborating with, who you should be making friends with, who you should be making amends with.

Jackie Melendez: Because at the end of the day, it's really about the people that we serve. And if we sit in an old method, in an old way of doing business, they suffer. Thank you. Thank you [00:54:00] everybody.

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