The revised $6.4 billion budget for the City of San Diego still includes approximately $11.8 million in reductions to arts and culture programs.
SAN DIEGO — Hundreds of San Diegans gathered both outside and inside City Hall on Tuesday to protest proposed cuts to arts and culture funding in the City of San Diego’s revised budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The revised $6.4 billion budget for the City of San Diego proposed by Mayor Todd Gloria still includes approximately $11.8 million in reductions to arts and culture programs citywide, even after restoring some funding to libraries and recreation centers previously facing cuts.
Outside City Hall, demonstrators chanted, “Fund the arts,” before packing City Council chambers during a public budget hearing.
Arts advocates argued the proposed reductions would harm community programs, reduce tourism opportunities and weaken the city’s cultural infrastructure.
“We are not asking the city to support something extra,” one speaker said during the afternoon rally before the hearing. “We are asking the city to protect our civic infrastructure that makes San Diego vibrant, competitive, welcoming and alive.”
Susanna Peredo Swap, founder of the nonprofit arts magazine Vanguard Culture, called the proposed cuts “incredibly short-sighted.”
“Instead of cutting the arts, we should be doubling down,” Peredo Swap said. “If you really want to activate the budget, you double down on investing in your arts infrastructure in order to attract cultural tourists to come and spend money here.”
One of the city’s largest arts organizations, The Old Globe, could lose approximately $400,000 in funding under the proposal. According to Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, that funding supports community arts programs in senior centers, homeless shelters and neighborhoods across San Diego.
“If this funding goes away, it is the people in the neighborhoods who participate in this program who are going to be bereft,” Edelstein said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”
Edelstein also warned that the cuts could have lasting consequences for smaller arts organizations throughout the city.
“They are going to experience real pain,” Edelstein said. “Frankly, I think we are going to see some of them go out of business.”
The revised budget proposal also restores funding for some library and recreation center services, allocates opioid settlement funding for treatment and support programs, and adds an additional $500,000 for youth drop-in centers.
Members of San Diego’s blind community also spoke during the hearing, advocating for funding to upgrade pedestrian traffic signals with audible crossing tones.
A final vote on the city’s budget could take place as early as June 9. The budget must be finalized before the start of the new fiscal year on June 30.
