 We're going to help these guys get to know you a little bit better with the round of applause. Please tell me How many of you have lost colleagues who have either left the city to make their art or left the profession due to financial stressors? How many of you have worked in a space that has closed in the last 10 years? How many of you work in companies or groups with annual budgets over two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year? How many of you currently have debt related to production costs or student loan debt related to your personal income? You can cover your rent by only working a temp job three days a month like some did back 35 or 40 years ago. How many of you here promised to vote not just in the general election in November 7th but also in the primary in September 12th? Three one. Thank you very much for coming. We made a gap in the center there. So if you want to come down, that's great We have two microphones here for your use. A quick little thing. We're going to have two minutes. At 30 seconds you're going to hear the bell. At one minute and 30 seconds you'll hear the bell. At two minutes you'll hear the concertina. We are short on time so I'm also going to start yelling at you. Stop. Okay. Great. So here we go. Icebreaker question. We want to know honestly where you stand on things using the name of the restaurant only. Where can you get the best pizza in New York City? Starting it down on the end and working all the way around. Use my privilege. Oh sorry. I'm a Italian so I can take this pizza out today in Midtown. I have some very good choices but I'm going to go with Angelo's. I think it's fifty first and second. Okay. It was Mariela's that close and it was Four Roses that also close. But now I'm going to say Delizzi on the Upper East Side which is a favorite of mine. Hi my name is Ed Santos. My favorite pizza place is in East Harlem at Pat's. It's a pizzeria. Hi my name is Arden Walentowski. My favorite pizza place is Grandpa's up on Broadway up in Inwood and they know my order. I know where I go. Hello my name is John Joanne Joseph Jr. and my favorite pizza spot is the Dollar Pizza Shop. I have here the correct answer is Anywhere but Kiss My Slice on 4th and 8th. Here we go. The first topic for this panel is the cycle of gentrification. There's good and there's bad to gentrification. When indie theater comes to an area restaurants do well, bars do well and in the increased foot traffic can help make safer public streets. But we also create tensions and push people out of the area. The cycle of gentrification is complete when the creative class is priced out of the area. So here's a two part question. What can indie theater people do to be good citizens when they move into an area? And what can you do to help us stay in the vibrant parts of the diversity in your districts? You have two minutes to respond. First of all, thank you so much to the League of Independent Theater. It's such an honor to be here. My name is Margie Speranza. I'm a candidate for City Council District 4. Those of you not familiar with the district, it starts at 14, goes to the Upper East Side. It does include a lot of Midtown, so an area that's certainly dense with independent theaters. And as you know, a lot of luxury towers going in and as that happens it just places not only residents but small businesses. Small business is a passion of mine. I'm a former small business owner myself. Prior to launching this campaign, I ran a program for the city called Women Entrepreneurs New York City. We work specifically with women from underserved communities to help them starting and growing their small businesses. I certainly understand the importance of preserving the fabric of our neighborhoods in terms of allowing these small business owners to thrive. What we can do is support them, shop at them. I'll give you an example. In Stytown, there's a very popular bagel shop called Esther Bagel. You know, when I have been up and down the district talking to residents and small business owners, and Michael Wenzelberg said to me, you know, I don't think there's going to be any small businesses left in New York City in 20 years. And that's a scary thought for all of us in the room. But the reality is that the city needs to support our small business across the city. That's right. And so what we can do is we can think outside of the box programs like we NYC that connected entrepreneurs with funding. These are micro businesses. People in the room that might be part of independent theater might not think of yourself as an entrepreneur. You're absolutely small business owners. And so there's a lot that you can do in terms of keeping your businesses thriving. And as consumers, we of course need to. Sorry. Thank you. My name is Jeff Mailman and I'm running for City Council District 4 as well. The first part of your question is what can you do to be good neighbors? I think you are good neighbors already. I think this community treasures the local businesses. And that's why you're looking so hard to find space so that you can stay. Put it off. There you go. I hope you heard that first time. And in terms of complaints, noise complaints, that's the number one constituent issue. I don't hear emanating from lit or so were thought. In terms of what the City Council can do to support independent theater and arts. Well, I think that we should look into, like SBS has a tons of programs to help manufacturers at their special zones, financing their people to help small manufacturers find staff to hire and to expand. And I want to explore to see if SBS is providing those type of services to the cultural groups and to theaters. I think that's a big step that we can take. And in terms of finding space, as you said, that's your number one priority. So that would be my number one priority. I think I would look to partner with cultural institutions in the district and throughout the city. And perhaps in exchange for investing in capital improvements that the tools desperately need, we can maybe work out a shared space arrangement. This is just some one option that I would look to explore. I'm going to get you reported. So my name's Keith Powers. I'm also candidate for the Ford Council District. Thank you guys for having me. I was a last minute addition so I get the written name tag, but I appreciate you guys giving me the same audience. So I grew up just about 10 blocks from here in Stuyvesant, Peter Cooper. I remember the East Village when it was cool, I guess, and when it was hip. And before it got expensive for a lot of people to live here. And people who really were the fabric of the East Village and made it sort of the place where there was a destination for people to come for the arts and culture. I watched sort of the transition myself. And in terms of the question about good neighbors, I agree with Jeff, which is you guys are good neighbors, no question about it. The question of gentrification, tackling gentrification, it's prices and affordability. So we have to tackle on the real estate side, the business side, the question of how to preserve businesses and independent theater spaces, art spaces. On the side of housing, we also have to make it affordable for people to live here. The East Village could be a place where people can begin to live here and grow and raise families and so forth. So I'll take both of those. On the cultural space question, I think it's partially a land use and zoning question. I think we can incentivize more cultural space when we're using the land use process. I think we can create special, we have benefits and density benefits already that exists if you build a school, a community facility, if you do all sorts of other things. I think we can really strengthen the density bonuses around creating origin cultural space, put it at an affordable rate. And we can also give things like tax breaks to developers for also building the kind of space they're looking for in 30 seconds. So I think that's a big part of it. We also have to drive down prices around the way places where people live. One, preserve good affordable housing like the rent regulated apartment I grew up in. We have to keep it rent regulated. We have to create actual new affordable housing that's actually affordable. We can't make affordable housing, call it that and people can't afford it once they already have a family and grow. So real affordable housing and on small businesses, I think you should take... I'll leave that at that. I have a small business plan I'll talk to you guys about that. Thank you. My name is Edward Santos. I'm here running for District 8 which is in the South Bronx. In terms of the first part of the question, what can we do? I think just being out in the community has always been a great idea. When I was a teacher in East Harlem, we had artists come in and show students how to do certain aspects of their art. I remember when I was a teacher, improv artists came to me and taught me how to present better. And I started taking a bunch of improv classes, the UCB and Maga Theater. For me, I think just being out in the community and actively going out to different places, whether that be schools or small businesses. I know so many small businesses out there who want to have really unique art on their walls and they don't have anything. So it's really, I think, it's going to be a combination of the artists just being out there, putting out their work and then also just knowing where to connect people. In terms of the second question, things that I want to do is just make sure that we have affordable housing in the community. So when I think about that, I think about PS109 which is across the street from where I live. And I know all of you know about PS109, but it used to be a school and it converted to affordable housing units specifically for artists and those individuals who work in the arts. And I remember the process of applying. You had to have a video if you were, you know, I was a clarinetist and like a clarinetist can go and do a video. And I think PS109 is a model of what we can do in the city. It's a great space to see theater and see art, but also keep things affordable for the city. Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Arden. I'm running for City Council on District 10 which is Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill. I was an actor for about five years. I went to school in New York and produced theater that went up in independent theaters all across the city. I auditioned at Wow, which is down the street. Yeah, all over. So I understand what it means to produce theater in New York City. In terms of gentrification, I think one of the first things, I was a gentrifier in my neighborhood 13 years ago. I moved there because I had a friend who was an opera singer and she lived there. And people continue to move out of portions of lower Manhattan to the boroughs and up from Manhattan because that's where they can afford to live. So I think one of the first things that we can do when we move to a new neighborhood is just acknowledge that we're doing that. And I think as white folk, especially me in a district that's heavily Dominican, I think that's something that I have to acknowledge on a daily basis. I don't think that it, you know, I think I agree with everybody on the panel who has already said that we are good neighbors. But I think that we just need to be, I know that I have had to be a little bit more aware of my presence in the community that I might have had to, but had to have been in a different district. In terms of what I would like to do in office, I definitely want to focus on affordable housing. There is affordable affordable housing going up in the district. And I think that having a mandatory inclusionary policy for having a portion of that housing going to artists in the neighborhood is essential. Inwood and Washington Heights tend to be places where artists go because it is still it was one of the affordable places left in the city. It was easy to commute to from the theater district. A lot of artists have come out of there, so I think it is essential that we focus on affordable housing. My name is John Joyner, Joseph, Jr. And I'm running to Representative for the City District of San Francisco, North Carolina Heights. As a young man, I understand the need for expressionism and arts and performing arts. And the need for the affordability in housing. And the benefit that performing arts and art has, I developed what is called the Equal Living Cost Rights Law. Well, it's a petition. And if I was elected, I would want to see enacted into law, which calls for 50% of units in that developers bring to city council. 50% of units within residential buildings would have to be put aside for low income and low income for youth and adults. Gentrification is not a black and white issue. It's a money issue. And so we have to focus on how we can bring finances to residents and invest in residents. One way of ensuring that artists can bring their talent into their district is to work with community boards. And also ensuring that a space is utilized by working with community board, developers come to community board to get approval. And so this is where opportunity lies to fight for affordable housing. Thank you. Thank you very much, Candace. We're going to move right along to our lightning round questions. So raise your hands if you are willing to be a co-sponsor to Ben Campbell's City Spaces Initiative to create searchable database for of unused or underutilized city owned spaces. Raise your hands if you will clearly and visibly list your stances on issues facing indie theater and performing arts on your web campaigns website and literature. Raise your hands if you support expanding the theater sub-district fund to include arts organizations with budgets below $250,000 a year. You support the promotion of indie theater to the more than 61 million visitors coming to New York City every year. You can commit to working with the league to create new non-traditional spaces suitable for indie theater performances in your district. You support campaign finance reform and getting money from PAC Super PACs or special interests out of political campaigns at all levels. You support New Yorkers for culture and arts requests to increase the funding by $40 million in the city's budget. Our second topic for this panel. Yes. I was the only one who didn't raise my hand about the union impact questions. I just want to say just briefly, I'm participating in the city's matching funds program. So what it does is it places caps. It doesn't say you can't take from unions or PACs, but it places caps. And it's a world-renowned program, but that's in the country. And so that's why they raise my hand for that question. All right. Thank you. All right. So it's like a topic for this panel relates to Planets 5 and 10, which cover housing and the creation of cultural districts. As had been mentioned in 2014, the El Barrios Art Space PO-109 was created, which gave us 89 units of affordable living working housing for artists and their families. But last week, Governor Cuomo announced a proposed $1.4 billion vital Brooklyn project in central Brooklyn to get more affordable housing, parks, and athletic fields. But no mention of anything arts related in that proposal. So players' choice question, where in your district might you create a new cultural district and why? Or where and how might you create more lived workspace for indie theater artists in your district? You have two minutes to respond. Thank you so much. So certainly affordable housing is New York City's greatest challenge. And I think when we're looking at that challenge, it's also important to recognize the tremendous impact, economic impact that the arts have on the city. So you mentioned the 60 million tourists coming in. Many of them to see off-off Broadway shows, independent theater. And the impact of those people coming to our city is really tremendous. What you have is a sad state when the independent theater is employing tens of thousands of people. And yet it's one quarter of 1% of the city's budget that goes towards the arts. So clearly there's an issue in terms of prioritization. There needs to be more resources available for those in the arts so they can continue to be successful and thereby make this city successful in its arts programming. Of course, affordable housing would be great to see complexes like Manhattan Plaza on the west side, on the east side. So I would advocate for, you know, in the midtown east area there are lands. We should definitely be looking at both underutilized and undeveloped city-owned properties to create those sorts of not only housing but performance and rehearsal spaces that are so desperately needed to maintain this culture. New York City prides itself on being the cultural center not only of the country but of the world so it's absolutely essential that serious dollars go behind these efforts. This isn't optional. This is something that's very much part of our city's identity and economic health. In District 4, I think that the best opportunity to create cultural space and I think when anything development is proposed that cultural space should be one of the elements that's evaluated in addition to schools. So if you're going to cite X number of residents, 500 or so, you look at the impact on schools. I think cultural space in our district is well senior space and I think it was Mary who mentioned it's a perfect partnership. It would be senior space in cultural space and I think it's through those developments and as they arise in this district and if they happen, if they go through the Euler process or so, I think that negotiating with the developers and taking input from the community boards is to see exactly what's needed and to see what can be worked out just like public spaces are often negotiated with one Vanderbilt, the tower to be built right across the street from Grand Central. Dan Gorognik said a great precedent and before that building can be occupied, the developers making $220 million of improvements to Grand Central Station and so I think that that model, that framework is wanting to be followed going forward and I think that it's through those types of developments that we'll see, we'll get tangible results and see more space created and I do know that if the council member is on board and truly values cultural space, then in a project, you know, and you want to see a project go through that if it's of importance to the council member, it's likely to happen and so I think that that's the best approach and just like with these developments that fire houses, more city services other than schools need to be incorporated into that process. Thank you. I'm going to go easier further. I'm going to say that, you know, I think we have to actually provide real incentives. I think that even not just encouraging them to do it but actually putting things into zoning code and into our tax laws, that act of property tax laws which the city does control to actually incentivize it, I think we have to go further than just sort of asking them to do it and we actually have to go out as a city council member and do it. So I think that when we are doing the land use and zoning process, I think we can really, we always do these density bonuses, we always do, we bring these rezoning to us and developers ask us for things and we ask for things back and I think actually having in the zoning code and also as council members and council candidates thinking seriously about how to use our land use process to incentivize cultural space. We like all the stuff that we put in, but also making cultural space at the front of priority in terms of what we ask for when they build space. I think that's one and then also really looking at our property tax code about whether there are other incentives we can give to build affordable housing but also to build space in the bottom of it that can be cultural and art space. So I think we can even do more than encourage, I think we can require or at least incentivize the entire issue of affordable housing. I can talk for an hour about it, but I do want to say as we're creating this little work space we have to make sure we're creating good affordable housing in New York City. I will go back to what I said earlier which is that driving the prices down of our and creating real affordable housing has to be a priority for the city, the mayor and city council for the next four, eight, ten, twelve and twenty years we have to create those short-term and long-term affordable housing. We have to strengthen tenant organizations, strengthen the existing housing stock we add and we have to actually get real about building affordable housing that's affordable for people, not the thing we pretend is affordable. First I want to say I'm disappointed Andrew Cuomo's inability to put in art in that budget improvement. It's very sad. I think that that's not a part of every single aspect of renovation that happens. The first part of the question is where can we create some cultural districts and some corridors. In my district in East Harlem and the South Bronx we have a bunch of these different business corridors, almost 16th and 1.5th street that I think are so interesting when I was an improv actor. I used to go under triple crown and be able to do this free stuff and take my friend and do a few shows there. And I find that ability for a public slash private partnership to be really interesting. So I think when we think about trying to create those cultural corridors we look to businesses and those small businesses to be able to say, hey look, we can put some art in there. We can put artists and create theater in the different shops that are not being used and be able to kind of create that corridor in place. The next part is where can we create the live workspace that's affordable. When I think about East Harlem right now it is under this massive redistricting and so we have this great opportunity to really work with our city government to say, hey look, art spaces need to happen in our community. And so right now we're actually in this fight and so what I'm doing is I'm fighting to make sure that we have affordable spaces not only for artists but for those who can't afford to live in my district. And so I think those, taking a look at those unique opportunities and advocating for mandatory affordable housing priorities is going to be the key to be able to get those spaces in place. I want to echo what Edward said about concern regarding the governor's inability to put arts funding in the Brooklyn Project. That's where it's at. Art is the money, independent theaters need money. If it isn't budgeted from the beginning it's really hard to get down the road. It needs to be in there. When we're talking about affordable housing up in District 10, District 10 Washington Heights and Wood has one of the most concentrated amount of rent controlled and rent stabilized apartments in the city. They need to be protected. Whether that means making a big loud stink to Albany and saying you need to protect their affordable housing here in the city whether that means making sure that developers, if they come, put in affordable housing units in their buildings, that's important. I think one of the, touching on Point 10 of the platform, I think one of the most important thing we can do to help make New Yorkers aware of the independent theater community is by naming things and putting clocks on things and naming streets because it's things that people see. People can appreciate something that they don't know exists, that they don't know, that they can't see on a daily basis. And if they see a name on a street absolutely they could look it up and be like, what is this person's story? What did they contribute to my community? I would totally support that. In terms of cultural districts, one of the other things that District 10 has a lot of is parks. So there's no reason that Shakespeare in the park, that kind of thing can only happen in Central Park. They need to be fixtures and foundations in our communities and the parks spaces and build community centers for our artists to be able to work. So, where? In Bethesda, there is the Restoration Plaza, which is a lot of big space, tons of space in which I want to see plenty of our artists, entrepreneurs, young people promoting free space for anything that one may or might want to do. How? Well, it's about organizing and bringing together each other in the things that matter, the things that matter to us. It's networking in some way. So we have to bring each other together, networking in a place like the Restoration Plaza, in which we all bring our ideas together and we work together and we make plans and we structure that way by networking. Living workspace for artists is very important because doing your work, your creative art forms in your living space is not only inefficient, but so basically the Restoration Plaza of bringing our young people to the Restoration Plaza and networking and developing each other. Thank you. And one quick lap up starting on the end over there. This is the closing guest. So I guess today really underscores the power of the cultural and artistic community. I know there are 50,000 members of Lit and you're putting on collectively, I think like 2,000 productions a year, which is immense, but you made time to come out tonight to advocate. I was so pleased to see Controller Stringer earlier. I know that he was instrumental in sort of saying we need to organize and it was on all of the members here who created not only a roadmap, but came up with really creative solutions and I think that is so important. It's one thing to say you care about an issue, but to really get the power behind it and have your messaging so that you can make things happen is what it's all about. It was an honor to be part of this conversation. The arts are immensely important to me. I commit to you that if I have the opportunity to serve in council, I will absolutely be your advocate, be your voice. I think New York City is nothing, it's sterile, it's barren without the arts. So thank you for all you do. I want to thank you all for having me here tonight. Just some personal background. I grew up going to public schools and was fortunate enough to always have access to auditoriums and participate in plays and school fan and really perform in some great venues. And I grew up going to theater and so I certainly, I so appreciate it and it adds so much to life and some of my fondest memories are watching shows with my family. And so as a council member, I would certainly want to preserve space in the fact that we're in this theater. It's such a cool place. I don't want to see this theater or any other like this close. And also funding, what's controller stringer mentioned earlier, that bill that he, the report that he issued about arts education and then all the funding that ensued. I helped to draft the bill of the council member Crowley to do the same thing for physical education in public schools. We got a transparency bill and then tens of millions flowed in to bring schools up to speed in terms of gym. And so arts, gym, these are all elements for standard education. Thank you. Thank you. Again, I agree. Thank you guys for being here. I know that it could be anywhere, but tonight you put to be here and participate in a really big deal and I appreciate it by all of us. And I have to say congratulations to all the candidates because it's a lot to get up here and to run. So congrats everybody who's taken the risk. So thanks again. My name is Keith Powers. I look forward to talking to you guys after this, but I would obviously seek your support here and ask if you're looking for a campaign to volunteer for it. So somebody you know in the fourth, please take a look at Keith Powers at NYC. I'm very committed to the arts. My prior job, we helped establish the Department of Education's Art Education Committee. We had work on legislation around the Council of Arts. I actually should say I am being supported by Councilmember Ben Kalos who has your legislation on the city's basis and I'm very proud of that. I think Ben knows we can work together around issues around creating cultural art space and supporting school businesses and entrepreneurs. So very proud of that. I will leave it at that. Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you guys out there on the campaign trail. Thanks for being here tonight. Hello again. My name is Edward Santos. I just want to thank Lit for taking the time to organize this. I grew up in a working class immigrant family and when I'm city councilman, I want to focus on good schools for kids, good jobs for people and affordable housing for everyone. Believe it or not, English was my second language and my mom basically put me into musical theater so I can speak English and it was this amazing experience for me. So I know how arts can make New York City better. In fact, I think artists are the lifeblood of New York City and I look forward to your support. On September 12th. Thank you. Hi again. My name is Arden. I'm running under strip 10. I mentioned before that I was an actor. I still currently work in arts administration and theater administration. When I moved to New York City 13 years ago, the theater was my community and the good thing about having a theater theater community is that they are everywhere. Theater people love to communicate. They love to get together. They love to be active and that is a valuable resource. You should continue to do that. Even when you think that maybe your voice doesn't matter as much, you have to know that it does and you have to reach out to your representatives. As a city council rep, I promise to pursue items on your platform, housing, affordable rehearsal space, supporting the city spaces bill and growing public-private partnerships. I went to two education-related events in my district recently. They were both held in wonderful auditoriums that were nicer than most of the theaters I performed in when I was an actor. We really need to use the spaces that are there. I hope that they are supportive. Hello. Thank you again. My name is Arden. Thank you. I like to guide directors and producers, actors, young people. We'll keep up the good work and we have to stick together so we can ensure that our work transitions into the next generation. I grew up watching movies like Coors Line, like Harper's Show, and I understand how theater, performing arts and art is a social development for young people and for adults. Young people need to be with our artists and our performing artists so that social development can transition into our music. Thank you all. As I say, I'm learning for 36 District City Council, representing Back to Star Racing and North Carolina Heights. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to take a little quick five great class minutes and then we're going to have to sit back up for our final panel.