Benny Napoleon: "I think they should take the DIA first"

[firstandten]

One of the most frustrating aspects of Napoleon's position [[other than the sheer insanity of it) is how badly out of step it is with the majority opinion of Detroiters:



Detroit politicians have a bad habit of kowtowing to a small minority of outspoken rabble-rousers while ignoring the wishes of the relatively silent majority.

The widespread support of specific reform proposals, coupled with the very low approval ratings of the governor, mayor, and city council, captures the zeitgeist of Detroiters. We overwhelmingly support reform initiatives and proposals, and we are very disappointed that our elected leaders have not implemented them.

The failure of city council to approve the Belle Isle lease has been their most brazen and publicized opposition to structural reform, and their terrible approval ratings in the most recent polls reflect how strongly out of step they are with the citizens of Detroit:



When 66% of Detroiters support the Belle Isle lease, and 44% support the appointment of an EM, while only 11% support the city council, it is very obvious that our elected city leaders are not doing what we elected them to do.

Benny Napoleon needs to stop pandering to the 11% of Detroiters who support the status quo, and start listening to the other 89% of us.

Thank you for articulating so well my problems with the Napoleon candidacy

[Zacha341]

^^^ Me too!

[Vic01]

maybe some of these posts should be over in the "Duggan vs Napoleon" thread?

[313WX]

I was merely pointing out that if the playing field were more accurate, Greater Detroit would be at # 6 rather than #12

The playing field is leveled as far as all of the other MSAs/CSAs are concerned.

Detroit is an anomaly.

[coracle]

It's interesting to look at http://www.freep.com/interactive/art...ity-assets-map and wonder which would be worth something and which might be difficult to sell. I think 6 thru 9, 11 and 13 might all have good marketable value but the rest are questionable. [[personal note to HT who enjoys yanking my cord over 12 - 12 might be a real hard sell). Let's hope Mr. Orr can find a way to reduce spending and increase income in a sustainable manner so nothing needs selling.

[Scottathew]

Just more "us vs. them" talk. "They" are going to take things from us!

Heaven help us if the state supported Detroit by taking over a large park, turn it into a state park, and make improvements to it.

I didn't quite have a stance on the election [[since I do not have a vote either). However, now that I've read this thread I do NOT want this idiot to win.

[LEOQUEEN]

I would think that those Detroiters who do vote would be more likely to visit the DIA and appreciate it and be turned off by Napolean's remarks, therefore supporting Duggan.

I havent posted here in a long time, but wanted to check in to see how everyone was responding to the threat to the DIA. The Arts have always been the whipping post; cant compete with the kind of entertainment that the average person can get at the park or in a concert. As an educator I have tried to show how the Arts are in everyone's immediate lives, hoping that this will make what painters, sculptors, etc do as valuable as music. But now I am truly frightened. If Benny, who is a more enlightened individual, will make a statement like that purely to touch base with the layman.....well, I am prepared to fight like never before to protect my beloved DIA. By Any Means Necessary.

[canuck]

I havent posted here in a long time, but wanted to check in to see how everyone was responding to the threat to the DIA. The Arts have always been the whipping post; cant compete with the kind of entertainment that the average person can get at the park or in a concert. As an educator I have tried to show how the Arts are in everyone's immediate lives, hoping that this will make what painters, sculptors, etc do as valuable as music. But now I am truly frightened. If Benny, who is a more enlightened individual, will make a statement like that purely to touch base with the layman.....well, I am prepared to fight like never before to protect my beloved DIA. By Any Means Necessary.

Dont worry, it wont happen. There are too many strings tied to this thing, re: the benefactors, their descendants, etc...

[rb336]

If Benny, who is a more enlightened individual, will make a statement like that purely to touch base with the layman.....well, I am prepared to fight like never before to protect my beloved DIA. By Any Means Necessary.

that is the first time I ever heard him referred to as "more enlightened."

I just saw that bit on Fox 2's Let It Rip. Where did they find those guests [[Ernest Johnson, David Bullock and Les Gold)? I swear there was barely an intelligible word said between the three of them, and the one thing I heard that I did understand was about just selling off all the "merchandise" in the basement. I assume that was the pawn shop guy. he clearly has absolutely ZERO understanding of how museums work. Most great museums display only a small fraction of what they own, and rotate them in and out of displays.

[sumas]

If it comes to bankruptcy we won't have a choice, a judge decides that. However I agree there would be years of litigation costing tax payers more of course.

However, it is beyond comprehension that that he supports putting our art on the block. Hope many posters on this thread are Detroit voters. We don't need that Moron.

Do tell though about those dirty secrets. All I know is he used charm and his power to get into cadets pants.

Just think, an idiot and a sexual predator. oh my God a Kwame clone of sorts.

[mwilbert]

Most great museums display only a small fraction of what they own, and rotate them in and out of displays.

Not really. As I understand it, at most museums where they have a lot of objects in storage, including the DIA, most of them are never displayed at all. They are retained for scholarly purposes; an "encyclopedic" museum is supposed to have an encyclopedic collection, even if all the objects are not displayworthy. However, they also aren't worth that much.

[Artistic]

Jack - meets - Ass

[313WX]

I just saw that bit on Fox 2's Let It Rip. Where did they find those guests [[Ernest Johnson, David Bullock and Les Gold)?

I bet that was a hoot.

[Honky Tonk]

DIRECTOR'S LETTER

Yes, it was quite a surprise to learn that the City of Detroit's emergency financial manager [[EFM) was going to leave the DIA's collection, in his parlance "on the table," as part of the restructuring of the city's finances. Despite the obvious temptation to jump to thoughts of selling the art, we are a long way from there. The EFM himself has been quoted in the media as "not want[ing] to go there" and, although the city nominally owns the art, it's not that straightforward.
We believe strongly that the city and the museum hold the art collection in trust for the public, and that it is not, therefore, subject to sale to settle debts. The value of the DIA as an asset of the people of this city and this state lies not in its financial worth but as an irreplaceable cultural and educational resource. If the ultimate goal of the painful process of restructuring is to create a more healthy and attractive Detroit, dismantling the DIA can only work against that end. We hope that the EFM and the governor will come to the same conclusion very soon.
As was the case with the millage, there's a lot of talk about "all that stuff in the basement that the museum never puts on view." Well, there's a reason-or rather several reasons-that a large proportion of our collection is out of sight for much of the time. One, despite periodic reviews and deaccessioning [[getting rid) of certain kinds of art, as a 127 year-old institution, the DIA has many objects that we would not bring into the collection today, ranging from early benefactor Frederick Stearn's souvenir bottle of colored sands from India to hundreds of shards of ancient Greek vases that were acquired "for teaching purposes" in 1927. Two, the DIA is fortunate in holding B+/A- pieces that we can use as substitutes when more important works on view in the galleries go out on loan. Three, we have many works of art that are light sensitive, notably works on paper and textiles. For each one of these objects that you see on view, we need to have four to six more in reserve that can rotate in and out of the galleries to prevent them from fading [[being "fried," in collector's jargon!). The 6,000 works of art that you see in our galleries comprise, I would guess, about 95 percent of our most significant pieces. As dollar values in art invariably reflect deeper cultural values, it's the galleries where the ten-figure sums cited in the press will be found-definitely not the basement.

It has also been suggested that the DIA has somehow been remiss in not doing more to preclude this perilous-seeming situation, and I want to assure you that we have made every effort to do what can be done to secure this great institution. The millage has given us a measure of financial security and, even as we worked on that, we were trying to work with the mayor's office and city council to recast our operating agreement with the city to reflect the changed circumstances of the past decade and a half. That said, we did not for one moment realistically expect the city to divest itself of ownership of the art collection and, to those who ask why not, I would simply point to the recent fracas over Belle Isle as a possible state park.

The DIA now finds itself in an unprecedented situation in uncharted waters, and I assure you that we will spare no effort to secure for future generations the integrity of the incredible collection that is at the core of our social, educational, and cultural value.

Graham W. J. Beal

[rb336]

Graham Beal is an incredible asset to this community. His knowledge combined with extreme skill as a communicator and unassuming, unpretentious manner are unmatched in the museum universe

[rjlj]

Strongly agree.

Graham Beal is an incredible asset to this community. His knowledge combined with extreme skill as a communicator and unassuming, unpretentious manner are unmatched in the museum universe

[DetroitPlanner]

How would we [[or in this case Orr) prioritize what assets to get rid of. It won't be an easy job. As mentioned earlier, the Freep yesterday had several of them. What are actually sellable? What would happen if to the latest Plan [[Detroit Works) if the City does sell the land, as the plan seems to recommend a massive reworking of land-use?

This won't be easy. All Benny did was call attention to the most valuable and marketable of the two assets. To be honest, I did not even think of Joe Louis or Fort Wayne until I saw it in the article. My mindset needs to change as much as everyone else's.

[corktownyuppie]

How would we [[or in this case Orr) prioritize what assets to get rid of. It won't be an easy job. As mentioned earlier, the Freep yesterday had several of them. What are actually sellable? What would happen if to the latest Plan [[Detroit Works) if the City does sell the land, as the plan seems to recommend a massive reworking of land-use?

This won't be easy. All Benny did was call attention to the most valuable and marketable of the two assets. To be honest, I did not even think of Joe Louis or Fort Wayne until I saw it in the article. My mindset needs to change as much as everyone else's.

All of our mindsets need to change, as well as our concept of "ownership". What good is it that Detroit owned Cobo Hall when it was collapsing piece of dogsh** that no one wanted to pay to use anymore? We could point to it and say, "YEAH. We OWN this."

What benefit do we as Detroiters get for owning the Detroit Tunnel? It's not like Detroit residents use it for free, right?

What benefit do we get for owning Chandler Park? Rouge Park? Belle Isle Park? Sure, we get to use them for free. But so do suburbanites. And yet we pick up the tab for all the maintenance, right?

What benefit do we get for owning art? As long as it's sitting in the DIA, and I get to see it, what the hell difference does it make?

===============

We NEED to stop arguing about ownership. It's stupid. We NEED to start arguing about what benefits city residents.

- If in a hypothetical situation, the Water Department was owned by a tri-county entity, would it matter as long as Detroiters paid the same water rates?

- What good is owning an enterprise asset when we can't spin the profits from it into our general fund? Wouldn't leasing it to a 3rd party allow us to benefit from it?

- Who cares who owns Belle Isle? What matters is what will benefit Detroit residents the most, right? If a private operator charged a fee to get on the island, but that fee went to pay for more cops in the neighborhood, is there any resident who wouldn't make that trade?

Ownership is a red herring. Let's start talking about:

- the problems we're facing
- the priority of those problems
- the resources we have at hand
- and the most efficient way of deploying those resources to solve those problems.

Phukk all the other BS that's getting everyone all up in arms.

[Honky Tonk]

All of our mindsets need to change, as well as our concept of "ownership". What good is it that Detroit owned Cobo Hall when it was collapsing piece of dogsh** that no one wanted to pay to use anymore? We could point to it and say, "YEAH. We OWN this."

What benefit do we as Detroiters get for owning the Detroit Tunnel? It's not like Detroit residents use it for free, right?

What benefit do we get for owning Chandler Park? Rouge Park? Belle Isle Park? Sure, we get to use them for free. But so do suburbanites. And yet we pick up the tab for all the maintenance, right?

What benefit do we get for owning art? As long as it's sitting in the DIA, and I get to see it, what the hell difference does it make?

===============

We NEED to stop arguing about ownership. It's stupid. We NEED to start arguing about what benefits city residents.

- If in a hypothetical situation, the Water Department was owned by a tri-county entity, would it matter as long as Detroiters paid the same water rates?

- What good is owning an enterprise asset when we can't spin the profits from it into our general fund? Wouldn't leasing it to a 3rd party allow us to benefit from it?

- Who cares who owns Belle Isle? What matters is what will benefit Detroit residents the most, right? If a private operator charged a fee to get on the island, but that fee went to pay for more cops in the neighborhood, is there any resident who wouldn't make that trade?

Ownership is a red herring. Let's start talking about:

- the problems we're facing
- the priority of those problems
- the resources we have at hand
- and the most efficient way of deploying those resources to solve those problems.

Phukk all the other BS that's getting everyone all up in arms.

Got Asian buyers lined up, do you Mark?

[corktownyuppie]

Got Asian buyers lined up, do you Mark?

"People over Paintings"

For the record, I'm not the Coaccession guy, just to clarify!

[marshamusic]

Graham Beal is an incredible asset to this community. His knowledge combined with extreme skill as a communicator and unassuming, unpretentious manner are unmatched in the museum universe

.....to which his statement, that was posted earlier in this thread, is certainly a testament. I have met him several times, at DIA events, but I was surprised at the "down to earth" quality of that communique.