Tim Appelo has a piece in the new issue of City Arts about the impact the mayoral election will have on the arts community. The conclusion: Neither Joe Mallahan nor Mike McGinn have much arts experience, and both will have steep learning curves.

Details are what everyone is looking for from McGinn, an environmentalist, and his rival Joe Mallahan, a cellphone executive. Both geared up to challenge Nickels; when both neophytes amazingly beat Nickels in the August 18 primary, their campaigns were rendered shapeless. Now voters want answers; and the candidates are scrambling to define their agendas. So far, clear positions on the arts are in short supply.

Appelo quotes me (and my former Stranger colleague Brendan Kiley) extensively.

The real question is, how well can newbies execute arts policy, be it ever so noble?  “I think both expected to be facing Nickels,” says Kiley. “I get the sense they’re a little bit unprepared.” Barnett concurs: “Both Mallahan and McGinn are going to have a steep learning curve. Nickels was a strong advocate for causes he championed, because he knows the job. Mallahan and McGinn have never held elected office or worked in government, which I think is going to hinder either of them in a first term.”

Read the whole thing here.