Afternoon Jolt: Keblas Drops Out of Race
Afternoon Jolt
After jumping in to the race for city council postion nine just two weeks ago, former Seattle office of film and music director James Keblas, now says he has decided not to run. Position nine is one of the two citywide seats on the newly districted council.
Keblas, a well-known figure in the arts community for his work at the city boosting the local film biz (and earlier, for his role at Vera, the all-ages music center), had stepped into the brewing showdown between civil rights attorney Lorena González and slow-growther Bill Bradburd. There's a sense of drama in the González race because González is mayor Ed Murray's legal counsel—and Bradburd's antagonism to urbanist trends such as pod apartments could be seen as a referendum on Murray's pro-growth and regionalist mecca leanings.
Keblas would have added another wrinkle to the drama because Keblas, director of film and music for nine years, was one of the city directors Murray did not retain when he took over from former-mayor Mike McGinn.
Keblas released this—fund the arts!—statement today:
After careful consideration of the impact of the campaign on my current personal and professional commitments, I have decided to take my name out of Council consideration.
While I won’t be in the race, I will work with current candidates to make sure they understand the benefit of investing in Seattle’s creative economy.
This means Seattle’s leaders need to empower ordinary people to make the extraordinary happen through actions like:
• Using our Families and Education Levy for music and arts education for every school, every student, and every week.
• Dedicating 100 percent of our admissions tax to support cultural partnerships, initiatives and training for organizations, individual artists, and youth arts programs.
• Incentivizing thousands of union-wage jobs through the city’s film, music and creative economy and make connections between Seattle’s local creative assets with technology leaders to position Seattle as the global innovator in digital media creation and distribution.
And he continues:
All around the country, cities are capitalizing on creativity. Just last week Boston mayor Martin Walsh announced Boston Creates, a bold 10-year plan designed to prioritize, coordinate, and align public and private resources to strengthen cultural vitality. In contrast, a recent study from Forbes magazine shows Seattle barely making the top 10 list of creative cities in America.
We have to ask ourselves what kind of city we want to live in. I believe most Seattleites want to live and work in a city inspired by a creative spirit that rewards our community with an even stronger economy and cultural identity.
We are not there yet.
