| Arts groups call for more money
Arts groups are circulating a petition calling on the provincial government to increase funding to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA), arguing that funding hasn’t increased enough to keep up with inflation or to cover the rapidly growing number of arts groups in the province.
The AFA distributes money to the province’s various arts groups. In 1991 the AFA had a budget of $21 million and the budget is now $31.1 million. However, all but $2.9 million of that budget increase has gone to the Alberta Film Development Program, not to fine and performing arts groups. The number of arts groups in the province has also grown since 1991.
Alberta Theatre Projects artistic director Bob White says the lack of adequate funding has meant that groups like ATP can’t mount the kind of productions they’d like to.
"Ultimately it means the bottom line is you’ll see less onstage in terms of production values," he says. "It limits what you can do…. You can’t provide the kind of variety you’d like to."
White says the issue is simple. "It comes down to whether we in Alberta want to make the arts a priority," he says. "When you have the kind of money Alberta does, we could be setting a standard."
Theatre Calgary president Tom McCabe started the petition. McCabe says he’s sent it to 550 arts groups in the province and is hoping to receive thousands of signatures.
"The problem is education and health and infrastructure and roads are getting all the attention," says McCabe. "Arts and culture don’t get on the agenda. When I’m trying to do is get it on the agenda."
Report targets Beltline crime
A new report has found that there were 20 times more prostitution offences and three times more drug offences committed in the Beltline area in 2003 than the Calgary average.
The report, called Safe Streets Safe City, was written by the Community Life Improvement Council, a group that was formed in 1997 to address street prostitution. The Beltline is bounded by the railway tracks in the north and 17th Avenue S.W. in the south, and includes the communities of Victoria Park and Connaught.
The report recommends increasing staffing levels in the Calgary Police Service, introducing community-based police programs, establishing a Calgary drug court, increasing drug and alcohol treatment programs, and limiting the size and number of bars in the area. Encouraging redevelopment in East Victoria Park, increasing the minimum wage and Assured Income For the Severely Handicapped (AISH), increasing the amount of transitional housing for homeless people, and developing a comprehensive strategy to help men and women exit prostitution are some of the other report recommendations.
Petition demands more downtown cops
King Henry VIII Restaurant & Pub bartender Bradley Wojak has started a petition asking city hall to increase the police presence on Eighth Avenue S..W. where he lives and works because he says the area’s drug problem is getting out of control.
Wojak says he’s received support from staff at the Bear & Kilt and Unicorn bars, as well as other businesses. He plans to deliver the petition to city hall on December 1.
Wojak says he regularly has to kick people out of the bar for selling or using drugs and he says it can take up to an hour for police to show up after they’re called. Wojak has seen used needles lying on the street and he says staff at his pub are afraid to walk to their cars in nearby parking lots for fear of getting accosted by drug dealers or users.
"Attention is not going to get paid to this until someone gets hurt, and we don’t want that," he says.
Same-sex marriage gets banner support
The Pride Rainbow Project is inviting Calgarians to rally together in support of same-sex marriage and beat a world record in the process. The project, led by a group of young Calgarians, is holding a sewing bee to create a record-breaking two-mile-long fabric Pride Rainbow banner. Everyone is invited to drop by and show their support for same-sex marriage legislation in Canada. The sewing bee takes place on Saturday, November 20 at the Unitarian Church of Calgary between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. For more details, visit www.angelfire.com/hero/prp/. |
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