Culture
Do Cultural Plans Really Help Cities Save Their Art and Music Scenes?
From D.C. to Dallas, cities are drafting documents to help protect their cultural resources from economic changes. But too often, these plans lack teeth.
Last Thursday, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., introduced the city’s first-ever Cultural Plan. Five years in the making, the document spells out at length the city’s disposition on artists and creators. The plan outlines more than two-dozen policy recommendations built with the input of multiple city agencies and some 1,500 residents, performers, administrators, and others.
But nowhere in the 224-page document will you find an immediate answer to the cultural crisis unfolding in D.C.: a neighborhood noise complaint involving go-go music, the city’s signature sound.