“If you’re a bartender, raise your hand. If you work in production, raise your hand,” Jeannette Gregor called out during the Come & Save It rally at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon. “If you’re a musician… lighting designer… sound engineer… security.”
Soon, nearly every one of the roughly 80 attendees had a hand in the air.
“You have value. You matter,” continued the event’s organizer, a furloughed bartender at Mohawk who also worked production on a variety of music festivals. “This is not something we’ve been hearing form the city or state. The ‘live music capital of the world’ is us. We need dedicated funding.”
The rally stood in support of Item 62 on City Council’s agenda for Thursday, the so-called SAVES Resolution, sponsored by Mayor Steve Adler and Council Members Jimmy Flannigan, Kathie Tovo, and Leslie Pool. Its description:
“Approve a resolution that directs the City Manager to explore and identify ways to support and to increase the survivability of those most vulnerable in Austin’s hardest hit sectors: childcare, music and arts venues, restaurants and bars.”
On the Austin Council Forum message board, Council Members Greg Casar, Natasha Harper-Madison, Paige Ellis, and Ann Kitchen have all asked to be added as sponsors, so the measure will pass, making the question more about what will be added to the resolution on the dais.
The advocacy group Austin Texas Musicians, whose Executive Director Patrick Buchta gave an impromptu speech at the rally, are calling for Council to create a dedicated Music Venue Preservation Fund as part of the resolution. They’re also asking for the Better Business Bureau to not be re-engaged as a music grant administrator. During Wednesday’s remarks, Butcha characterized the BBB as having botched the recently contentious Creative Worker Relief Grant process as well as eating up an unnecessary amount of funding with a 5% admin fee.
Meanwhile, Red River Cultural District head Cody Cowan this week issued a set of music sector policy recommendations to the Council Members. The missive included the following specific urgencies:
“Short Term Needs: Live Music Venues need immediate, ongoing rent relief. Our sector is agnostic about the City’s funding sources and only expect results.
“Short-To-Long Term Needs: The Music Sector requires a dedicated Live Music Venue Preservation Fund (MVP). We have currently ascribed funding need at $10M and suggest that the program could operate as a line of credit, to be spent strategically over the next 6-12 months on music venues only. The MVP program could manage immediate funds found by staff, later CRF from Congress, and also revenue generated for later redevelopment projects through the EDO. It could encourage both public and private support opportunities. The MVP would address economic triage for music venues, later recovery needs, and will be a powerful symbol that demonstrates to our Music Sector, our citizens, and the world the central importance of live music to our culture and our economy.”
The letter closes with a perceived litmus test of city support for music:
“The inclusion (or exclusion) of these needs in item No. 20200917-62 will send a clear message about economic and political priorities for the City of Austin forthwith.”
At Wednesday’s rally, saxophonist and flautist Lauryn Gould decried City Council’s consideration of another item related to expanding the Convention Center.
“There is absolutely no reason we should even be thinking of Convention Center expansion at this time,” Gould exclaimed, later adding, “The fact that it’s still on the table in our current situation is utterly ridiculous. If this item passes, it could mean that ample funding is off the table to help with the SAVES Resolution. I was just informed that there’s over $200,000 in reserves in this Convention Center fund – money that was brought in as a result of our industry. If even a fraction of these funds was released to aid our ailing community, we could have hope for a flourishing, vibrant, creative post-pandemic Austin.”
Also at the rally, Drakulas and Riverboat Gamblers singer Mike Wiebe recalled his band moving to Austin early in the millennium because it boasted a better underground culture than other major cities, then name-checked some of his favorite businesses that closed during the pandemic, like Barracuda, Cap City Comedy Club, and Mugshots.
“If we don’t take care of this ecosystem, what is this city?” he asked. “Is it just a place where some tech guys live? Would you guys want to stay here?”
“Noooo,” the audience responded, in chorus.
This article appears in September 11 • 2020.