Jersey City Ward E Councilman James Solomon’s arts plan if elected mayor would include cancelling the Centre Pompidou project and providing more funding.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Jersey City has a rich and thriving arts community — from renowned musicians like Akon and Kool & the Gang to countless local artists, galleries, and performance groups that give our city its soul. As Mayor, I will prioritize supporting this community, making arts accessible to all, and ensuring that our city lives up to its creative potential,” he said in a statement.
“Our arts community is not just a source of pride but a vital part of our city’s identity and economy. We owe it to our artists, our children, and our future to nurture this community, stand firm against distractions, and build real, lasting support for the arts in Jersey City.”
For example, the downtown councilman says he would seek to promote more homegrown arts education city children by forging partnerships between the schools and local universities, city agencies, and local arts organizations.
Similarly, Solomon calls for unlocking funding from foundations, universities, and companies to enable more Jersey City arts organizations to achieve and maintain scale.
He also asserts that “the current administration failed to deliver a credible plan to fund the Pompidou. Based on its own calculations, the Pompidou has a nearly $250 million budget hole over the next decade.”
Solomon immediately came out against the 30-year tax break for the plan and voted against it when it was approved 6-3 in late September (Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano and Ward F Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore also voted no).
Additionally, he wants to reform the process for issuing organizational awards from the Arts Trust Fund, which includes removing eligibility for organizations outside of Jersey City, and re-evaluating the level of current limits on organization funding and the composition of the panel that determines the awardees.
Solomon also pledges to hold developers accountable for delivering on promises for arts-related community benefits, creating a central page for the arts on the city’s website, and get artists materials and promote sustainability by establishing a creative re-use partnership with the city for discarded items.
“Developers have often shirked these responsibilities, delivering less than what was promised or unusable spaces not fully built out in order to pad their own bottom line, with no monitoring or accountability from the City,” his campaign said.
“As Mayor, James will strictly hold all developers to their promises, refusing to issue certifications of occupancy until all promises are fulfilled, and will ensure that artists with the relevant expertise are brought in from the outset to make sure that delivered spaces are fit-for-purpose.”
Furthermore, Solomon said he would establish a program similar to New York’s “Materials for the Arts” by partnering between the Sanitation Division and the community to divert materials that are usable by artists from landfill disposal.
