Downtown Phoenix paying street performers for shows : AZ IMC

Downtown Phoenix paying street performers for shows

Dec. 2, 2005 12:00 AM

It isn't often that downtown Phoenix office workers encounter magicians, jugglers, fire-eaters and accordion players. Not to mention an Elvis impersonator.

But they did on Thursday, and they had better get used to it.

A stretch of Adams Street in the center city is now known as "Performance Street," and over the next month, and possibly longer, performers will be entertaining workers over the lunch hour twice a week as they walk to and from restaurants and dine at outdoor tables.

"We're going to turn Adams Street into a stage of creativity and vitality," said Brian Kearney, president and CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, which is coordinating the program with the help of funding from businesses.

The idea came from Mayor Phil Gordon, who was impressed with the street performers he saw during a visit to Santa Monica, Calif. "A community isn't a community without artists and performers," Gordon said during a ceremony kicking off the program.

Because Kearney didn't know how to find street performers, he turned to Stephen Strange, a Phoenix vaudeville/circus performer who said he tapped into the "loose network of street performers" in the Valley. They will be paid a nominal fee, plus tips, to perform along Adams on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at various downtown spots on nights when there are major events.

"It was important to get paid something because there is no real culture of tipping down here yet," Strange said. "Hopefully that will pick up."

Hey, it isn't San Francisco, but it's a start.

<SNIP>

> See the long description for Item 64.
>
> http://phoenix.gov/FAGENDAC/agenweb5.html#Item64
>
> Since no one shows up to the public hearings to pay for these things
> and the extend of their "caring" is only to b*tch about it, the Mayor
> says, "what the heck", and does it anyone.
>
> A total of ZERO people showed up to the "public hearing" described in
> Item 64.

Yeah. I'm sure they advertised this hearing for three weeks, three
times a day, during prime time. Plus, unlike the mayor, we get paid to
go to these hearings, so the gallery is always standing room only.

An oldie but goodie repost:

> The concept of "we give scary powers to government and then we apply
> 'eternal vigilance' to make sure they don't abuse them" is entirely
> unworkable. You are asking a citizenry who have other jobs and other
> lives, and who lose money every minute they have to waste watching
> their government, to ride herd on a bunch of people who go to work
> every day and draw a paycheck to run that government and discover
ways
> to defeat such control. Distilled to its essentials, the idea is
> ludicrous, like expecting an office worker to simultaneously and
> single-handedly rear two toddlers whom she leaves at home each day.
>
> Limited minarchy is a low-entropy state -- tyranny is a high entropy
> state. The effort required to keep the former from devolving into
the
> latter is simply insupportable.
>
> Answer honestly: do you check your tire pressure and your auto fluids
> once a week? Check your tread monthly? Change your belts annually?
> Rotate your tires? I doubt it. Frankly, the only reason most of us
> remember to fill the gas tank is that the car stops within a day or
> two of when we forget. The difference is, your car does not spend
> every waking moment chafing at your control of it and scheming at
ways
> to neutralize you.
>
> The entire concept of representative, limited minarchy is that you
can
> delegate the work to someone else and largely forget it. That works
> as well for government as it does for self-defense, which is not much
> at all.

Hmm... How much is a laugh worth? a smile? a chance to dance or inspiration to try something new? I say priceless. all they most popular urban areas in the world to travel to are lively places. the most popular in North america is San francisco warf and until the flood new orleans. Can you imagine either of those place without street performers? The sound of live music can be heard from the moment you enter the area. It excites people, wet their apetite for all the stimulation they are about to recieve; like the smell of cookies baking minute before the first taste.

This is a great idea . Here are bucket Drummer street performers from all around the world. http://www.bucketbeats.com