No starving artists in San Fran, city to give local artists $1,000 monthly stipend as part of stimulus pkg

The city of San Francisco is implementing a local stimulus package for up to 130 local artists who are set to receive $1,000 a month for six months if they meet certain eligibility criteria. Applications for the no-strings, guaranteed income program through the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) will be accepted through April 15 with notifications either way by May 11.

The YBCA’s website claims that “artists are essential agents of social change.” Those who are eligible for the cash that will be doled out starting on or about May 21 must be San Francisco residents age 18 or older in certain zip codes who have lost income during the COVID pandemic, who meet certain income requirements, and “whose artistic practice is rooted in a historically marginalized community”

Artistic practice includes music, dance, creative writing, visual art, performance art, photography, theater, or film. The upper 2020 income limit for an individual to qualify is $60,900, which seems generous for the handout, although the cost of living in the city is soaring. The limits go higher for two-to-five-member households.

“The pilot program is a collaboration among the Office of Racial Equity at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, YBCA, Grants for the Arts and the San Francisco Arts Commission,” and is funded by a hotel tax, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The intent is to jump-start the creative sector in the city, which under normal, pre-pandemic times, supposedly generates $1.45 billion each year in economic activity as well as providing jobs for about 40,000 full-time workers in the area.

“Learnings from the Pilot will help us to understand how guaranteed income impacts artists’ ability to focus on creative output and reinvest in their communities,” YBCA noted.

Watch a report on this pilot program from KTVU, FOX 2 San Francisco:

Far-left Mayor London Breed, who presides over a city where homelessness and drug addiction are rampant, told the Chronicle, “This program is one of several guaranteed income pilots that we’re developing in San Francisco…I’m committed to making San Francisco a more equitable, just and thriving city, and we’re exploring this guaranteed income model to see if it can help us advance those goals.”

Earlier, Breed asserted that “the arts are critical to our local economy and are an essential part of our long-term recovery.”

Parenthetically, in a recent editorial, however, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson explained what liberals have in mind when they talk about equity.

Similar guaranteed-income programs are underway in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere in California.

Oakland, for example, is planning to distribute $500 a month to 600 low-income families of color for the next 18 months.

 

An Oakland Equity Indicators Report justifies the action by pointing to data showing white households earn approximately three times what black households do.

“We have designed this demonstration project to add to the body of evidence, and to begin this relentless campaign to adopt a guaranteed income federally,” Mayor Libby Schaaf, a Democrat, said.

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