UPDATE: The Halprin Landscape Conservatory, leaders of the plan to renovate rather than replace Keller Auditorium, declares that fears of long construction delays and loss of performances and jobs are overblown. Details at bottom of story.

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Portland’s $35 annual city arts tax could be on the way out, replaced by a broader-based parks & arts levy, as Shane Dixon Kavanaugh reports in The Oregonian/Oregon Live. The city’s current parks levy expires at the end of 2025, and the city is in the process of combining its Parks Bureau and arts programs under a new umbrella called “Vibrant Communities.”

The proposed new levy, which would go on the ballot in 2025, would more than double the rate of the expiring parks levy, jumping from about $212 a year for a median residential house to about $477, Kavanaugh reported. The proposal also comes at a time when Gov. Tina Kotek has asked local governments in the metro region not to add any taxes for the next three years.

How the new levy would be divided between parks and arts programs isn’t yet clear. The $35-a-year arts tax, which city voters approved in 2012, goes largely to help pay for music and arts programs in Portland’s six school districts, with some money going to public arts programs.

Despite voter approval, the current arts tax has been looked on with disfavor by many as a regressive tax: It’s levied on every citizen in the city age 18 and older with an annual income above $1,000 and living in a household above poverty level. And it’s a stand-alone tax, not folded into annual city property taxes, which the proposed parks/art levy would be. For renters who don’t pay property taxes, the possibility exists that landlords would increase rental rates to cover the extra cost.

Tha arts tax has been unquestionably helpful to the city’s arts scene, especially in providing funding for school arts programs at a time when school budgets — and therefore programs such as music, theater, dance, and art — have been tightened.

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How intimately parks and arts programs would work together under the new Vibrant Communities umbrella isn’t yet known. Pressure will be strong to support large arts groups based in the city core, partly to help in the revival of downtown from the losses during the pandemic and protest years.

But it’s possible that money and programs could filter out to the neighborhoods, too. Decades ago many city parks had arts programs in their buildings, available for their neighborhoods and in some cases attracting visitors from around the city. A few such parks-sponsored programs, such as the Multnomah Arts Center in Multnomah Village, still exist. Is it possible that the new parks/arts hookup could revive that old citywide system?

Portland Opera endorses PSU Keller replacement plan

Portland Opera, one of the prime tenants of downtown’s 3,000-seat Keller Auditorium, announced on Tuesday its “full support of Portland State University as the alternative location for a new performance venue to replace the Keller Auditorium.”

The aging Keller faces at least a temporary closure to be brought up to current earthquake safety code, and three proposals have been forwarded: renovate the current building, build a new performance hall at Lloyd Center in close-in Northeast Portland, or build a new 3,000-seat hall and a 1,200-seat hall in south downtown at PSU. The city is expected to approve one of the three proposals in August. Under the Lloyd District and the PSU proposal, the current Keller would be kept open until the new facilities were completed and opened.

Like many other performing groups in addition to stagehands and other workers who would be thrown out of work during any shutdowns for construction at the current Keller, the opera company is deeply concerned about the financial impact of such a move. The Halprin Landscape Conservancy’s proposal to renovate the current building would necessitate such closures, with no alternate spaces of the Keller’s size available to host performances in the meantime.

“Portland Opera has deep concerns regarding the Halprin Landscape Conservancy’s proposal requiring a staggered closure of the Keller,” the opera company said in a press release. “In previous statements addressing the potential impact of this closure, Portland Opera emphasized the severe consequences a complete closure would have on the organization, and the broader arts community.”

“The arts community in Portland was devastated by COVID-19, especially the Portland Opera,” the press release quotes Carole Morse, Portland Opera’s board chair. The Keller renovation proposal, she adds, “would close the Keller for two to three years, undo all our efforts, and essentially force us to go through pandemic-level impacts again.”

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As the City Council prepares to vote on one of the three plans, renovation of the Keller and PSU’s two-theater proposal appear to be the major candidates, with Lloyd Center a dark horse. Proponents of reimagining the current Keller cite its historic importance and its key location downtown, especially its intimate partnership with the Keller Fountain just to the west of it, a major downtown park and gathering spot. They also believe that the Keller renovation option would be the least expensive of the three.

Backers of the PSU proposal cite the advantages of building from scratch to current auditorium standards, with good sightlines and acoustics and seating that is closer to the stage: The Keller has always been lacking in all three, although a stem-to-stern redesign could do much to solve its problems. PSU’s proposal to add a 1,200-seat hall — a highly desirable size that the city currently lacks — is also seen as a major plus. It would be of great use for the opera company, for instance, in producing smaller operas, providing the relative intimacy of the 880-seat Newmark Theatre but 320 more seats, allowing for more ticket sales and a better bottom line.

Oregon Ballet Theatre, another major tenant of the Keller, also would find the 1,200-seat option a good alternative to the Newmark while using the 3,000-seat hall for its annual Nutcracker and other grand story ballets. Presumably other companies, such as White Bird Dance and many musical organizations, would be eager to use the 1,200-seat hall, as well.

Perhaps the biggest loser if the Keller renovation option is chosen would be the highly popular Broadway in Portland series that brings in touring Broadway shows for Portland audiences, from Wicked to Hamilton to Six and pretty much everything between. With no other hall of necessary size available in the metropolitan area, the tours would simply have to skip Portland for the duration. And because Portland Opera is the local sponsor of the Broadway series, such a shutdown would blow a giant hole in the opera company’s budget, too.

“The Keller Auditorium remaining open until a new one is built is not only key to rebuilding our performances and revenue, but also necessary for our continued existence,” the opera company’s release quotes Sue Dixon, Portland Opera’s general director and CEO. “Closing the Keller, even for one day, threatens the arts community and all of the artists, performers, technicians and support staff who all contribute to a thriving arts ecosystem.”

If either the Lloyd or PSU option is chosen, the city would need to think creatively about what to do with the current Keller Auditorium.

It would seem highly desirable to keep it as some sort of public gathering place. Might it be dismantled and its space transformed into an urban park, linking seamlessly with Keller Fountain next door?

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Or might it be renovated for some other public use? What about the long-desired James Beard Public Market, for instance, which in such a setting could become a smaller version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, celebrating the city’s food scene and bringing in farm products and food vendors from around the state? A public market in the current Keller location would be in easy access to the Keller Fountain, Tom McCall Waterfront Park, several parking garages, and downtown businesses and homes — and it would be an all-day attraction, not just bringing people to the area when a show is going on.

What’ll it be? Tune in next month, when the City Council makes its call.

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UPDATE: On Friday, July 26, Our Next Keller, a group supporting the plan to renovate Keller Auditorium, issued a statement declaring that fears of shutdowns and lost performances during reconstuction are overblown.

The statement cites results of an analysis by Portland economic research firm ECOnorthwest, hired by the Halprin Landscape Conservatory, leaders of the renovate-the-Keller plan. The ECOnorthwest report — which is dated July 19, and which you can read here — responds to a city-sponsored economic study conducted by Crossroads Consulting, which the Our Next Keller statement describes as an “overstated” and “worst-case scenario” report. You can read the Crossroads Consulting report here.

“No one wants to save the Keller at the expense of workers, performers and local arts groups,” Bob Naito, co-chair and treasurer of the Halprin Landscape Conservancy, is quoted in the Our Next Keller statement. “We agree there will be short-term costs associated with temporary renovation closures. But those impacts can and will be mitigated with thoughtful planning that involves all the parties working together to find solutions – not with exaggerated, incomplete studies. A complete and exciting renovation can be done more quickly, at a lower cost and with less risk to the city than building an entirely new theater complex and abandoning the Keller, the fountain and the heart of downtown.”

Even an accelerated renovation schedule would necessitate the loss of several Broadway shows, but could also limit the losses, according to the ECOnorthwest report.

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“The Crossroads Analysis assumes a full two-year closure and does not consider accelerated or punctuated schedules as proposed by the recent Keller feasibility study and by the Halprin Conservancy,” the ECOnorthwest report says in part. “These alternative closure options could significantly reduce the number of days the Auditorium would not be available for performances during a temporary closure of the Auditorium.

“An accelerated renovation schedule of a proposed 19 months would … limit the closure of Keller Auditorium to one full Broadway season. The accelerated closure would affect a second season, but could accommodate a season’s worth of programming with some date shifting. The punctuated schedule would provide two seven-month breaks during construction, allowing many Broadway shows to have a full uninterrupted run at the Auditorium during the renovation.

“The accelerated option results in one truncated season over the two years and the punctuated schedule allows for two truncated seasons of approximately seven months each during renovation.”

A bulleted rundown of Halprin Landscape Conservatory’s disagreements with the Crossroads Consulting report, from the Our Next Keller statement:

“The ECOnorthwest analysis highlighted the following gaps in the Crossroads Report:

• Using temporary and alternate venues for all types of shows during the renovation.
• Accelerated or punctuated construction schedules that allow Broadway shows and Nutcracker performances to continue during renovations.
• The positive economic impact of renovation construction.
• Subsidies for arts organizations and workers during renovations.
• The economic damage of permanently closing The Keller.
• Continued spending of customers not attending Keller performances during renovations.”