In 1692, the English philosopher John Locke – whose political philosophy inspired Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence – first suggested the concept of “unintended consequences” when he argued against a parliamentary bill cutting the maximum interest rate because it would actually reduce the availability of credit, thereby hurting the very borrowers the bill was intended to help.

That concept has since been elevated informally to a “law” by its application to a wide variety of circumstances, especially economics (including “Freakonomics”).  And a story in this week’s Park Ridge Herald-Advocate demonstrates how it appears to have adversely affected our City’s cultural arts community: “Arts fundraiser fails to stick with Park Ridge residents” (May 20).

When the City Council, at the behest of Mayor Dave Schmidt, finally said “enough” to the various private “community groups” that had developed an entitlement mentality towards the public funding they had grown accustomed to receiving from the City, then-city manager Jim Hock and a few aldermen tried to throw a sop to the cultural arts crowd with the institution of a special $10 “arts” sticker that could be purchased along with a City vehicle sticker and would benefit six local cultural arts groups.

But after just one sale – in the Spring of 2011 – the initiative was dropped because too few residents purchased those stickers to justify their cost and the City manpower to process those sales.  And, not surprisingly, the intended beneficiaries of that effort are now beefing about its failure, while also seeming to take a backhanded slap at the mayor and the Council for cutting their funding.

According to the H-A article, Cultural Arts Council member Diddy Blyth called the sticker program a “political move” that actually “diffused and incinerated” an incipient effort by the six cultural arts groups at working together on larger-scale fundraising.  And the article reports that those groups have not met together since.

Can you say: “Why should we actually work at fund-raising when we can once again feed at the public trough”?   Apparently those cultural arts groups can.

Brickton Art Center received a shade over $2,200 through sticker sales, nowhere close to the $11,000 it was going to receive in FY2010-11 before Schmidt’s veto was sustained by the Council.  And according to Brickton Executive Director Alyssa Kulak, Brickton is compensating for the failure of the sticker initiative by “seeking out different grants” and “cutting back on expenses.”

We suggest Brickton and these other cultural arts groups take a lesson from those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies, where a group of enthusiastic folks would signal their fundraiser of choice with the now-iconic exclamation: “Let’s put on a show!”

If Park Ridge residents truly support the arts – as the cultural arts folks insisted every time they sought City funding – these cultural arts groups should figure out a way to have those residents show it.  With cash. 

How about talking to the owners of the Pickwick, the City’s crown jewel venue, about hosting a gala event?  Or the old reliable Park Ridge Country Club, if the Pickwick won’t work?  Charge a C-note per ticket, serve champagne and some of those “heavy” hors d’oeuvres (we’re partial to super-colossal U12-count shrimp that look like they kicked a lobster’s butt just for the privilege of being on the tray) and feature some notable entertainment that will make the event the place to be in Park Ridge on that particular night.

If that doesn’t raise the kind of money these groups need, maybe it’s time for them to re-think their roles in this community.

And maybe it’s time for the Council to learn yet another lesson about the unintended consequences of City government sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong while trying to funnel public monies into private entities and activities.

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