PrintAugust 3, 2009
LA mulls spending federal money for Canadian circus
Your tax dollars may soon finance a long term Los Angeles gig for the pride of Quebec: Cirque du Soleil, whose trippy acrobatic performances have delighted audiences at several Vegas casinos, New York, and of course back home in Montreal for quite some time now.
The geniuses on the Los Angeles City Council now reportedly are considering a massive loan to underwrite 10 years of CdS in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times blog reports:
A five-member committee of the Los Angeles City Council voted this morning to move ahead with a $30- million loan that would bring a decade of Cirque du Soleil performances to the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.The council's Housing, Community and Economic Development Committee unanimously forwarded the loan proposal to the full council for a vote, saying the deal would boost the economy by drawing tourists to the Hollywood & Highland shopping mall, where the theater is located.Under the proposed loan agreement, TheatreDreams LA/CHI would promise to create no fewer than 858 jobs and stage the acrobatic show 368 times per year. ....
On Tuesday, Councilman Dennis Zine questioned whether so much federal loan money should be devoted to a single economic development project. But Councilman Tony Cardenas said this morning that critics were taking aim at the deal simply because the facility is "so high-profile and so pretty."
Has it occurred to anyone that something so widely available elsewhere is not likely to become a reason to visit Hollywood?
And why should American taxpayers underwrite jobs for a Canadian circus?
Hat tip: Ed Lasky
