San Bernardino Arts Collaborative Presses Candidates on Creative Economy, City’s Future

For Michael Segura, the question facing San Bernardino’s candidates is bigger than homelessness, public safety or City Hall dysfunction.

It is whether the city’s next leaders understand that arts, culture, identity and economic development are inseparable from San Bernardino’s quality of life.

The San Bernardino Arts Collaborative is hosting two candidate forums this week at the Garcia Center for the Arts, pushing candidates to discuss how the creative economy can shape the city’s future. A mayoral forum was held Tuesday, May 26, and a Ward 1 forum is scheduled for Thursday, May 28.

Both forums are being held at 6 p.m., with doors opening at 5:30 p.m., at the Garcia Center for the Arts, 536 W. 11th St. IECN Co-publisher Denise Berver is moderating both events.

The forums come less than a week before San Bernardino’s June 2 primary election, when voters will decide races for mayor and several City Council seats. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will advance to a November runoff.

Segura, executive director of the Garcia Center for the Arts, said the forums grew out of ongoing work by the San Bernardino Arts Collaborative to develop a cultural district and policy agenda based on community input.

“We’ve been working on the cultural district in the city,” Segura said. “We have been collecting community input and were able to push out a policy agenda based on that input and the work we have been doing since last summer.”

The collaborative includes San Bernardino Generation Now, the Garcia Center for the Arts, Arts Connection, Creative Grounds, Three Little Blue Byrds, Westside Story, the National Orange Show, Realicore, the San Bernardino Arts Association, Semilla Sibs and Future First.

Segura said the work has pushed arts organizations, cultural leaders and small businesses further into civic engagement, particularly as they seek city support for arts and culture.

“How do these folks see the creative economy?” Segura said. “Do they understand what the creative economy is? How are they really envisioning the future of San Bernardino’s arts and culture?”

Unlike other candidate forums that have largely centered on homelessness, safety and council conflict, the Arts Collaborative forums are focused on how culture, creativity and identity fit into broader questions of economic development.

For Segura, those issues are directly connected.

“The creative economy intersects with a lot of other social issues,” Segura said. “That’s where we’re interested in trying to make the forum a little different and unique from what other forums usually discuss.”

The Arts Collaborative’s mayoral forum follow last week’s North End Neighborhood Association mayoral forum at the Arrowhead Country Club, where candidates focused heavily on homelessness and divisions on the City Council.

Mayor Helen Tran defended the city’s progress on homelessness, saying San Bernardino declared a state of emergency in February 2023 and has since reported a 24% decrease in the unhoused population during the most recent point-in-time count.

“There is still a lot more work ahead, but we have to continue improving the process of how we work collaboratively between the city, county, nonprofits and organizations,” Tran said.

Amy Malone, a mayoral candidate and owner of a communications firm, challenged the city’s current approach, saying encampments remain visible across San Bernardino and businesses continue to deal with the impacts.

“We need to start working right now to utilize some of the properties that we already own, repurpose those properties, refurbish them, put some beds in there, bring in wraparound services and get our homeless off the street,” Malone said.

Ronnika Ngalande called for an audit of homelessness funding and said the city should focus more directly on measurable outcomes.

“We need to start paying based on results,” Ngalande said. “How many people are we actually able to house? How many people are we actually able to help?”

Ivan Garcia said the city needs to work more closely with outreach teams and service providers, while Rick Avila called for a large homeless services site on the outskirts of the city. Former Mayor John Valdivia criticized what he described as wasted taxpayer dollars and called for broader regional collaboration with the county and neighboring cities.

Candidates also addressed City Hall divisions. Tran said San Bernardino’s council-manager form of government requires a strong working relationship with the city manager, while Malone, Ngalande, Garcia, Avila and Valdivia each argued that the next mayor must take a more active role in bringing elected leaders together.

The Arts Collaborative forums are designed to move the conversation into another area of civic life that Segura said has long been overlooked: how the city invests in its own cultural identity.

Segura said San Bernardino has historically lacked stable support for arts and cultural funding. He pointed to historic buildings, murals, public art, vacant spaces and downtown cultural spaces as assets that need investment and protection.

“You can just look around the city,” Segura said. “You’re seeing historic buildings burned down. So how are we protecting historic sites? How are we defining the creative economy here, and how are we supporting artists, makers, thinkers and creatives who can innovate space?”

He said places such as Creative Grounds, Three Little Blue Byrds, the former Barrio Fuerza and downtown galleries have helped bring people into the city’s core, but have had limited access to city-backed support systems or capital.

“As we start building out these vacant spaces, how are we bringing infrastructure, green space and turning things into cultural assets?” Segura said.

The Ward 1 forum (May 28th) is especially relevant, Segura said, because the Garcia Center is located in the First Ward and many downtown businesses and cultural assets are also within the ward. Candidates Theodore Sanchez and Ron Alvarado were confirmed to attend, according to Segura.

The city’s qualified candidate list also includes Omar Williams and Virginia Marquez in the Ward 1 race.

Segura said one policy area he wants city leaders to consider is reestablishing funding mechanisms dedicated to arts and culture. He cited the city’s former development impact fee and visual and performing arts grants as examples of past support that could inform future policy.

“There are really no revenue generators that go strictly into arts and culture,” Segura said.

He also said San Bernardino should explore a dedicated arts and culture department or staff position to manage public art, murals, cultural assets, grant programs and arts programming in partnership with other city departments.

The Garcia Center plans to launch its own arts and culture department as a model for the type of structure Segura said he would like to see at the city level.

Ultimately, Segura said the goal is for residents and candidates to better understand how culture connects to infrastructure, housing, small business development and San Bernardino’s future.

“I would hope it helps them better understand the creative economy as a whole and how it connects to so many different things,” Segura said. “What cultural districts can do for the community if we support them and build them out.”

Register online for the Ward 1 Forum on May 28th here.