The community pottery studio offers affordable access to kilns, wheels and specialized equipment to citizens of all ages. Not everyone is an athlete, yet the city supports ball fields, recreation centers, parks and merry-go-rounds. It presents itself to tourists as a cultural magnet, invests in public sculpture and even gives cash incentives to artists to move here, as though we did not have artists of our own.
And, yes, the arts need subsidies, as do other less productive activities the city readily sponsors because there are auxiliary benefits that ensue and actual dollar costs are not the only consideration.
According to the spirit of the editorial, Chattanooga needs no public library, no Memorial Auditorium, no Tivoli Theatre, and no visitors bureau because they are not self-supporting. No, but they bring enormous collateral benefits to a city that is just beginning to build its distinctive character and define itself as a premier place to be.
Your focus seems very narrow and politically motivated when there are other more wasteful matters at hand.
JOHN W. HARRIS