This past Monday I went to the City Council Budget hearing and stood with community leaders from all walks and from all over Los Angeles, for an opportunity of 60 second of comment in for the Council and oppose the cuts for NCs and Disability funding. I stayed until 8pm. My husband, Stephen Box, stayed until midnight and he came back with good news about the NC funds not being cut.

Early Wednesday morning Stephen went down to City Hall again for an all day Budget meeting. While at City Hall he interviewed artists and community leaders, got his 60 seconds of comment time about preserving the Arts & Culture and the Disability funds for Los Angeles and came home at around 10pm.

I couldn’t make it out on Wednesday. However, I listened in via phone (818-904-9450) and also watched the PowerPoint presentation by City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana on LA City View 35.

I sat down and tweeted as much as I could, from my personal as well as from the Bitter Lemons Twitter account to keep my friends updated who were counting on me reporting from downtown. Various people from the artist community listened in: @juliagriswold, @GriffithParkWay, @MusicalThtrWest, @BostonCourt, @danceralamode, @cindymariej, @daveedkapoor were amongst the many to stay on top of what was going on.

Here are a some of my favorite tweetes:

ActOut Julia Salazar from Eagle Rock, Dist. 14 speaks about how arts funding support not only artists but also local businesses and the community. 11:15 PM Feb 3rd

ActOut Current speaker says public safety is not only part of PD & FD but also of the community & we rely on the arts 2 keep kids off the streets. 11:17 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons HeArt project says Arts create jobs, the community, it educates young people and creates a healthy environment for all. 11:21 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons Eliminating art is a bad business decision. If you eliminate funding, tourism, hotels and the economy will suffer! #BudgetLA 11:24 PM Feb 3rd

ActOut Raul from Boyle Heights who is a muralist depends on the support of the Department of Cultural Affairs. #BudgetLA 11:29 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons Dude with a paintbrush says prayers at night to get things situated. Arts have helped him with selfesteem and kids need that support. 11:33 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons Work of DCA is essential for arts in schools! We need more then Hollywood to be Los Angeles! #BudgetLA 11:34 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons Free concerts, music and the arts is essential for the future of LA. LA is home to more artists than any other city in the nation. #BudgetLA 11:35 PM Feb 3rd

ActOut Stephen Box is speaking about 47 NCs who fight for their right to volunteer and who work with artists to stimulate our economy. #BudgetLA 11:36 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons Crime reduction happens not only because of police but also because of NCs, community orgs and arts in our communities. #BudgetLA 11:38 PM Feb 3rd

labitterlemons George is here to make some noise. The disabled public will come after the Council if they cut funding from them. #BudgetLA 11:40 PM Feb 3rd

You can read all the tweets on http://twitter.com/labitterlemons, http://twitter.com/BudgetLA and http://twitter.com/ActOut.

As you all probably know by now, the city has eliminated the cut in the arts grants program and we can for now turn back to our books, canvas, paper, or clay, and continue to do what we do so well: Create Art that changes lives and that keeps our communities safe and gets kids and adults off the streets.

But we shouldn’t get to complacent. We need to make a promise to the city as well as to ourselves that we will do everything that we can to spread the word about the importance of art and live entertainment, the importance of books and music, the importance to our culture and our history.

You can listen to the public comments here (1 hr  54 mins).

Listen to the entire meeting on the LA City website (8 hrs 42 mins).