$8000 Binoculars and an Art Plan for Plano

Plano's Political Pitbull on Rumble

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​Epi 47 0
Esther: Hello, listeners. Welcome to Plano's Political Pit Bull podcast. I am Esther
Ruth: and I'm Ruth,
Esther: and today we have a whole bunch of Plano stuff. First, I must make a correction. In the last episode, I said the Texas legislature passed $7.7 billion in public school funding. I should have said a $7.7 billion increase in funding. So we got $7.7 billion more. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, the total package was about over $100 billion. So sorry about that.
Now moving on. So we had a bond election in Plano, as well as electing our city council and school board, we also had some bond proposals on the ballot. We went over all of these bond proposals that were on the ballot in previous episodes. And every single solitary one of those things passed in large numbers. There was not a single one that failed. I am shocked because it said very plainly said, if you pass this, your taxes are going to go up. Personally, I voted for one and I voted no on the rest. How they passed, I don't know?
Ruth: It's almost like people don't understand what they are.
Esther: Could be, could be. I mean, it wasn't exactly (it was clear for me anyway) but maybe it wasn't clear when they said this will increase your taxes.
Ruth: They word them so long and lawyer speak that your eyes kind of glaze over and you really just skim through it.  I know from personal experience.
Esther: Maybe they have to like bold that? This will increase your taxes.
Ruth: Why would they do that?  
Esther: Well the legislature makes them put the wording in there about the taxes.
Ruth: They make them do it. That's why they do it.
Esther: Apparently, it's not that clear, I guess, to people that your taxes are going to go up. But they're going to complain about their property taxes going up. Nevertheless, brace yourself folks. Next year your tax bill will be higher.
So at the City Council meeting on April 28th, there were a few things that happened that I must go over. So first, I didn't know what to call this. Maybe as we're talking through it, we can come up with a name for this segment.
Ruth:Okay.
Esther: So the city approved some night vision binoculars. They approved a purchase for night vision binoculars.
Ruth: For what purpose?
Esther: For the police department. For the swat.
Ruth: Oh, okay.
Esther: Right. Everybody's like. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Night vision goggles. 14 of them. So I asked Ruth, just like I did with the chicken coop. Can you look up and find out how much night vision goggles or binoculars? Not goggles. These are specifically binoculars go for on Amazon.
Ruth: So I'll also I'll preface that all of the ones I found on Amazon came up first, I didn't go that far down. But the ones that I found that were at the top and all included recording capabilities.  At the low end you had,  this list price there on sale right now. On the low end you have $79.99 list price, and on the high end you have $209.99 list price. There's probably cheaper. There's probably more expensive. I didn't look at it for that long.
Esther: I figure okay, night vision binoculars with recording, how expensive could they really be? Ruth: Depends how fancy you want to go.
Esther: Mhm. Yeah yeah yeah I guess so. But these are pretty fancy. You get the recording you get a little SD card or some kind [of thing to save on.] So you can back up the recording and watch it later. You can see it night which you know the whole purpose of why you want night vision binoculars to see at night.
Ruth: There's probably other functions that you might want that these don't include. I don't know. I've never used night vision goggles or binoculars before.
Esther: Well, the idea of binoculars is to be able to see far. You want to really get up close and personal, but from afar. Okay. But you can't do that during the [night]time unless you have specifically ones for night.
Ruth: So the reason I'm saying that there might be other functions that some of these, like the cheaper ones, don't allow for is I'm thinking it in a, camera sense. More expensive cameras, you have more functions that you can get more deeper in the weeds of how exactly you want the picture to look like.
Esther: The purpose of these is so the cops can see afar at night.
Ruth Yeah.  but  if you want to take a picture at night for example, you have to change the shutter speed. You can change  how much light can enter the camera lens? I don't know if it's similar with these or not.
Esther I think the purpose is, and I don't even know if they want to be able to record, so they can see perpetrators at night, for the Swat team, when they maybe go in and want to bust down a door. Okay, fine. No problem. Well, the city council decided it was going to approve $111,779 for night vision binoculars. Now, at first glance, one would think, oh, they must be needing a lot of binoculars. No, that is for 14 only. So then I decided I gotta see how much this is worth for each binocular. It came out to over almost $8,000 for night vision binoculars each. $7,984.21 to be exact. Now this was pulled from the consent agenda. This was actually considered non-controversial. I could have told you if I was sitting on city council, it would have been controversial. It was pulled by a citizen who really didn't ask about [if]these things lined with gold? Do they fly around?
Ruth: Um. I decided to look up high tech night vision goggles/ binoculars. Um, some of these are going for, like, $9,000.
Esther And what, pray tell, do they do?
Ruth: That's a good question.
Esther: Do you want to see the a fly at night?
Ruth: I specifically said high tech. Because that's what I'm assuming they're going to get. They're not going to get like flimsy Amazon stuff. They're going to get the the real good stuff.
Esther: This better be really good.
Ruth: Let's see. Combines thermal and visible light images to highlight objects of interest. Enhances target recognition and detailed clarity for improved situational awareness. Provides flexibility to switch between thermal imaging, visible light imaging, or a fused combination of both modes. Okay, so it has different modes.
Esther: Thermal? That's not night vision, that's heat.
Ruth: It includes heat vision.
Esther: So in case you missed the person with the night vision you get the heat vision too?
Ruth:  Well yeah. Sometimes. Offers thermal imaging with high resolution of 640 by 512 pixels. Offers high definition optical resolution of  two 2500 by 1440 pixels in both daytime and in in both daytime and low light conditions.  Achieves high thermal sensitivity with a nose equivalent temperature difference.  Features and optical channel with ultra with ultra low light sensitivity of 0.001 locks at f 1.0, you don't know what any of that means.
Esther: I have no idea what any of this means. You probably do. I don't.
Ruth: Allows for recording videos, replaying footage, capturing snapshots, searching recorded events directly on the device.  Facilitating detailed analysis and documentation of observations. So you can document.
Esther: I could understand they wanting to document. Yes that is important.
Ruth: Uh then it has a bunch of other bells and whistles like Wifi. Can function as a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Esther: A Wi-Fi hotspot?
Ruth: integrates a GPS receiver for accurate positioning and geotagging of the observations. They might want that.
Esther: For what? They know where they are.
Ruth: For other people?
Esther: I'm sorry.
Ruth: And it's backed by a five year warranty.
Esther: Oh, it better be at that price. Better be a lifetime warranty.
Ruth: So that's the $9,000 one.
Esther I'm sorry, I can't. I can't.
Ruth: So [there is one for]$8000 by the same company. Oh. Never mind, it's just on sale.
Esther: You think they got a deal? I'm sorry, I can't,  I love the police. I love you guys. You guys are great. I just can't. There must have been something cheaper. There must have been something cheaper. How about $1,000? Can you get something good for $1,000? But $8,000 for one binocular. And that's not what binoculars do. This is more of a thermal, so you could get heat imaging inside the house, which is a different tool.
Ruth: So a lot of the time these are used for either military grade or for hunting.
Esther: Hunting?
Ruth: Yeah. People people will use these for hunting.
Esther: Gee, they're really wanting to go after those deer. That is not fair. The Plano Police Department needs more military grade equipment? Why do we need military grade equipment?
Ruth: That's just what it seems. It seems like the higher end ones are military grade or for hunting. You're serious about hunting.
Esther: Oh, you must be really serious, but you said military grade. This is not a war zone. You're not in Iraq, or Vietnam. Push it up to today, Gaza or Ukraine. You're in Plano. I just I can't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just can't. You don't need military grade equipment.
Ruth: I'm just assuming I'm not. I don't know if that's actually what they're getting.
Esther: For $8,000. I think that's what they're getting.
Ruth: Actually I said $9,000.
Esther: Oh nine okay.
Ruth: But I think 8000 was was just on sale.
Esther: Maybe they got a sale.
Ruth: Yeah. Right.
Esther: The amazing thing is that not a single council member said, why are these so expensive?  Just ask, what do you need this for? Why are they so expensive? What do they do? And then maybe when you get the answer, okay, then you can justify it. But the fact that nobody asked a single solitary question of why so much, bothers me. I don't think I could do it.
Ruth: Well, you're always thinking about the dollar signs.
Esther: You you have to tell me, how is it that we are one of the safest cities in America, oftentimes voted the safest city for our size, and yet you need military grade binoculars?
Esther: Why are you cracking up?
Ruth: You don't want to know what I just found. I found one that's $13,500.
Esther: For who, The Swiss National guard.
Ruth: I don't know what it does. I just thought that was hilarious. I'm gonna look. I'm gonna look. You go on. Go on.
Esther:  I'm wondering if somebody is trying to take advantage of the government.  I just have to question that.
Ruth: I don't think they're sold to the government.  I think these are also sold to consumers.
Esther: Not for the majority of the population. . I am going to move on.
Ruth: Yeah. Move on. I'm just very interested in this.
Esther: Now she's interested. All right. I'm going to need my phone that you are using to look this up, though. In a minute.
Ruth: Okay,
Esther: I just I can't get it. I'm sorry. Love the police. Grandfather was a policeman. He didn't have night vision goggles in his day.
Ruth: I'm sure he didn't have a lot in his day that they now have.
Esther: He did not. Moving on to the cultural arts plan. Did you know we have a cultural arts plan? Ruth: I've heard, briefly.
Esther: Yes. So apparently Plano has a cultural arts plan that a committee has made.
Ruth: You don't sound happy.
Esther: I'm not happy about this. It took them a year to make this plan, this committee, and they did a survey. I'd like to know who they surveyed. I did not get this survey, because my answers would have been very different. So I'm wondering who they surveyed. They claim they surveyed the residents. The residents said that they often leave Plano for arts and culture, because we have Dallas. Which has a lot of art. It's got large museums. We also have Fort Worth.
Ruth: You know, it has the whole arts district.
Esther: Very large arts district. We have a itty bitty arts district in downtown.
Ruth: I literally think they want Plano to be Dallas.
Esther: I think so, but we'll never be Dallas because that's  why people move here. See, people want to get away from Dallas to live in the quiet nicety of the suburbs.  So, 89% of Plano households have an above average interest in the arts. That's nice, that's good, that's lovely. They didn't say what kind of art, but just they have an above average interest in the arts. So they said again, didn't see the survey. 23% of residents attend art events in Plano.
Ruth: I didn't even know there were art events in Plano.
Esther: Well, that might be part of the problem. Some people don't even know, as you do, that we have art events in Plano. Apparently Plano is not advertising it. You can find a lot of things on Eventbrite and in the magazines, Plano magazines, Plano Living, and Community impact has a whole calendar of events, and you can look through all those things. Plano already spends 1.5 million in grants, which is more than any other surrounding cities. This committee wants a cultural affairs manager.
Ruth: Okay.
Esther: So they looked at this survey and they said, we need to make some priorities.
Ruth: Yes. Because arts is a major priority for the city right now.
Esther: Yeah, not the construction. You know, what should be a good art display for Plano.
Ruth: What?
Esther: The traffic cone. That should be a good display. Mhm. Perfect. Here's my art piece because this is how Plano is right now.
Ruth; Modern art and its finest.
Esther: Yes. They want Plano to be an arts destination for the community and have more varied, high quality offerings in Plano. Better access to information, event activities for the adults and young. Hands on activities for all ages. Expand the role of arts and culture in economic development and affordable work place and creative incubators for artists.
Ruth: Incubators?
Esther: Incubators.
Ruth: What does that mean?
Esther: I have no idea what an incubator for an artist is.
Ruth: I've never heard of that before.
Esther: Let Dallas make the incubators for the arts.
Ruth: Wait, I need to look up what that is.
Esther: I don't care. It's stupid.
Ruth: That's hilarious.
Esther: Sorry. Didn't mean to use that word [stupid]. It's nuts. [Continuing with the arts plan] interest in market demand for specific facility projects or developing cultural arts center. Here it comes. Let's make a building for the artists. So in the survey, 46% of respondents want to support local artists so they can stay in Plano, and 51% want to go want a go to for information on arts events.  41% think we should develop more creative spaces in the city. I wonder if any of these questions were do you want your taxes to pay for this?
Ruth: I found out what an art incubator is.
Esther: Oh, okay. What is an art incubator?
Ruth: It's not as funny as it sounds.
Esther: Rats.
Ruth: I don't know why they chose that name. So in  art incubators are a new but growing phenomena in the world of local art agencies. They are facilities that create a nurturing environment for small and emerging arts organizations by offering low cost or subsidized space and services.
Esther: Of course. Of course. Subsidized, why didn't I realize that?
Ruth: Arts incubators are part of a larger universe of business incubators, of which there are more than 500 in North America, according to the National Business Incubator Association.
Esther: Wait a minute. Hold on. Wait a minute. Say that last part again.
Ruth: National Business Incubator Association.
Esther: There is a national incubator association?
Ruth: Yes, according to this article. Well, abstract of of a larger article.
Esther: There is a union for incubators. Oh my head. Only in America, folks, could there be a union for this. Would you like to know what else the survey found? 38% of respondents said enhancing and diversifying arts and creative events and opportunities for all.  37% said increasing affordable spaces for artists and arts and cultural organizations. There's your incubator again. Guess what? We're gonna have to pay for the incubator. They also talked with artists and organizations, and here's what they said they want. Stronger district for the arts. A stronger district for cultural identity.
Ruth: They want to do art in Plano.
Esther: More performance, exhibition, and studio spaces. Better connections and opportunities. Again, affordable workplace. Funding, of course, for the arts. Only 39% of surveyors strongly support government funding for the arts. Well, that should tell you that majority don't want to fund this. They want it, but they don't want their taxpayer dollars to pay for it. I'm in agreement. 26% somewhat support and 21% were neutral. 3% don't want to support it at all, and 4% are somewhat not supportive, and 7% are unsure. Why are you unsure? I don't know.
Ruth: Why are you. Why is 21% neutral? That's practically the same.
Esther: I guess they don't really care either way about the arts and if our taxpayer dollars paying for them. Here's the funny part. So in the presentation, the presenter added together the 39% strongly and the 26% somewhat support. They added those two numbers together to make it look like it's bigger than it is. No no no no no no no no no no no adding, no adding, keep them separate. 39% only strongly supported government funding for the arts. A majority do not. So you know where this is going right?
Ruth: No.
Esther: They want money for an arts building. That visual arts building that they wanted. Where there could be studio space.
Ruth: Didn't we already talk about that?
Esther: Yes. That's what they want, and this is the way that they think they're going to get it, by doing this little survey, and having this little committee.  Well, Plano really wants this. No, they may want it, but they don't want to pay for it.
Ruth: They don't want the city to be in charge of it. They want there to be more arts in Plano, but they don't want it to be. They don't want their own taxpayers to pay for it. They would rather it be offered within the private sector.
Esther: Well, that's what the respondents of the surveys wanted. So, some funding ideas they had were grants, marketing, giving money to individual artists. 
Ruth: The city will never see that money back.
Esther: Economic development of the creative sector. So now we're going to give welfare, but for the creative sector. And support incentives for creative enterprises in Plano. Of course the hotel occupancy tax funds. Now this is actually where you could fund the arts, because the hotel occupancy tax can only be used for certain things to bring in tourism. The arts is one of those things. So perfect. Okay, fine. I have a bone to pick the legislature about that, but that's what we have to do. Fine, take that money. Technically it's from people who are out of town and don't live in Plano, but they're giving back.
Ruth: So I understand the want. You probably have a bunch of artists in Plano who don't want to move to Dallas, but there's not any opportunity in Plano for them to work, and them to pursue their passion. That's probably what this is coming from.
Esther: I'm sorry.
Ruth: I'm just explaining because you're you're you're acting like it's a big joke, and I'm just explaining the mentality.
Esther: They are dead serious. I think this is nuts.
Ruth: I'm trying to explain the mentality. You don't have to agree with it.
Esther: I don't agree with the mentality. No. The mentality, no. I understand they have a passion. I understand they want to do this for a living, but at the end of the day  you make a living by selling your work. Now, granted, most artists get rich when they're dead.  Unfortunately that's when their artwork goes up in value, but there are things that you can do with art that can be profitable, that you can live off of. Not too many, but there are.  So some other ideas for city government was they want an office of cultural affairs. They want a policy alignment. They want to review and align policy in all areas of city arts and culture to best serve the evolving needs of residents and workers and the creative community. Cultural Arts Commission, they obviously want to update the ordinance and policies governing that. And here we go again, cultural facilities, proactively support and partner in projects that meet the community needs for cultural facility spaces. So I do have some good news on this front. The council members, they had some good ideas of how not to spend our money. So Anthony Ricciardelli, he agreed that they continue to fund art through the hotel occupancy tax. Prince had brought this up in the first place, so he agreed with Prince on that. Not through the general fund! Which was one of the bright ideas of the committee. No, he said bad idea basically. Not in that way, but that was the gist of it. Because we have a lot of debt coming down the road and a lot of other things that, frankly, in my mind, are not more important. He also said to be careful about funding and giving grants to for profit artists. These are for profit artists, they make their money doing this. We should fund non for profit. He also warns against using bonds to fund arts. We don't need any more debt. He is skeptical about subsidizing workplaces for artists? I agree this is a bad idea.
Ruth: The problem with the city finding arts is also. You'll never see that money back.
Esther: No
Ruth: Art is not that profitable, unfortunately.
Esther: And it's also very, very personal. What is beautiful to you may be ugly to me. I hate, despise. I don't like modern art. If I have to figure out what it is, it's not for me. I like Monet  and Michelangelo. Ruth: She likes things explain to her.
Esther: The beautiful Renaissance artist, and I'm going to talk about the Renaissance in a minute. But I don't want to pay to see art that looks like a five year old  drew ir Okay. That is not for me.
 Ruth: Sometimes with some modern art, it's not about the finished product. It's about how they made it. I find watching people make art, even if it's modern art a lot more interesting than the art itself. Esther: Sure. Okay. Again. Not for me now.
Ruth: Well, you're not an art fanatic.
Esther: I like art. I went to Italy and saw some of the most gorgeous pieces of work by some of the masters. You cannot believe how gorgeous Michaelangelo’s David is.
Ruth: You know what I mean?
Esther: Or the last Supper.
Ruth: You know what I mean?
Esther: It doesn't compare. There is no comparison. These people today are not going to be remembered like those folks. Okay.
Ruth: You're so mean.
Esther: I am mean this about this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just am stating a fact. Name me a great modern artist.
Ruth: I don't know. I'm not in that sector.
Esther: Can anyone out there, who is not in the art community, name a great famous modern artist or contemporary art?
Ruth: There might be someone out there, but I don't  follow that.  I'm in the animation sphere.
Esther: Okay. So, Homer, she disagreed with Anthony on one thing. She said she heard a lot of feedback from residents that there needs to be a centralized group within the city government. “There needs to be a dedicated city staff member overseeing the arts.”  That last part is a quote. Of course she wants centralized control of the arts. The great thing about the arts is you don't control it. You can't control an artist. Artist do not like to be controlled.  You're not going to tell them what to paint, right? Ruth: Unless they're a commission artist.
Esther Yes, unless they're a commissioned artist, that's a totally different story. Someone wants to commission their portrait. Okay. But still, you can't centrally control art. It comes from their soul. From inside of them. So they were all for using the hotel occupancy tax. My concern is this next council that's coming on. You've got two people, Steve Levine, who wanted them to take out a $5 million bond this past election for a building for the arts, for an arts center. No, but he's going to be on council.  You've got Julie Holmer who loves pickleball and she's a big arty person. And now we have another person, Chris Downes, she was on the Arts Commission. So we got three people on the council that we're pretty sure is going to want more funding for this, and that's scary to me. I must say that Councilman Williams, he does his overview or post city council meeting reviews. They're very good if you want basically a summary of what happened on everything. And he, said that Jared Peterson had made a quote about how the Renaissance was such a wonderful time for art, and it helped so much in the culture. I can't remember the the exact quote he mentioned. Here's the thing, in Italy, at the time of the Renaissance, the government that was controlling that area of Florence and Rome and all those little provinces, because at the time the Italian peninsula was not united. So those little governments, which was basically little independent states, they did not pay for art. Two large entities paid for the Renaissance. It was the Catholic Church, and it was the Medici family which was a very wealthy banking family in Florence. They commissioned works. They were patrons of Michelangelo and Da Vinci and Raphael. The Catholic Church, paid for more stuff and more art than probably even the Medici’s or any other wealthy family.
Ruth: That's probably why you have a lot of Christian depictions within from the Renaissance.
Esther: Well, this is Sistine Chapel. That was Michelangelo. So, yes, they were huge donors and huge patrons of the arts, the church and the Pope, at that time. This was all privately funded. So, the government was not involved in one of the most breathtaking, monumental periods of our time. We don't need the government. Get some rich people, and Steve Lavine might be one of them, and they can be these people's patrons. Not the city taxes. Thank you No, this is not Soho. This is not the village. You want to pay for it yourself. It's that simple. The taxpayers want roads. They want water. They want electricity. They want to get to point A to point B, and yes, they want entertainment, but they can pay for it themselves. Better yet, keep their taxes low, and maybe they can be patrons, too. Very important dog of the week is Gemma. She is a friendly dog who is about three years of age. She is very sweet and so playful too. Gemma will make a great companion for you. She was never claimed by her owner and wants a new home. Gemma is an affectionate dog too. She is at the Plano Animal Shelter and if you are interested in taking a look at Miss Gemma, please go to www.planospoliticalpitbull.com and click on the link Pit bulls for adoption. That is all the time we have for today. This is Esther
Ruth: and this is Ruth
Esther: for Plano's Political Pit bull signing off.