Almost every time the public’s attention turns to the uncompleted Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater, it is seen as the city’s albatross and, more recently, as Mayor Keith Gaskin’s white whale.
It’s been six-and-a-half years since construction on the amphitheater ended because of lack of funding needed to complete the project. In its unfinished state it is an embarrassment to the city, an albatross to borrow from literature.
You can’t blame Gaskin for wanting to change that narrative, which can only happen if and when the city secures the funds to complete it.
Yet what was once a priority appears to be an obsession to the point where the mayor clearly sees another city project, the Burns Bottom redevelopment plan, as a rival. Gaskin has become an impediment to this important city project.
Again, literature provides us with a relevant comparison. There were any number of whales that Ahab could have pursued and profited from, but his obsession on the white whale ultimately sank the ship.
Yet, there is another element to the story of the amphitheater that, I suspect, has been largely forgotten, one with yet another link to literature.
Before there was Coleridge’s albatross or Melville’s white whale, there was Aesop’s hare, a lesson in the perils of hubris.
Ask yourself: When did the amphitheater project first begin to go sideways?
I submit that happened, albeit in an indirect sort of way, shortly after noon on June 27, 2019 in the luncheon room at Lion Hills Center.
The occasion was a candidate forum at the Columbus Exchange Club featuring seven-term District 39 state representative Jeff Smith and his challenger, Dana McLean. Despite his almost unrivaled 28-year grip on his seat in the legislature, Smith had come under fire for his failure to support the renewal of the city’s 2-percent restaurant tax in 2018, which resulted in a year’s worth of lost revenue until a new 2-percent tax was approved in 2019.
For the first time, Smith was in a real race, although it was pretty clear he didn’t realize it.
After all, Smith was chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, a role he has used to consistently bring state bond money into his district. McLean, by contrast, was a political newcomer. Smith was the hare in this race. McLean was the tortoise.
All Smith had to do was suppress his ego.
He couldn’t do it.
When a Rotarian challenged Smith on one of his positions, he responded with three sentences that I am convinced ended his political career right then and there.
“I don’t care whether you like me or not,” Smith said. “It doesn’t make a difference at this point. You’re stuck with me right now.”
And that, folks, is how the tortoise beat the hare.
If Smith had exhibited any humility he might have overcome voters’ displeasure over his restaurant tax position. The tax was back on the books, after all.
But what he couldn’t overcome was his hubris as expressed in that Exchange Club meeting.
The voters weren’t as stuck with Smith as he imagined. That August, McLean upset Smith by a final margin of 62 votes, an outcome that would have grave consequences for the future of the amphitheater.
It was Smith’s role as chairman of the Ways and Means committee that convinced city officials that the amphitheater would be funded entirely by state bond money. In 2015 and 2016, Smith secured a total of $3.45 million in state bond funds for the project and another $400,000 during the 2019 sessions, his last.
The project hasn’t received a dime from the legislature since.
You can only wonder how things might be different had Smith remained in his position of influence. We might be having concerts at a completed amphitheater today.
As it stands, the amphitheater is both an albatross for the city and a white whale for the mayor.
But, lest we forget, it was the hare who first shifted the fortunes of the amphitheater.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the meeting at which Rep. Jeff Smith spoke. He spoke at Exchange Club. We regret and apologize for the error.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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