David Brewster, a founding member of Post Alley, has a long career in publishing, having founded Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, and Crosscut.com. His civic ventures have been Town Hall Seattle and FolioSeattle.
Among the setbacks: The defeat of the Commons levies turned out to be a last hurrah for the Seattle Establishment (architects, parks advocates, housing activists), and it greatly discouraged the progressive forces and money.
The arts in our region definitely need new funding, but this new source is likely to have lots of strings attached, and the funds would be spread widely to smaller groups as well as heritage organizations.
One popular pattern is to sell to a commercial developer part of the church property and use the money to refurbish the main sanctuary or to build a new church elsewhere.
The result of this hedging is a risk-averse city, since you don't know which way the wind is blowing, where to invest, and which "leader" to follow or fight.