Andreatta: Nothing sexist about 'naive,' Mayor Warren

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren dealt the gender card Wednesday in her escalating war with people who put on plays.

She took umbrage with remarks by Mark Cuddy, the longtime artistic director at Geva Theatre Center, describing her belief that Rochester needs a new performing arts center to brand itself a “City of the Arts” as “naïve at best.”

“I think that the artistic director actually owes me an apology,” Warren said when asked to respond. “Men calling women naïve in this day and age is wrong.”

By “wrong” the mayor meant sexist. She went on to say that Cuddy “demeaned” her and that he owed her “and the women of this community an apology.”

That’s absurd. There’s nothing sexist about labeling a way of thinking as “naïve," which is what Cuddy did. Moreover, there’s nothing wrong with it either if the shoe fits, which in this case it does.

What does it mean to call someone or someone’s way of thinking “naïve?” The word means to possess or show a lack of experience, wisdom or judgment.

Wisdom and judgment are subjective terms, of course, but it’s not subjective to call a little boy who runs into the middle of the street without looking both ways naïve to the dangers that lurk there. He is, in fact, naïve.

More:Geva's Cuddy offers apology to Mayor Warren

More:The debate over Parcel 5: What you need to know

Warren once used the word in an interview to describe herself as a child, when she was unable to comprehend financial pressures faced by her parents.

“It was a very emotional time because when you’re that young, you see things through a clear lens,” she told the Rochester Business Journal in 2012. “You’re naïve, and you believe everything is great.”

More recently, she approved of the word being used to describe an idea posed by her opponent in the upcoming mayoral primary, Rachel Barnhart.

“You think she’s naïve?” WXXI Connections host Evan Dawson asked Warren in reference to a Barnhart proposal to sell the city’s water system. “Absolutely,” Warren answered.

Why is it acceptable for the mayor to label another woman's way of thinking as "naive," but sexist for a man to do the same to her? Naivete isn't gender-specific. 

Cuddy made his “naïve” comment Monday while referring to a memo he had penned to the City Council that questioned the viability of a new performing arts center for the Rochester Broadway Theatre League. The theater would anchor a $130 million residential and retail development at the former Midtown Plaza site, known as Parcel 5.

“Our memo has less to do with the role RBTL plays in our community and much more to do with the mayor choosing this project for Parcel 5 in an effort to brand Rochester as the City of the Arts,” Cuddy said. “She is quoted as stating, ‘Syracuse is a college sports town, Buffalo has pro teams. We are the City of the Arts and we have to have a venue that gives us that title.’ We find that thinking to be naïve at best.”

The context of Cuddy’s remarks was Warren’s logic that Rochester needs a new performing arts center to own the “City of the Arts” title. To Warren, the first female mayor of Rochester and a title of which she should be proud, the context was gender.

There is no evidence to support her claim. Cuddy noted later in his remarks that he voted for Warren twice.

After the mayor accused Cuddy of sexism, Geva released a statement noting that Cuddy didn't call the mayor "naive" on all matters, but rather the mayor's one particular thread of logic on the performing arts center as it relates to the city's brand.

Cuddy subsequently apologized Thursday in a letter to Warren, saying "naive" was "a choice of word that I felt at the time best described my view of the city's approach, but I can see how it can be construed in an offensive manner."

I don't see how. A perfectly good word needn't die just because a mayor cries sexism. 

Rochester has a vibrant arts scene for a city its size. It is home to dozens of orchestras, galleries, dance troupes, museums and theaters, large and small.

(In the interest of full disclosure, a few of the theaters, including Geva and Blackfriars, have helped me cultivate my passion for acting and writing for the stage.)

These institutions subsist mostly on the goodwill of patrons and corporate sponsors. City Hall offers very little annual operational financial support for them.

The city does, however, support organizations in a financial squeeze, like the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, agree to tax breaks that benefit these institutions, including Geva, and fund festivals that promote the arts.  

The Rochester Broadway Theatre League, which brings Broadway productions to the Auditorium Theatre, is among these institutions and plays a critical role in the arts community.

But Cuddy was right in asserting in his memo to City Council that the RBTL doesn’t create or curate art like the others. It books road shows that are pre-packaged for touring around the country and promoted by out-of-town producers.

The league's chairman, Arnie Rothschild, has said he doesn't like theater and attends very few shows. 

“There is nothing special, or ‘Rochester,’ about what RBTL books into the Auditorium Theatre,” Cuddy wrote. “Rochester is just another stop along the way.”

And Warren thinks building the RBTL a new home on Parcel 5 will crown Rochester the “City of the Arts?”

That thinking is naïve.  

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.