In the last week or so, on the cusp of the city’s partial reopening, there was a cluster of cancellations from its largest venues and events. The 2020 season is over, at least as far as live, in-house performance goes at Lyric Opera, Joffrey Ballet, Ravinia, and the Grant Park Music Festival. Pull up the covers and go back to sleep; maybe we’ll see you next year.
Translation: this is going to be so hard for us, don’t expect it to happen anytime soon.
Which may be what inspired Red Rover reading series curators Jennifer Karmin and Laura Goldstein to take the poets’ demands a step further last week, calling for the eradication of this apparently superfluous job. The president’s salary and benefits—$436,000 in 2018 (the most recent record available)—they suggest could be better spent on free community programs.
According to the announcement, a previous pay cut for “top earners” had already been implemented. The announcement didn’t reveal the size of that cut, but it was also 10 percent, and only kicked in on earnings over $100,000. In 2018 Lariviere’s own total compensation was $796,000.
