Presidential Aspirations?

Throughout his political career Ronald Reagan often used the phrase “a shining city on a hill” to describe the United States and its ideals. In the hills above Simi Valley, that symbolism came to life with a shining library and museum campus bearing Reagan’s name Not merely a museum documenting the life and political career of the 40th president and a depository of documents from his two terms in office, the facility has a higher mission: to bring a slice of Washington, D.C. to Ventura County through discussions on important public policy issues from a slate of bipartisan speakers. From its lofty perch, the library and museum gives an identity to Simi Valley and is a top tourist draw for the city and the region as a whole. The campus hosted approximately 375,000 visitors in the 2007 fiscal year and museum officials expect the same number for the current fiscal year. The visitor numbers have held steady while those at museums and institutions in general have decreased. When the Dallas Morning News took a look in 2006 at attendance numbers at the 11 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Reagan Library was one of two showing an increase in attendance from 1999 to 2005. “If we didn’t have this here, we wouldn’t have any tourism,” said Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Leigh Nixon. In the San Fernando Valley Convention and Visitors’ Bureau marketing plan, the Reagan Library is paired with Malibu and San Sylmar, a museum in the east Valley that houses the Nethercutt collection of vintage automobiles and antique musical instruments. Reagan’s Hollywood connection ties in well with the Valley and the library is a major destination for visitors to the area, albeit trailing Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, said bureau director Jay Aldrich. The NARA oversees the libraries of all 20th-century presidents starting with Herbert Hoover. Other presidential libraries and museums are operated by private foundations, historical societies, or state governments. Private donations built the $60 million facility honoring Reagan which is the largest of the presidential libraries operated by the National Archives. (The Clinton Library in Little Rock has more materials.) The campus opened in 1991 and expanded in 2005 with the Air Force One Pavilion housing the 707 jet used by Reagan and six other presidents in their travels. The thinking of library officials was that media coverage of the Air Force One exhibit would give up to a 24 month bump in attendance. With that period now past, the library is readying a new marketing campaign and is redesigning its website. “There are people who know about us and now it’s our turn to show what we have so we get people to come visit,” said R. Duke Blackwood, the library’s executive director. The collection The campus is comprised of three parts: the museum on Ronald Reagan containing short films, artifacts from his life and film and political careers, a recreation of the oval office, an exhibit on wife Nancy; the library containing 40 million documents, of which only 10 percent are open to viewing; and the Center for Public Affairs that hosts speaking engagements covering current political and public policy issues. The former president’s grave site is also on the grounds. New to the museum this year is the Discovery Center, an interactive immersion experience about executive decision making in which students play the roles of the president, his senior advisors and the press during the invasion of Grenada in 1983. The center features mockups of the Oval Office, the White House Briefing Room and military command center and 2 & #733;-hours of original video footage. Adults do not take part in the decision making and there are no right or wrong answers for the students to make, Blackwood said. The Discovery Center will be marketed to middle schools within a one-hour drive of the museum and to Boys and Girls Clubs for after-school programs. The museum anticipates hosting about 25,000 students during the upcoming school year. The museum also opens its doors for private events and visits. Bio-tech giant Amgen has hosted holiday parties there, and it was the site of the 2006 gala of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. When the American Association of Airport Executives had a general aviation conference in Van Nuys in May, one evening was set aside for attendees to visit the museum. The roominess of the new pavilion was designed not just for the 707 jet but also to host large events. “That is why it is such a large open area,” Aldrich said. “It was fantastically designed.” Twice during the current presidential campaign the library was used for the Republican candidate debates, with Air Force One as the dramatic background. Blackwood would like to get presumptive nominees Barack Obama and John McCain to the library for a Town Hall meeting. “When they do the opening and closing shots [of the debates], what are they showing? It’s Simi Valley,” Blackwood said. “It’s good marketing for the museum and to the benefit of everybody.” Neither the city nor the museum track tourist spending in Simi Valley, so the exact economic benefit that the campus brings is unknown. Blackwood has only anecdotal evidence of impulse visits to the museum despite its being a bit off the beaten track, recalling overhearing diners who had just visited the museum while having lunch one day at a local restaurant. Hotel desired While the library works with area hotels on packages for museum visitors, the city would like to harness the reputation of the facility to bring in a higher-end hotel. The city even has a spot picked out: a former sheriff’s station on Madera Road at the base of the hill on which the museum sits. Right now the space is used for overflow parking. A five-star hotel is a long-term project the city needs to complete in conjunction with the Reagan Library so that it meets the standards of high profile visitors, said City Manager Mike Sedell. The library’s Blackwood is supportive of any plans for a five-star hotel and that it would be a benefit for the library and the community as a whole. “We have had hotel groups approach us but none brought the proposal we were looking for,” Sedell said. The library’s new marketing plan will focus on two upcoming exhibits neither of which are Reagan-related but instead broaden characteristics and qualities of leadership and decision-making. For instance, an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln features a four-day visit in September of an original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by the 16th president when he faced a major crisis in the Civil War. The document, on loan from the National Archives, can only be displayed for 48 hours once a year. The Library will extend its hours from Sept. 19 to Sept. 22 to accommodate more visitors. In early 2009, the museum will display a 1215 copy of the Magna Carta, a document that influenced the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.