Issue: Hollywood Theater I can sometimes get sentimental about vintage buildings. But then I drive by the Schubert Theater and ask myself "What did public money do here that was worth doing?" Heck, every building on Hennepin Ave that seemed unuseable for commercial purposes seems to have become another "theater". Theaters usually have to raise money from private donors to even stay alive. And there's more and more causes competing for that money. Is it POSSIBLE we'll reach a place where we HAVE to let a theater building go? Not that I'm discouraging those who have a personal thing for the Hollywood from having bake sales and walks and whatever else to fund it. I guess the point I'm getting to is NOT to seek any public subsidy. Not when we're closing community libraries, as we seem to be. Oh, we'll probably get our glass cathedral downtown (it will sit on what is now a parking lot), and paying off those bonds will simply make other projects beyond reach.
So, there will come a time when something has to PAY for itself to stay open. Lots of churches have closed down for their failure to do that. Maybe a theater has to have the same base of support to stay open. At least we can't dip into public funds to save dying churches (amazing that we have that ONE exception to the rule, isn't it?) I suppose it is the ubiquity of home video that makes it impossible for theaters to make money from movie tickets. Or just that movies made today aren't WORTH the ticket price it would take to make theaters viable. Issue: Library Cutbacks And ON that issue of public expenditures, the Pioneer Press is running an article today on the impact of budgets around the metro. The address is http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/6260742.htm. Unfortunately, the comparison chart wasn't easy to find. Maybe someone will find it later. It was pretty interesting. It shows who is putting up the bucks. And it isnt St Paul or Ramsey county. It is Minneapolis and Hennepin County. But what intrigues me more is that with LGA cuts coming down on everyone, the MPL Board is cutting 18 percent while most of the other agencies are cutting much less, 5 percent or less. Is that because we alone have the 8 percent ceiling on property tax increases? ===== Jim Mork Cooper Neighborhood Longfellow Community Minneapolis A great town, which can and WILL BE greater! __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
