Cusack Plan Changes, But Where Are the Millions Coming From?

I attended the City’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) hearing on the Cusack plan for renovation and modification of The Senator yesterday afternoon.

I’m pleased to say that the meeting went quite well, from the perspective of Friends of The Senator.

Chief among our concerns going into the meeting was that The Senator building needs a thorough top-to-bottom inspection by objective experts. We recommended the inspection tour should be led by former owner Tom Kiefaber, who knows how to get into all the crawl spaces and other hidden places in the building’s infrastructure. The CHAP board agreed with us on both of these points.

I’m also delighted to report that the severely flawed initial plan that was submitted during the RFP process has been significantly revised, and the original Outer Lobby walls and Ladies’ Lounge/Restroom suite are no longer in danger.

The new design would now take a portion of the Men’s lounge for the proposed crepe shop, but not the whole thing. Still, this was a concern that we had, and which the CHAP board shared, as that space is protected by CHAP’s interior landmark designation.

The result of the meeting was that CHAP shared many of our remaining concerns with the design, and instructed the Cusacks to move ahead with refining their plans, with special instructions to give further thought to their design for the crepe shop and how it impacts the Men’s lounge, get the inspections done, and also to give some further thought to their plan to extend the front of The Senator’s north addition (the former dry cleaner’s) for a Tapas restaurant. As proposed, the Tapas restaurant would impact some of the sidewalk blocks and possibly change the lines of the front of the building in an undesirable way.

That was all very positive, and I thank the CHAP commissioners for their thoughtful consideration of these matters.

The new plan does raise some questions, however, that were outside the scope of the meeting. I don’t know when there will be a public forum to get these questions answered, so I’m going to raise these issues now.

While some were quick to praise the Cusack team for “saving” the Outer Lobby walls and Ladies Lounge, I feel it should be noted that the original proposal was so far out of the bounds of what most preservationists would consider reasonable, that it should never have been proposed in the first place. In fact, the real reason the plan has changed is apparently because they discovered it would not be eligible for state historic tax credits. It’s important to keep in mind, I think, that after proposing such an egregiously off-base plan, the Cusack team needs to be watched carefully as they proceed. The disastrous original proposal makes their sensibilities with regard to the building’s design somewhat suspect.

The development team was quick to try to link the “saving” of the Ladies room with an addition they now want to fast track to the South of the original building, which is proposed to contain a new 120 seat screening room. They say they would put an additional bathroom in the addition, and that this is required to meet code.

My understanding, however, is that there is no real link between the preservation of the Ladies room and the addition, since they are planning to reduce the number of seats in the original auditorium, and the ADA rules are quite flexible for historic buildings. In other words, they never needed to tear out the Ladies room to "meet code," nor do they now have to build this addition to meet code.

My guess is the real reason for the sudden urgency of the new theatre addition, which was proposed as an “option” in the original RFP, but one that was not budgeted, is because they’ve realized that FOTS has been right all along, and that they need a move-over house. (In fact, I suspect they may need more than one additional screening room, even to make their plan marginally viable.)

All of this brings up major budgetary questions. The original proposed funding sources and amounts have not changed, but the plan just got much more expensive – probably millions more expensive. Where are those millions coming from?

Tom Kiefaber had various plans over the years to add new screening rooms on the south side of the building before, and Tom tells me that the projected costs for all of those plans ran into the millions, and that was years ago. The prohibitive costs are largely due to the major excavation required, because of the topography. I may be missing something, but I don’t see how a somewhat similar addition in the same space just got a whole lot cheaper than the thoughtful plans that Tom commissioned from respected architectural firms.

Additionally, when Tom tried to expand the theatre in the same space, he ran into all kinds of opposition from neighboring residents. While some neighborhood residents showed up yesterday to give their approval to Buzz’s new plan, I suspect that opposition of some sort may arise from other neighbors, once the plan is discussed in more detail.

Not only is the “optional” new theatre now a priority for the Cusack team, but now they’ve specified that they will try to restore original paneling, murals, and put in a new chandelier, which we’re hoping will be a reproduction of the original “mother ship” chandelier. They had not previously stated these restoration goals for the theatre. I would love to see all of this happen, but it’s very costly, if done right.

So, I just have to ask again, where are the millions coming from? Will additional taxpayer funds be required, beyond the nearly 1 million already spent, the $700K already being sought from city taxpayers, and the $100K being sought from state taxpayers?

The taxpayers need these questions answered, before the plan proceeds too much farther.

Exclusive Preview - Crepes in the Crapper

I just discovered this delightful artist's rendering of the new restaurant the owner of Sofi's Crepes plans to open in the Ladies' Lounge and Restroom Suite of The Senator Theatre. I don't know the name of the new eatery yet, but I hear rumors that the daringly feculent theme will be taken to the extreme and the new establishment will be called "Crepes In The Crapper."



Do you think chocolate crepes will be on the menu? What's not to love?

A Welcome Resignation

I learned last night that Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank has "resigned." If you read to the bottom of today's Baltimore Sun story on his resignation, it sounds like a possible forced resignation, but that's speculation on my part.

Quote from the Sun article:

Privately, many city officials had speculated that Frank was considered too close to Dixon, whose legal troubles stemmed, in part, from her relationships with developers.

Rawlings-Blake has publicly declared that the Baltimore Development Corp. should be more open and transparent. She made several changes to Frank's staff, dismissing one assistant deputy mayor and demoting another. Kaliope Parthemos, Rawlings-Blake's former assistant chief of staff and a childhood friend, became Frank's sole assistant deputy mayor.

If this was a forced resignation, thank you, Mayor Rawlings-Blake! This is excellent news.

Why am I so jubilant about this resignation?

Andy Frank has been one of the real villains downtown in The Senator saga. After Tom Kiefaber stood up to the BDC, where Mr. Frank used to work, on the Belvedere Square redevelopment a decade ago and stood up around the same time for saving historic buildings on Baltimore's West Side in the area known as the Superblock, Andy Frank developed a real personal vendetta against Tom Kiefaber - a grudge that has apparently persisted to this day.

This personal grudge has manifested in Frank's lies to the press about Tom Kiefaber, mischaracterizing by exaggeration the city's investment in The Senator. Frank's lies were reported by local media as fact, which has resulted in widespread popular confusion about the situation with The Senator, and has also resulted in a violent hatred being directed against Tom Kiefaber by some members of the public who have been mislead into believing that Tom has wasted public funds.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The city's investment in The Senator, prior to acquiring it at auction last summer, has been minimal. Meanwhile, Tom, his family, and their associates, have personally invested over a million dollars of their own money into The Senator and the Belvedere Square commercial district - money that has saved The Senator up to this point, and which kept the Belvedere Square area limping along while the city neglected it for a dozen years, but that is money they will never get back. Tom is a hero who has saved an important landmark theatre for all the citizens of Baltimore, but you'd never know it from Frank's distortions to the press.

Frank has been a major contributor to the smear campaign against Kiefaber, which has resulted in the public's topsy-turvy, through the looking glass perception of the situation. It's one major reason everything much of the public believes about The Senator and Kiefaber is exactly the opposite of the truth.

As someone who has come to know Mr. Kiefaber, it's astonishing, for example, how the people who know him mostly think he's a great guy, but the people who don't really know him tend to give him dirty looks in public. OK, "great guy" is vague. What I mean by that is not just that Tom is a nice guy or a real mensch, which he is, but also one of the most brilliant minds I've met in a very long time --- extremely knowledgeable about the film industry and historic theatres, sharp, quick, conversant on a wide range of subjects, and irreverently funny too.

The fact that Tom has kept The Senator going as a first-run single-screen for-profit theatre for the past 20 years and made it nationally famous with his incredible marketing skills, when it is acknowledged as a nearly impossible task by anyone who knows anything about film exhibition, should tell you something right there. And he did this while having to fight city hall every step of the way. Ever see someone who makes something that defies the laws of physics look easy? Like the gymnasts in the Olympics who make exacting and strenuous physical exertion look like a beautiful dance? That's Tom, folks, and that's why everyone around here thinks another operator is going to be able to come in and operate The Senator as a first-run single-screen for-profit theatre and do it better than Tom. Yeah. Good luck with that. It's like me trying to win a gold medal doing a gymnastic floor routine at the Summer Olypics. Seriously.

Although, I will qualify that by saying that city hall is going to help the next guy instead of fighting him, if that RFP wins, and, subsidize him to a degree that Tom never got, so the feat won't be quite as death-defying, not for a while at least.

When I first met Tom, it was very quickly apparent to me that he was not the same guy the press talks about in a negative light. Tom's relentless hard work and high level of competence, which have been rewarded by many awards and much positive national press over the years, also directly contradict what the local public has been led to believe by people like Andy Frank.

All of this defamation of Tom had a purpose, of course. Over the course of time, it turned the public against Tom, which last summer culminated in the city's hostile takeover of The Senator, right under the nose of a public that claims to care about the theatre.

Because Tom has been unjustly sidelined by all this bad press based on the lies of Frank and a few others, his considerable expertise in the realm of historic theatres and film exhibition has also been largely ignored in the RFP process that will determine The Senator's future. This disregard for someone with so much useful information could prove to be a costly mistake that will negatively affect both the future of The Senator and the entire Belvedere Square commercial district.

Yes, I believe all of us who love The Senator have good reason to be happy that Andy Frank has resigned. It's important now that Frank, with his poor judgement tainted by his personal grudge against Kiefaber, not be allowed to make any further decisions that affect the future of The Senator Theatre.

NOTE: I wrote this the other day with emotion, as a first reaction. It's all true as far as I'm aware, but it could be made more specific and expanded upon. I could talk about the grant for fixing the air conditioning the city gave The Senator over ten years ago, that Mr. Frank repeatedly mischaracterized to the press as a loan that Tom didn't pay back. I could talk about the city's loan guarantee, which was only ever a phantom number on paper, not actual money, but it allowed them to get their hooks into The Senator. Mr. Frank kept talking about that as if it were actual money Tom received into his bank account.

If you wonder why Tom never said much about this, it's simple, really. When the bad guys are figuratively holding your family hostage, you tend to do what they say. What would you do if someone was threatening to turn your family out on the street?

The truth is, Tom never got anything from Baltimore City that he hasn't repaid many times over in taxes and economic vitality for this area generated by his hard work. And now he is losing everything. Everything. Without going into the horror of what that means, this is something nobody should ever have to watch a friend endure. People who know Tom often remark that it's a wonder he can still stand up, with all that he's gone through. And that's why I wrote this piece.

Statement on purchase of 446 Rosebank Ave.

UPDATE 6/27/2013: Since City Paper recently published an inaccurate statement that I own 446 Rosebank, I need to set the record straight. I do not own, nor did I ever own, this property. If you've ever dealt with foreclosure auctions, you know there is a period of time between the bid and the actual completion of the purchase. Baltimore City prevented me from completing this purchase, when they confirmed that they would not respect the rights of the property owner, when it came to their development project next door at The Senator Theatre. I lost a significant sum of money on this attempted purchase, and I'm considering a lawsuit against Baltimore City.

To whom it may concern,

On Friday, February 19th, I purchased the home and property located at 446 Rosebank Ave. at a foreclosure auction, which had been widely publicized within our community and beyond. The auction sale triggered speculation regarding my motives and my plans for the property, which is contiguous with The Senator Theatre property in the rear of the site.

I am one of the core volunteers with the Friends of The Senator Theatre group, and I share the group’s rising concerns over the flawed Senator RFP process that the Baltimore Development Corporation is conducting. I was also the sole Friends of The Senator representative on the BDC's RFP advisory panel.

Despite serious past concerns over the manner in which Baltimore City acquired ownership of The Senator, I resolved to approach with optimism the city’s RFP evaluation process and I extended the BDC leadership the benefit of the doubt. I hoped for a thorough process that would give unbiased objective evaluation to the proposals. I quickly became alarmed, however, over the inappropriate secrecy of the RFP process and the BDC’s repeated flat refusals to allow bona fide historic theatre redevelopment and film industry professionals to consult with the RFP panel. From my perspective, the BDC’s insular and uninformed stance puts both The Senator’s future and over a million dollars in scarce city taxpayer funds at great risk.

It's a scandalous situation, and in response, I pointedly resigned in protest from the RFP panel. My resignation came shortly after the BDC leaders stated that the 446 Rosebank Ave property, which Tom Kiefaber acquired 15 years ago because he believes it is critical to The Senator's future, has no real significance to the two Senator RFPs under consideration. As a Senator RFP panel member, I knew this was false information.

That inaccurate assertion, like many previous BDC pronouncements, was clearly intended to mislead the citizens of Baltimore by using the media and our city council representatives to spread disinformation. Combined with the BDC’s refusal to consult with qualified experts in evaluating the RFPs, it was the last straw.

I’ve now personally inhabited a back room at the BDC and experienced first hand how this quasi-public agency effectively fosters incorrect beliefs among a jaded public, by trading in false and misleading information. A recent Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism study of key news stories in Baltimore, including the auction of The Senator Theatre, noted that the downsizing Baltimore media rarely fulfills its fourth estate mandate to verify the accuracy of the government's statements.

I am relatively new here in Baltimore, and I still cling to our nation's diminishing democratic ideals, the constitution, and the private property rights of each and every citizen. I blog as "Astrogirl,” and I spent much of the past year investigating how a few powerful individuals in city government and at the BDC have repeatedly abused Tom Kiefaber and violated his civil rights, while misrepresenting the situation to the media in ways intended to defame and undermine his professional reputation. The inaccuracy of the BDC’s past attacks on Mr. Kiefaber was shockingly easy to discover, and it chilled me to the bone to learn how Baltimore's embedded culture of corruption and manipulation operates with seeming impunity.

The research has opened my eyes, and once I saw Baltimore’s “shadow government” in action, it was apparent that enough is enough. Someone from our community other than Tom Kiefaber has to step up, as he has done over the years despite threats of retribution, and take an overt, public stand against the abuse of governmental power in Baltimore City by the BDC and the city government. Where I come from, local government and their related institutions don’t assume they can indulge in this level of corrupt manipulation, because the citizens will ultimately stand up to be counted and do something about it.

I acted on my convictions last Friday and bought the 446 Rosebank Ave. property at auction, as the only private bidder. A BDC representative was present to observe the auction of the property they deemed inconsequential. As the successful bidder, I plan to assert my rights as the adjacent residential property owner to The Senator and occupy a legitimate seat at the table as the Senator RFP situation unfolds.

I stepped up for good reason, because The Senator’s passionate past protector and steward has been neutralized and sidelined, and the theatre’s future is at stake and endangered by the politically tainted Senator RFP selection process.

I do not agree in the slightest with the BDC’s public and private assertion that 446 Rosebank Ave. is inconsequential to the RFP process, and the pointed inquiries I’ve received in the past few days validate my firm belief that Mr. Kiefaber was right all along. The 446 property is logistically, geographically, and strategically linked to The Senator Theatre and its future. That will undoubtedly become more apparent to all as things evolve.

Increasing my vested ownership stake in the community at this time should indicate that I am determined to help ensure that the future of The Senator Theatre will ultimately be decided through an open and transparent historic theatre redevelopment process, and not the shrouded RFP sham currently being perpetrated by the Baltimore Development Corporation.


Sincerely,

Laura Perkins
Purchaser of 446 Rosebank Ave.

UPDATE 6/27/2013: Since City Paper recently published an inaccurate statement that I own 446 Rosebank, I need to set the record straight. I do not own, nor did I ever own, this property. If you've ever dealt with foreclosure auctions, you know there is a period of time between the bid and the actual completion of the purchase. Baltimore City prevented me from completing this purchase, when they confirmed that they would not respect the rights of the property owner, when it came to their development project next door at The Senator Theatre. I lost a significant sum of money on this attempted purchase, and I'm considering a lawsuit against Baltimore City.

Analysis on the Pew study of Baltimore media (and why it's important)

Blogger and innovation coach Steve Buttry has done a thoughtful analysis of the Pew study on media in Baltimore. The study itself has been getting a lot of national attention. (But not so much attention by the media in Baltimore. I wonder. Why is that?)

Buttry points out that traditional media has been taking the study as validating their role, since the Pew study found most of the local stories originated in the traditional media.

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, editorsweblog and more tweets than I could count trumpeted the finding that most news originates with newspapers and those upstart blogs contribute barely a trickle of original news. The favorite fact cited was that 95 percent of stories reporting fresh information came from the endangered old media, newspapers primarily.

In fact, as Buttry also points out, the Pew study missed many potential new media sources of news that may in fact have contributed original reporting, including this blog. (Buttry noticed my blog and posted an update citing me as someone who in fact had done original reporting on The Senator story, but was not included in Pew's sample.)

The more disturbing thing that was more buried in the Pew study, and which should not be giving the traditional media much comfort, is also noted by Buttry. Most of what was reported as "news" was driven by official government sources (63% in the overall study, 94% in the case of The Senator). The fact that the Pew study was flawed by leaving out some new media sources does not detract from this conclusion being essentially accurate. What might change if a larger sample of new media was used is the percentage, but probably just a bit.

I've seen first hand how much damage can be done when the press, which ought to be a watchdog on the government, acts instead as its publicist.

Here's the core of what happened with media coverage on The Senator:

City officials gave the newspapers inaccurate information. The general wisdom that politicians often lie is not somehow different in this case.

The newspapers repeated the inaccurate information, without bothering to check it. There are many specific cases where what was reported on The Senator and about Tom Kiefaber could have been shown to be false by anyone who had done their homework.

Chief among the lies that were given to the media by the city government was the idea that the city had invested a lot of money in The Senator. Simply not true. In fact, ALL of the money that the city spent on The Senator in the past 10 years ultimately went into acquiring the building in a forced auction sale at a cut-rate price far below the theatre's estimated value. Nothing went into keeping the theatre open and operating under Tom Kiefaber's stewardship in 10 years. Not one dime. This can be verified by anyone who actually bothers to sort through where the money actually came from, and where it went.

The newspapers repeated the lies. The TV news cited the newspapers. Other blogs cited the newspapers. (I cited them too, but usually to point out that they were wrong.) Very little original reporting was done by anyone except me and Tom Harris at the Friends of The Senator blog (another person who actually took the time to find out what was going on).

This media echo chamber that served to perpetrate lies coming out of city government had tragically harmful effects on some really good people. Tom Kiefaber put all of his resources, passion, and relentless hard work into doing something good for future generations of Baltimoreans. As a result of the media echo chamber of falsehoods, everything he has worked so hard for might now potentially be lost, his family's financial picture is bleak, and a large number of Baltimoreans who should be recognizing him for his monumental efforts instead vaguely believe he has done something wrong.

So let's see...94% of the reporting on The Senator's auction was driven by the city government (as taken into account by the Pew study). Is it any wonder that 94% of what 94% of the people in this city think they know about The Senator's situation (and about Tom Kiefaber) is 94% wrong?

Of course I hope the wrongs that have been perpetrated on Tom and his family can somehow be put to rights. At the moment, though, the past is the past and what's done is done.

The very real situation now, however, is the future of The Senator is at stake. Of the four proposals on the table, two are seen as credible by many and were popular at the public meeting on the RFPs. The problem is, credible industry experience and data from all over the country shows that one of these proposals is essentially on the right track (WTMD/Towson's proposal, which would have the theatre owned by a non-profit connected to proven fundraising powerhouse WTMD), and similarly credible industry experience and data from all over the country, including the statistics on how many single screen historic theatres have been lost, should prove to anyone who investigates it that the single screen movie theatre business model is dead and cannot be resurrected.

Putting a new operator into a failing business model is not going to change the fact that it's a failing business model, and a business model that has failed all over the country. Single screen theatres that continue to stay open under a for-profit model are extremely rare statistical anomalies. The Cusack/Charles Theater proposal for The Senator simply cannot work without considerable subsidy on a level of financial commitment from the city or others that Tom Kiefaber simply has not enjoyed. In other words, if Mr. Cusack is awarded the right to operate The Senator with his current plan, we will almost certainly be right back where we are now within 5 to 10 years, unless someone gives him a whole lot of money he does not have to repay.

Now, I am speaking in generalities here, but the information is out there. Single screen movie theatres used to be all over the place, about 150 of them in Baltimore alone. They hardly exist anymore. Why? The business model is just not viable, because of industry factors that are slightly complex, but not so complex that they can't be understood by someone who takes the time to do their homework. I've attempted to explain some of them on this blog in the past, and I continue to try to pull together that research into a tighter, more comprehensive explanation.

There are some noted anomalies. The Uptown Theater in Washington, DC is a widely known, highly regarded for-profit single screen theatre with a very high profile (although Mr. Cusack indicated in the recent public RFP meeting that he had never heard of it). Why does it work? Well, you may find a clue to this in the fact that the full corporate-branded name of the theatre is AMC Loews Uptown 1. In other words, it is owned by one of the most powerful theatre chains in the entire country. I've heard rumors that it is nevertheless struggling financially and my guess is the other theatres in the chain actively subsidize it, but at this time that is just an informed hunch.

The more important point, however, is that the vast majority of historic theatres that are currently open and operating on a daily basis and preserved to historical standards are owned by non-profits, which can use capital campaigns to raise the considerable sums needed to restore and maintain these very expensive architectural gems. Without that non-profit advantage, it's a constant struggle to see a profit, and expensive building preservation and maintenance falls by the wayside when making a profit is the focus. This is not because for-profit owners of historic theatres are bad business people. It is because they are constantly fighting an uphill battle against industry trends that are only getting worse for them.

To bring this back around to the main point about the Pew study: active, intelligent investigative reporting on the RFP proposals on the table could play a vital role in ensuring that the proposals are fully vetted and the one that makes logical sense based on the preponderance of industry data wins. With most media echoing the newspapers, however, that would mean that newspaper reporters would have to do some legitimate research into industry trends and industry realities, and not just report what someone at city hall or the BDC told them to say.

Good reporting still could ensure that The Senator is preserved and protected for future generations of Baltimoreans. If the trends noticed by the Pew study continue, however, this important role the fourth estate could play will likely go unfulfilled.

Senator Theatre featured in Pew Research Center Study

Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism has released a study of how news is reported in Baltimore. They focused on several local stories, one of which was the auction of The Senator.

One of the conclusions the study makes is that news media generally in Baltimore is relying less on independent reporting and more on parroting press releases. About The Senator, they specifically state:

And who made news on the Senator theater story? The city drove nearly all of the coverage, 94% of the stories during the week. There was not a single story initiated by the press as an enterprise story.

Ahem. This focus on parroting City press releases by the mainstream local media is not precisely news to me!

Hat tip to Andrea Appleton at City Paper's blog for this news about the study.

On another note, sorry I have not been blogging lately. Work as a volunteer at The Senator and other developments have kept me pretty busy. Please check out Friends of The Senator for updates on The Senator. http://www.facebook.com/fotstheatre

At the moment, I'm going to be letting FoTS do most of the reporting, since it has grown as an organization to well over 1200 members between the Facebook fan page and group page. It's also time to put the disturbing past behind us and focus on the future of The Senator, so I find this is not currently the time for muckraking, as much fun as it is to rake muck!

That's not to say I might not chime in here on occasion with some observations, such as this study that pretty much tells us what some of us already knew.

A message from Johnny Alonso

The Senator: Architect John J. Zink's best known theatre

I had a realization today that when I or other Senator supporters speak of The Senator being architecturally significant or a work of art, many people do not understand this. This could be through no fault of their own, but only because they don't know the history. Perhaps it's time to educate the public a bit about why The Senator is a significant piece of architectural art, listed on the National Register of Historic Places for a reason.

The Senator was designed by famous theatre architect John J. Zink. If you do a Google search on "John J. Zink architect," you'll find that The Senator is repeatedly referred to as the best known of his theatres. Zink was known for designing in the art moderne or art deco style, which is sublimely embodied in The Senator Theatre.

The historic theatre reference web site Cinema Treasures lists 30 theatres that were designed by Zink, all of them in Maryland, DC, or Virginia. He was a native of Baltimore and his designs were concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic region. Zink was a protege of another famous theatre architect, Thomas W. Lamb. John J. Zink designed more theatres than just the 30 listed on Cinema Treasures. One web site I saw claimed the number was around 200, but most are long since gone.

Of the 30 Zink theatres listed on Cinema Treasures, just 6 are listed as open. These are The Senator Theatre and the Patterson Theatre in Baltimore (but it should be noted that the Patterson has been significantly altered from its original design), the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC, the Commodore Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, and the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland. The other 24 Zink theatres listed on Cinema Treasures have all been closed or demolished.

The Senator is repeatedly noted as Zink's best known achievement. It would be a tragedy if a rushed RFP process with a lack of input from historic theatre and preservation professionals caused irreparable harm to this significant and rare architectural treasure.

I would also like to add that The Senator did not become one of the few surviving John J. Zink theatres or the best known or listed on the National Register of Historic Places on its own. Those preservation wins and the theatre's well-deserved national reputation were all the work of Tom Kiefaber, his family, and his loyal staff over the years.

John J. Zink made The Senator a beautiful work of art. Tom Kiefaber and his associates made The Senator famous, nationally recognized, and a place where so many wonderful events have happened over the years that people all over Baltimore and elsewhere have their own delightful memories of The Senator. It would be well to remember that as we anticipate the next phase in The Senator's history.

More thoughts on proposals for The Senator

The Sun paper is asking for comments about the 4 proposals the BDC received on The Senator. I posted one, but I know from experience that the Sun seems to have an agenda with regard to The Senator, so I'm posting my comment here in its entirety:

The Senator Theatre is a significant historic landmark on the National Register, and it's clear from the way the BDC is handling this process that they don't understand its value as a piece of history and art, or its potential to generate tourism dollars. If they did, they would be consulting historic theatre experts from around the country on how best to proceed. Some version of a community based non-profit model has worked well for historic theatres all over the country. Indeed, among the theatres that have won the annual award from the League of Historic American Theatres, based here in Baltimore, all past winners take donations from the public, non-profit style.

Among the four proposals submitted:

The Lofts proposal from J R Owens is a joke. I can't believe anyone would take it seriously. I think the whole immediate neighborhood will unite against that one.

The proposal from Charles owner Cusack would butcher the historic building, dividing the auditorium and destroying the original bathrooms. Definitely a no go.

The PUPKids Theatre proposal probably doesn't have the money, since Enoch Cook III was at the pre-proposal conference asking if the city would fix the roof, because he only has the money to lease the theatre for a few months. So that won't work, unless he's since gotten financing.

The WTMD/Towson proposal shows some promise, but I would not be able to support it without seeing the full proposal, specifically their plans for restoring and caring for this precious historic facility. The mix of programming they are proposing is very similar to what The Senator is currently doing, and what Senator volunteers have been proposing all along.

UPDATED: BDC Receives Proposals for Senator RFP

A press release from the BDC lists the 4 responses they got to The Senator RFP:

1. The Lofts at The Senator proposal from J.R. Owen, which calls for 3 stories of apartments and associated parking to be built, along with a renovation of the theatre. No details were given in the press release of the extent of the renovation or the operation model for the theatre.

I'm fairly sure my neighbors in the immediate area are not going to like this proposal. I would bet there will be significant opposition to concentrated new housing going in right there, not to mention the parking garage.

2. Proposal from Buzz Cusack, owner of the Charles Theater to expand The Senator along Rosebank Avenue.

I happen to know, because I was at The Senator when Cusack's team toured the theatre and I overheard things, that this proposal also entails turning the Men's and Ladies' lounges and restrooms into restaurants. There will be a creperie in the crapper, henceforth to be known as the Craperie. The men's lounge/restroom will apparently be a tapas restaurant.

Folks, The Senator is a significant historic building on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the finest examples of a theatre designed by famous architect John Zink. To put restaurants into the lounge/restroom areas, which are significant parts of the design in terms of the male/female symbolism built into them, is butchery of the historic building as far as I'm concerned. This needs to be stopped. Totally unacceptable mutilation of the building.

If you've been following my blog, you also know that Buzz Cusack has conflicts of interest here. He sits on the CHAP commission which imposed restrictions on the interior spaces of the building just before the City's auction of the building, helping to depress the sale price. Also, the film clearance policy at the Charles has negatively impacted The Senator over the years and greatly contributed to the financial troubles The Senator has had.

Abell Foundation President Robert C. Embry also sits on the CHAP commission, along with Cusack, and was reportedly the one pushing for the CHAP restrictions on the interior of The Senator (which don't seem to be strong enough to prevent the Craperie). It's interesting to note, then, that a few years ago, the Abell Foundation was looking at funding the expansions of both The Senator and the Charles, but in the end, they only expanded the Charles, giving it a significant competitive advantage over The Senator.

Anyone who attended a town hall, hosted by Marc Steiner and the SCT at The Senator earlier this year, may also remember that the lady that owns Sofi's Crepes, next to the Charles Theater, made a comment during the question and answer period that was basically a complaint that if her business was in trouble, she wouldn't ask for help from taxpayers. Of course, comparing her business to a significant historic landmark is ludicrous, as was pointed out by Sean Brescia, who was helping to host the town hall. Marc Steiner, however, shot Mr. Brescia down and accused him of being rude to the crepe lady. At least some of the public bought into it, judging by comments I heard later. I wonder if these members of the public would have reacted differently if they understood that the crepe lady had a financial interest in seeing The Senator taken from Tom Kiefaber, since she now may be able to expand her business to The Senator if Mr. Cusack's RFP is approved.

The Senator can and should be an economic anchor for the local business district, drawing people to the area and putting patrons into local businesses. The BDC acknowledges that. So let's think about that for a second. Do we want to encourage people to patronize the local restaurants? Or do we want The Senator to compete with the local restaurants? It seems to me that two restaurants in The Senator would not help the local restaurants in any way.

Buzz Cusack's business practices and the CHAP commission on which he sits have contributed to reasons The Senator was recently taken from the family that built it. The fact that he would even submit a proposal is, frankly, predatory. Combine that distasteful situation with the idea of eating craps (I mean crepes!) out of the former bathroom, and there are many reasons to dislike this proposal already.

There was, I thought, one aspect of this proposal that I might have liked, if it were done correctly (and I'd have to see the full proposal, but I now understand Buzz doesn't plan to do it correctly). It was my understanding, until I got more information, that this proposal expanded The Senator along the Rosebank side into the triangle area behind the theatre, to add at least one additional auditorium. If that were true, this would be one aspect of the proposal that would be probably fine, but only if the plan did not encroach on the existing auditorium.

Tom Kiefaber has had architectural drawings done in the past to build additional auditoriums on the side of the building, without changing the original auditorium. At one time, I believe he had the permits to expand in this way.

It's basically impossible to run a single-screen theatre profitably, at least if it has a first-run film policy. Most historic theatres that have been successful have added auditoriums. Here's a note to my neighbors who think they want first-run movies at The Senator: if The Senator goes back to a film-only operation model, it's going to need to be expanded. You can't say you want first-run films at The Senator, but you don't want it to expand. The two positions are mutually exclusive.

UPDATE: Buzz Cusack apparently doesn't just plan to add an additional auditorium along Rosebank Ave, as I had hoped. Apparently, he plans to butcher the original auditorium, dividing it in two. Here's the quote from the Daily Record:

“When you have another screen, you have more flexibility,” Kathleen Cusack said. “If you have a second screen and you have a movie that isn’t making a lot of money, you can move it there and put something else on the main screen.”

...

If the Cusacks add a 120-seat theater to the Senator, the main auditorium would shrink from 940 seats to 760. Cusack said the smaller theater could be used as an arts education area.

This is wrong and must not be allowed to happen.


3. The Theatre Project PUPKIDS, Inc. - Proposal to have mixed entertainment uses at The Senator, including a puppet theatre. There is no mention in the BDC's press release that this RFP includes any renovation component. I would be surprised if it does, since I spoke to the gentleman, Enoch Cook III, who put in this proposal at the pre-proposal conference at The Senator, and he did not appear to be well-funded at the time. Of course, it's always possible he has obtained financing since then.

4. WTMD at The Senator - Proposal from Towson University's WTMD radio station. (UPDATE: A blog post from WTMD lists a few more details.) Mentions renovation and expansion of The Senator. I would like to see the plan to see if the renovation is sufficient and if the plan is sensitive to the historic nature of the building.

By the way, does anyone else notice that Stephen Yasko's description of WTMD's proposal sounds like a blatant rip-off of exactly what Tom Kiefaber has been publicly proposing, and what The Senator has been doing recently? So what's wrong with this picture? Perhaps it's that Tom and his staff, who made The Senator the nationally renowned theatre that it is today, have been excluded from the process.

The Sun Paper mentioned that developer David Cordish submitted a proposal, but this does not seem to be the case.

It remains to be seen whether the details of any of these proposals will provide sufficient funds and preservation know-how to restore the historic building as it should be restored. If not, it would be missing a golden opportunity to ensure The Senator's preservation for future generations if Baltimore City were to go forward with any proposal that is inferior to what should be required.

The Senator is now the People's Theater, owned by the citizens of Baltimore City. We deserve to have our city government respect this important historic landmark and beloved local attraction and ensure its preservation in perpetuity. Time must be allowed for a study to be done of what the theatre and the surrounding area really need, historic theatre and preservation experts must be consulted, and a community-based non-profit ownership approach to the theatre's future must be incubated, as has been done so successfully in other communities. We shouldn't allow public property to be dealt off to private developers without ensuring that the public's interests and the historic nature of the building are being respected.

P.S. I want to be clear that all of the above is my personal opinion, and does not in any way represent Friends of The Senator or The Senator.

Join Friends of The Senator to Keep Up with RFP Process

The deadline for parties interested in owning or operating The Senator Theatre to submit an RFP to the BDC was today at noon.

The Senator Theatre volunteer and advocacy group, Friends of The Senator will be following the process and keeping you updated on the proposals. The group was founded by Tom Harris two years ago and has been volunteering to help keep The Senator open and operating since April. I know there are other groups out there purporting to be advocacy groups with some sort of interest in the theatre, but Friends of The Senator is the only advocacy group that has been coming in the theatre's doors on a regular basis and working as volunteers.

I've been volunteering 7 days a week most weeks at the theatre (which is why my blogging has slowed down a lot), so naturally I've joined forces with Friends of The Senator. I hope you will join us as we advocate for complete restoration of the historic building and for The Senator to continue its tradition of being the premiere community-oriented arts and entertainment venue in the region while transitioning to non-profit ownership.

Become a fan of Friends of The Senator on Facebook.

Keep up to date on the Friends of The Senator blog.

Follow us on twitter.

Karaoke winners and more!

Tonight is Karaoke night again at The Senator Theatre. Doors will open at 7:00 PM and the festivities start at 8:00 PM. The past two Karaoke nights have been loads of fun, so please join us! Admission is free. Bring your ID, because you will be carded if you look like you might be under 21 and try to buy a drink.

I've been truly impressed by the talent of the people who have been coming out for Karaoke. Each week a portion of the night is a Karaoke contest, leading up to the big costume Karaoke contest on October 30th. Last week, we had three contest winners, as follows:

Keith won for his rendition of Luther's "A House is Not A Home," but what I caught on video was his earlier appearance on stage, before the contest began, singing Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues."



Jenn won for her rendition of "Proud Mary," but again, I have a video of an earlier performance from before the contest began. (My camera hard disk got full toward the end.) Here's Jenn singing "Gloria."



Todd won for his rendition of "Love" by Musiq. Toward the end of this video, I ran out of hard disk, but you can see he's a really talented singer.



Last week we also had a visit from actor Johnny Alonso, who has appeared in "Dawson's Creek," "One Tree Hill," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Johnny sang Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be A Lady."



Johnny Alonso also appears in two independent films that will be showing at The Senator. "Gospel Hill" makes its Baltimore premiere on Saturday at 8 P.M. Doors open at 7:15 PM. Also watch for "Safe House," coming soon.

On Sunday at 4 PM, D'Jembe Jazz Jams with Park Vibe continues as a free form jam session that is open to all. The acoustics of the outer lobby made it especially resonant last Sunday. This is a jam session, not a performance, so it gets rolling when people show up. If you show up early and it's not quite starting on time, please be patient.



On Sunday there will also be a screening of the Japanese monster movie RODAN, along with a TV taping of MONSTER MADHOUSE. The event starts at 1 PM.

If you're easily offended, avert your eyes! (Jokes & Jazz)

Thursday night's Jokes & Jazz event at The Senator was a ton of fun, with some sweet sounds by Phillip "Doc" Martin and his band and some very, very funny comedians who should never be let out in public in front of anyone who gets easily offended or anyone under 21. You've been warned.

Here's a video of Phillip "Doc" Martin doing "My Cherie Amour."



Now here's Larry Lancaster. Really. Avert your eyes.



And here's Dominique. Yes, I really mean it this time. Avert your eyes for real.



And this is Joe Clair. Now, you know you really don't want to watch this. I'm not kidding this time. Not at all. Really. Avert your damn eyes...because they might get something nasty in them this time.



Well, that was a lot of fun not watching those videos, right?

I'm trying to get videos of all these events I've been documenting at The Senator uploaded relatively quickly, but the editing and uploading takes some time. Stay tuned for fantastic karaoke performances from last night and I guess I'm documenting the Senator Cipher Session tonight as well. The Cipher session tonight starts at 10:00 PM, with doors opening at 9:30. See you there?

Sunday's D'Jembe Jazz Jams @ The Senator

On Sunday, musicians and dancers gathered at The Senator for a free form jam led by the Park Vibe group from Druid Hill Park. Similar events will happen every Sunday in October, starting at 4 PM, so come join us and join in this Sunday! The event is free.

Here are some videos from last Sunday:

Hip Hop Poets and B-Boys @ The Senator!

The first Senator Cipher Session was a great success on Saturday night, with hip hop poets and b-boys displaying their talents. The event was sponsored by The Senator and UCAM (United Community Access Media), and helped to demonstrate that The Senator is the perfect venue for a wide range of multimedia community-based events. The Senator Cipher Series continues this coming Saturday and every Saturday through October 24th.

I was lucky enough to serve as the camera person for the event, with the feed from my camera being displayed on The Senator's big screen in real time behind the performers. Here are a few of the videos I shot on Saturday (more are available on YouTube).

Hip hop poets give the spoken word:



B-Boys, including the Sushi Kings crew and the Regulators crew, break it down on stage:





Don't miss out on the fun this Saturday night! Doors open at 9:30 PM.

Winners of Karaoke @ The Senator, Week 1

Here are the two winners of Friday's Karaoke contest at The Senator.

Alicia aka "Suggs" singing Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive"



Rachel singing Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats"




Here are the two runners-up.

The other Rachel singing Duffy's "Mercy"



Felix singing Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"



The Karaoke contest will continue each Friday in October, culminating in a costume Karaoke contest on October 30th. Two winners will be selected each week, and in the final week, the grand prize will be awarded. You do not need to be there every week to win...but you should be!

Also, The Senator Cipher Session last night was HOT! I'll be posting some video highlights in the next day or two.

BDC Issues Senator Theatre RFP

The Senator Theatre RFP is available. Proposals are due by November 20th. You can download it from the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), if you want to register on their site. Otherwise, you can download it without registering here.

The Senator Theatre Auction and Why it Won’t Be Contested

Baltimore City and the Baltimore Development Corporation [BDC] are set to finalize their takeover of The Senator Theatre on September 19th, if no compelling objection to the ratification of the auction is filed with the Baltimore City Circuit Court by the end of Friday, September 18th.

There are numerous reasons why the manipulated results of the recent auction sale of The Senator Theatre should be invalidated by the court, but that’s not going to happen.

Here are some of the primary reasons why the auction results will not be overturned:

Circuit Courts rarely invalidate foreclosure auctions, particularly one that was initiated by the Mayor’s Office of Baltimore City after they bought The Senator Theatre’s commercial loan from 1st Mariner Bank and took on the legal position of the lender.

In these unprecedented circumstances, the City had a legal mandate as the regulated lender to follow established procedures of fairness and impartiality in conducting a foreclosure auction sale of a citizen’s private property.

The authority and responsibility to evaluate and enforce those established lender auction sale regulations, however, is ultimately in the hands of an elected Baltimore City Circuit Court judge.

It’s an outrage that the powers that be in city government and the BDC seized their long sought opportunity to take control of The Senator from its owner, who had simply sought their assistance, along with business and residential leaders, to transition the renowned theatre to not-for-profit, community-based ownership.

In their obvious effort to thwart non-profit ownership conversion of The Senator and gain full control of the theatre (and other strategically located real estate parcels owned by Tom Kiefaber), the City and BDC representatives first impugned his professional reputation through the media, as they have done to others in the past before their property is taken. They then proceeded to become the lender, pointedly undermine the validity of the recent Senator Theatre auction, and control the outcome with a clear sense of impunity.

The best shot at invalidating the auction would be an objection filed by the soon-to-be former property owner, Tom Kiefaber. Tom has made it clear, however, that he cannot object to the court’s ratification of the auction, for unspecified reasons that he refuses to delineate or discuss.

Having followed this unfolding saga and investigated the many odd and circuitous developments, it is safe to assume that Kiefaber’s uncharacteristic refusal to join an effort to resist our city government’s abuses of power is due to his apparent fear of even worse consequences for him and his family.

Tom Kiefaber, devastated by the coordinated attacks on his professional reputation and the corrupt “taking” of his beloved historic theatre by city government, is now behaving like a traumatized and fearful hostage --- one who supports terrorist demands on camera, while off-camera there is clearly a weapon threatening him and his family. It’s a heartbreaking situation for those who understand that a monumental injustice has victimized an accomplished man and his family who have done so much to benefit Baltimore City and our community.

This situation is a recent reminder that something is rotten in Gotham City.

We thought for a while that, as Baltimore City taxpayers, we might be able to put a citizen’s group together of figurative stockholders who have been financially harmed by the lender’s actions, which cheated the citizen/stockholders in an illegitimate scheme intended to benefit a few administrative insiders.

The hope was that a credible citizen activist challenge to the ratification of the auction might have legal standing to file an objection to the ratification of the auction in circuit court. We have received legal advice from more than one attorney discouraging this course of action. We’ve been told that the basic concept and the cumulative documentation that the auction’s outcome was significantly tainted both have merit, but there would be little chance that a Baltimore Circuit Court judge would rule in favor of the owner and the community over the Mayor’s office and the BDC.

Even if a citizen activist effort prevailed in court, the outcome would be to hold a new auction with significantly increased fees, and the folks pulling the levers of power in Baltimore would likely take further punitive action, to the detriment of Tom and his family, putting them in an even worse position. Perhaps that explains Tom’s aversion to the concept and his refusal to even discuss it with our group.

Despite deep concerns over ratification of the sham auction we would never risk triggering further harm and trauma to come to Tom and his family. They’ve made so many personal sacrifices to protect The Senator Theatre, and keep it open and operating in an award-winning fashion, as a classy anchor and source of civic pride since 1939. In fact, we all owe Tom Kiefaber and his extended family a huge debt of gratitude for their consistent success in keeping The Senator intact and operating for 70 years, when so many historic theatres nationwide were shuttered and abandoned.

Now we look ahead to the next step in the process. I hope that through the RFP process we can help to ensure that The Senator will be protected and continue to evolve, as envisioned by its former owner and the community, as the region’s premiere educational and entertainment venue, under non-profit ownership.

Hey, City Paper! I'm sick of this issue too!

City Paper notes that The Senator is the "Best Local Issue We're Sick Of." Well, heck! So am I! I would dearly love to be able to go back to my life, knowing that The Senator is in the safe hands of a viable community-based non-profit and that Tom Kiefaber and his staff have finally been recognized and rewarded for all their wonderful work over the years, and that all is right with this corner of the world.

But, guess what? I can't, because I care about The Senator and the people involved, and all is not right in this corner of the world.

Can't we all just get along? Can't Baltimore City do the right thing here?

Well, if I'm not mistaken, this is at least the second time in the past two and a half years or so that City Paper has written about The Senator. So, no wonder they're sick of it, with all that intensive coverage. Take a break from all that hard work, guys!

Baltimore’s Last Chance for Film As It Should Be Seen?

I haven’t had time to sit down and watch all of Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” at The Senator yet. I plan to do that during the week, when our all-volunteer staff at The Senator is less busy. After seeing some moments of the film, however, I feel compelled to urge everyone to please give themselves the pleasure of what may be their last chance to see film presentation as it should be.

The craft of fine film presentation is dying. Multiplexes using average equipment hire teenagers to run projectors they barely understand and throw an image up on a relatively small screen with the edges not masked properly. Maybe the image is out of focus. Maybe the sound isn’t right, or isn’t high quality surround sound.

People wait to see movies on DVD and then even the best home theatres can barely match the reduced-quality multiplex experience.

You just don’t see the technical excellence of The Senator’s film presentation anywhere, anymore. For those who appreciate the luminosity of light cast through film and have eyes to see the quality of a sharp, focused, colorful image and hear the richness of awesome sound, this is indeed a painful loss.

Many of The Senator’s patrons realize that there’s something different about seeing a film presented on The Senator’s giant 40 foot screen. But few truly understand that it isn’t just the size and proportions of the auditorium or the screen, but an expert staff that has always striven for excellence. It’s why Michael Sragow, film critic at the Baltimore Sun, wrote:

But the Senator, under Tom Kiefaber, has carried on the tradition of movie theaters as places where audiences of many kinds can view the best movies of any type - action blockbusters like the "Indiana Jones" series, art classics like "The Rules of the Game" and "Rashomon" - with a presentation equal to the craft of the world's best filmmakers.

It’s also why film restoration expert Robert A. Harris was quoted by Sragow as calling The Senator “a beacon of professionalism, showmanship and the love of cinema."

Few realize that Lucasfilm’s Theatre Alignment Project measured various aspects of the film presentation at The Senator and when pressed by Tom Kiefaber for a rating compared to other theatres, acknowledged that The Senator ranks 2nd in the nation for technical excellence.

One of the unsung heroes of The Senator’s history is theatre manager and projectionist Bill Hewitt, who is an expert in all aspects of film presentation, of a caliber almost impossible to find elsewhere anymore. Mr. Hewitt visually inspects each frame of a film print before it is shown at The Senator. He is an expert in the care and preservation of film and the technical aspects of top quality presentation. Mr. Hewitt does not cut corners. He strives to make each show perfect and show the film to its full potential each time.

The lens being used for “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” is the best German lens made. The sound quality on The Senator’s amazing sound system is always excellent. When I looked at a few moments of the film over the weekend, the picture was in perfect focus, the colors were vibrant and rich, the images on the screen of breathtaking quality. I was stunned as I realized that this is how a film should be seen and that, depending on what happens over the next few weeks, this may be the last chance we’ll get to see a film this way.

Baltimore City is taking over The Senator on September 19th, barring some unforeseen reversal of the auction. The auction will be ratified unless there is a legally credible objection presented to the circuit court by September 18th. (Though there are many reasons the auction should be invalidated, that is unlikely to happen.) Once Baltimore City owns The Senator, they will put it through their RFP process to find a new owner and/or operator.

It is hard to imagine that any new operator of The Senator is going to strive for technical excellence, refuse to cut corners, and achieve the high standard of operation that Tom Kiefaber, Bill Hewitt, and the rest of The Senator’s staff continue to achieve up to this moment. Almost nobody else achieves this level of film presentation anymore. Almost nobody tries, and audiences don’t demand it.

Furthermore, the film business is struggling all over the country. Drastically reduced attendance means that the days when The Senator could operate profitably as a first run movie theatre are long over. We’re not talking about a case where another operator with a reduced debt load could cut a few corners and eke out a profit. We’re talking about something that is over and done with, kaput, and totally dead. If this were a Norwegian Blue parrot, it would be pushing up daisies and joining the choir eternal.

That’s why Tom Kiefaber has long been advocating a future for The Senator that involves non-profit ownership of the building and multi-purposes use for the theatre. That’s the way to guarantee The Senator’s survival for the next 70 years. Kiefaber should know. Contrary to the flawed perceptions of certain city and BDC officials, he is a nationally renowned expert in the field.

But meanwhile, top notch film presentation at The Senator may soon be over. Come see something you may not get a chance to see again.