Occupy the Future

Word on the street is that the Occupy Baltimore protesters are going to be IMMINENTLY routed from McKeldin Square. A couple of days? A week? Maybe two? Nobody knows, but the Mayor is rumored to be getting fed up with the occupation, and I’m sure that the Occupy protesters calling attention to the man behind the curtain, M.J. Brodie at the real City Hall, down on Charles Street (BDC), did not endear them to the city’s power structure.

Other cities have already ejected their occupations. Baltimore has employed an outwardly tolerant approach, but in reality, it’s almost certainly because our local occupation has been so ineffectual and silly that the politicians are laughing at the protesters behind the scenes. If they were a threat, they would be gone by now, and their lame applause at the BDC event probably reassured Mr. Brodie that they were no such thing. Still, even acknowledging that the man behind the curtain exists is itself a threat.

Me, I gave up on the local occupation a couple of weeks ago, after they were snowed by Brodie’s bullshit and actually applauded the little monster.

Revo, who was more enthusiastic about the Occupy movement from the beginning, only gave up hope last night, after attending the G.A. and realizing that in the face of imminent disaster for the camp at McKeldin Square, they were discussing bumper stickers and their triumphant glee over their YouTube hits for a video showing them acting like noisy children during Karl Rove’s recent talk at Hopkins. At the G.A. last night, the imminent eviction from McKeldin Square was apparently never discussed.

I’ll continue going to some marches. Most of the marches are actually organized by the unions, anyway, so they’re somewhat effective. The unions know how to organize.

I’ll continue to support the national Occupy movement too, as long as it stays focused on economic demands. I would like it to get more specific about those. Some of the reforms I would like to see:

A constitutional amendment clarifying that a corporation is not a person.

A constitutional amendment clarifying that money is not speech.

I happen to believe that the founding fathers never intended for corporations to be people or for money to be speech, because they probably had a dictionary, and they probably understood what the meaning of “is” is. Some federal judges need these things spelled out, though. Next we’ll have to be telling them that war is not peace and thought is not a crime.

The above two amendments to the constitution would, if enacted and enforced, go a long way toward reforming the system. They would clarify that the rights of the people supersede the rights of corporations, and that the right of individuals to free speech supsersedes the right of corporations to drown out their speech with money that speaks louder than words.

Others in the movement have also come up with very good ideas for reform. The original Occupy Wall Street group came up with this statement of purpose, which notes some specific problems that need to be addressed. One of the working groups of the New York protest has come up with the 99% Declaration. It contains a list of suggested reforms, which the group hopes to have representatives from all over the country vote on in a national convention on July 4, 2012 in Philadelphia. I agree with the ideas expressed therein, some more than others, but I certainly agree that all of these issues deserve to be part of the national debate.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has been investigating the corruption on Wall Street since long before the Occupy movement began. His advice to Occupy Wall Street contains a specific list of reforms to the financial industry that would “hit bankers where it hurts” and would help return our government to serving the people. I particularly like the one where a tax on all trades would make the financial industry pay for its own bailouts, and return our tax money to us.



I think between these documents listed above, there is a useful start to getting our country back.

The Occupy movement, and the local occupation in particular, have also discussed some ideas that I consider really silly. Chief among them is this “consensus democracy” model that consists of endless discussion, open balloting via wiggly fingers (snap, twinkle, pop!), and where decisions are only made when a clique of people who all agree with each other manages to shout down or intimidate all other participants. It doesn’t work among 20 people. How is it going to work nationwide?

The worst aspects to the “consensus democracy” model being used in the Occupy movement are the lack of secret ballots, which means that individuals are easily intimidated by self-appointed leaders into going along with whatever the mob decrees, and also the fact that, since decisions effectively only seem to happen when some individual or group manages to dominate everyone else, there is real danger, if this ever became the national model, of it leading to dictatorship and authoritarian rule, complete with slaughter of dissidents.

The local occupation has already been shouting down anyone they don’t agree with. In their Google group, when Revo started speaking up, they couldn’t handle even one dissident. How would they tolerate real democracy, if they ever got into power? The answer is, they wouldn’t.

Give me the U.S. Constitution any day, folks. Its three branch system with its checks and balances and its bill of rights have been emulated the world over. That’s because, until the system gets badly corrupted, as it is now, it works about as well as you can expect a system that governs millions of people to work.

Occupy the Constitution. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy our Government. Occupy the Future.



Previous posts in my series on Occupy Baltimore:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Unions to the Rescue, at Least Temporarily

In previous parts of my series on Occupy Baltimore, I mentioned the open Occupy Baltimore Google Group. Anyone with an email can sign up, but the majority of the posts on there are by the group I’ve been calling the Callow Clique (who are not down at McKeldin Square most of the time, except for during the nightly G.A., but are posting on the Google group). If you want to see some real dysfunction, sign up and check it out.

Continuing my series, where I’m still struggling to catch up to the present day at Occupy Baltimore, we go back to late October...

Participation was dwindling. The city was making noises about evicting the occupation from the square, and had given the protesters a deadline to agree to a stringent set of rules for use of the space. Just as the wolves of FAIL seemed certain to overcome OB, a group of union leaders, under the banner of the AFL-CIO, came to the rescue.

The October 26th AFL-CIO letter to the Mayor was just in time, urging the City to let the protesters remain in the square. In their letter, the union leaders wisely reframed the OB protest, casting it as being in alignment with the economic concerns of the national Occupy movement, instead of the tangential concerns it had actually focused on to that date.

“The Occupy Baltimore protests have given expression to a widely shared belief that our economy and our politics are controlled by corporate interests to the detriment of the overwhelming majority of working people...”

Well, no, up to that point in time, Occupy Baltimore had conspicuously failed to articulate any such thing, but the national movement had, and the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York had succeeded in releasing this impressive statement of purpose. The local union leaders were wise to assume the local occupation was in solidarity with the national movement, in spite of the local failure to coalesce into anything useful.

A big thank you to the Unions for saving the local occupation’s collective butt, at least temporarily.

After the union letter, the local occupation did gain a measure of focus on local and national economic issues. (Whether or not this was due to private pressure from union leaders, I can only speculate.) In any case, the focus shifted quickly to living wage jobs, demands for economic development that benefits the local population, the city’s suit against Wells Fargo for predatory lending practices targeted at minorities, and direct action protests at the banks and the Baltimore Development Corporation.

I’m pleased to say that the committee that was working on a protest against the Baltimore Development Corporation did, after much delay, come up with an open letter to the BDC that’s more or less on point. While it’s true that they dismissed voices of experience that would have advised them to take a more demanding stance, instead opting to naively assume the BDC can be negotiated with, it wasn’t bad for a first round that would seem reasonable to the general public. If they would succeed in avoiding being placated by insincere promises of change and diplomatic liars telling them what they want to hear, they could then move on later to a more realistic assessment of the tyranny and corruption they’re actually dealing with.

But then, at the actual meeting with the BDC on November 7th, Brodie smoothly delivered a bunch of smiling diplomatic PC bullshit, and the majority of the protesters ended up giving him enthusiastic applause. Some revolutionaries!

The signs wielded by some protesters, which called the BDC “Baltimore’s Dysfunctional Cabal” and “Baltimore Demolition Corporation,” were the most confrontational part of the protest, but they were designed by Revo and me.



Brodie acted all nicey nice, promised future meetings that probably won’t materialize, and then in all likelihood got on the phone immediately after the meeting and told the Mayor to get rid of these people.

Getting rid of these people is now rumored to be in the works, according to some credible scuttlebutt we heard shortly after the BDC meeting. But instead of resorting to force, Baltimore City is apparently relying on the coming cold weather and the attrition that the protesters themselves have engendered.

The day after the BDC meeting, the Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Comittee, a committee of Stony Run Friends Meeting, Homewood Friends Meeting, and Old Town Friends Fellowship, also lent their support to Occupy Baltimore with an official statement of support. Much like the union leaders, the Friends nicely articulated an economic focus that OB itself had largely failed to articulate, with a pithy quote from William Penn, followed by their own short statement.

"That the sweat and tedious labor of the farmer, early and late, cold and hot, wet and dry, should be converted into the pleasure of a small number of men --- that continued severity should be laid on 19 parts of the land to feed the inordinate lusts and delicate appetites of the 20th, is so far from the will of the great Governor of the world, [it] is wretched and blasphemous."
William Penn, 1669

“The Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee supports the nonviolent protests against economic injustice that have spread from Wall Street to hundreds of locations across the country. The Occupy protestors’ commitment to nonviolence, inclusion, and consensus decision-making are our Quaker principles in action. We will support Occupy Baltimore by gathering donations and in witness to their efforts to draw attention to the injustices in our society which perpetuate excessive disparities in income and political influence.”

To date, however, the Callow Clique continues to dominate OB, continues mostly to divert its focus from economic issues, and continues to shout down anyone they disagree with, especially if that person is over 40. (Revo was told “This isn’t your revolution, grandpa. Take your walker and go home.”)

At the meeting on the steps of the BDC, Revo and I witnessed as one of the main “stars” of the Callow Clique accosted an older man (who happened to be one of a very few African Americans at the protest), accusing him of being a provocateur. After the meeting, Revo and I spoke with the man who had been accosted. He turned out to be Mitchell Ferguson, a playwright, actor, and acting coach who’s a co-founder of Nommo Theatre, who told us that this young group of activists from Red Emma’s doesn’t even realize that he himself has been invited, as a guest of Red Emma’s in the past, to give presentations there.

According to messages on the Google group, a person described as “Iranian Human Rights Activist” Saeed Salehinia recently showed up at a reading group meeting, started to articulate a point of view that was critical of anarchists, and was also shouted down by the same person that we witnessed shouting down Mitchell Ferguson. Although some in the group want to invite Salehinia to speak at a G.A., there is concern among the Callow Clique that he does not represent their point of view and will therefore be “divisive.”

That same person who did the shouting down in both of those cases, a revered figure in the Callow Clique, had, after an early confrontation with Revo over the music issue, walked up to Revo and shouted, in a voice that was meant to be menacing, "I know your legal history." (Revo's "legal history" consists of a false accusation, made for political purposes, that did not result in a conviction.)

Based on this person's initiative, the clique has also discussed researching the legal histories of anyone who wants to sleep in the communal tents, in spite of the real concerns, expressed by others in the group, that the legal system is inequitable, and statistics showing that the national rate of incarceration for African Americans is seven times the incarceration rate for whites. (Statistic: Open Society Institute)

Last night, a group from OB, led by the Callow Clique, went to a public talk by Karl Rove at Johns Hopkins University, and instead of attempting to engage in constructive critical dialogue, shouted him down and disrupted the event. While I agree that Karl Rove is a jerk, the vast majority of the audience had come to hear what he had to say, as an influential figure in American politics. The shout-down was simply counterproductive.

Occupy Baltimore does not employ a consensus democracy model at all. They employ mob rule, shouting down anyone the clique disagrees with. As I described it in an email to one member of the clique,

“One problem I see with OB's ‘consensus’ model is that the initial group that formed OB seems to have come from a revolutionary, fairly radical motivation, and therefore when individuals who might have more modest goals come in and try to influence the ‘consensus,’ since the ‘consensus’ is already coming from a more radical place, those individuals tend to be shouted down. They then leave, and the local movement does not grow, because people who are more mainstream in their orientation are being turned off - one by one, before any potential ‘consensus’ of these more mainstream views can ever grow.”

Occupy Baltimore's nightly General Assembly has turned into the OB kids table, with most adult protesters refusing to participate.

Time for Occupy Baltimore for grownups?

Previous posts in the series:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Not Suitable For Children

Today I take a break from my series on Occupy Baltimore, which will continue soon.

Last night, at a Baltimore Blast game, which I attended with my family, I ran into one of the major culprits in the City's fiasco with The Senator Theatre. You know who you are. I didn't say what I wanted to say, because I would have had to say it in front of both of our families, and it's hard to say without a lot of profanity. So let me get that out of the way right now: FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK, MUTHAFUKKA!

First of all, you accomplished nothing. The Senator looks like crap now, and the City has already spent way more money on it than they ever spent during Tom Kiefaber's award-winning stewardship. It's now being run by people who don't have any passion for it, don't have much real experience running classy theatres, have a crappy plan for expansion that will ruin the building, and already aren't maintaining it properly. Way to go, idiot.

Second, you ruined a good man's life and reputation. Let me say it again. YOU ruined a good man's life and reputation. It had nothing to do with money, as evidenced by the fact that the City is now spending more money than ever on The Senator. But you lied about that to the press, and you know it. It had to do with the fact that Tom had spoken out against the actions of the BDC. Political favoritism and retribution, paid for by taxpayer dollars. Way to go, idiot.

NEWS FLASH, dude, in case you actually believed any of the rumors that were spread in order to smear: there was no cash being socked away somewhere, no vacation home in the Caribbean, no drug habit. Not a dime lent by the city. Not a dime wasted. Just a beautiful historic single-screen theater slowly going the way that just about every other historic single-screen theater in the country has gone: to the dustbin of history.

And a heroic, civic-minded man who spent well over one million dollars of his own money and operated that theater in an award-winning manner that made The Senator nationally lauded, just trying to ensure the theater would remain open long enough for others to realize its value, let him know that he was not alone in appreciating it, and come to the rescue. The Senator only still exists because of Tom Kiefaber, and he kept it going for about 20 years beyond the time when it probably would have otherwise failed. He did this to the great benefit of Baltimore City, but the cavalry never came. The wolves did.

Maybe when you're nearly 60 years old, someone will take your whole life away, and you'll have to rebuild from scratch. At 60. Maybe then you'll know how it feels.

You were not alone in this. You were joined by other present and past BDC officials, a city councilman, and a head of a local foundation.

Some of these people who were involved in the City's Senator Theatre fiasco are the same people who have been major players in the City's EBDI (East Baltimore Development Inc.) fiasco, where they forced relocation of 584 families, and then the project wasn't funded properly and the neighborhoods that have been razed are just a big empty space now.

FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FOUR FAMILIES. Most of them poor and black. Their neighborhoods destroyed, and many lives ruined. No matter what you gave them in relocation costs, you can't give them what they had back. YOU DESTROYED LIVES.

This is obviously a much much bigger heartbreaking fiasco than The Senator one, but I haven't been directly involved. I don't know any of the victims. That's why my first thought was to cuss you out for The Senator deal, but this EBDI thing is even worse, by all the reports I've heard.

I know of other cases of the City's biggest official egos ruining people's lives for goals they thought would be good ideas. Some of the victims don't want me talking about what I know, so I won't.

All I can say is, YOU SUCK. Try to develop some humanity, and some compassion. I guess you don't even know what that is. Whatever the City's goals are, if it involves ruining innocent lives in the process, it probably isn't worth it. Your career and your movement up in the local pecking order isn't worth it, either.

Truth in Reporting

Since the new operators chosen by the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) reopened The Senator Theatre in mid-October 2010, I notice there has not been one photo in the local news media of The Senator at night, unless it was a photo that was taken while former owner Tom Kiefaber owned or was still managing the theatre. Not one recent one taken in the past 3 months. Why is that?

Here's why...


Above: The Senator under Tom Kiefaber's ownership, March 2009

It continued to look pretty much like the above photo until after Baltimore City evicted Tom Kiefaber and the Friends of The Senator volunteers from the building in July, 2010. I can also show you numerous photos of it looking this good anytime during Kiefaber's ownership.


Above: The Senator under new management, December 2010, just 2 months after the new operators took over.

Go there and look. The new management has been neglecting the outside lights and the marquee, and there's graffitti all over the side of the building along Rosebank Avenue. This situation has been worsening for 3 months now.

To all the Baltimoreans who keep being angry at me for continuing to tell the truth about what's been happening with The Senator, please accept my apology. This card expresses my sentiments perfectly.

So, I challenge the local media once again. If you're going to report about the new operation of The Senator, go there and take a current picture of The Senator at night, will you? Stop showing beautiful photos of The Senator under Kiefaber's ownership and pretending that it looks like that now.

BDC detonates small nuclear device at Senator Theatre, blames Kiefaber

BALTIMORE, MD
July 31, 2010

Today the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) announced it had unavoidably detonated a small nuclear device, destroying the historic Senator Theatre, formerly located at 5904 York Road in North Baltimore. “This is all Tom Kiefaber’s fault,” noted BDC President M.J. Brodie. “Tom was a bad businessman, and besides, we didn’t like him. He hurt our feelings over a decade ago, and we haven’t forgiven him. We couldn’t allow any part of his legacy to remain and pollute the City of Baltimore. Also, he refused to get an accumulated 71 years worth of his and his family’s personal possessions out of The Senator in one day. We had no choice but to remove it by atomic blast.”

A spokewoman for one of the local neighborhood groups commented, on condition of anonymity. “Prior to the BDC’s decisive solution today, we were very concerned that a reopened Senator Theatre might bring people into the area from outside our neighborhood. We didn’t want those people taking our parking spaces, or driving up and down our streets. That was why we had backed the plan from Buzz Cusack of the Charles Theater, which offered little danger of that. But this new plan by the BDC is even better. Nobody is going to come from outside of the neighborhood just to visit a small radioactive pit.”

But a spokeswoman for the local chapter of People for A Not Entirely Poisonous Planet disagrees. “Nuclear bombs make an area uninhabitable for like, I don’t know, 3 million years, or something,” said Sage Greentree. “I might have come to a movie once or twice a year, if Mr. Cusack reopened the theatre, but I totally don’t want to go visit where The Senator Theatre was now.” Greentree lives outside of the immediate neighborhood, in a treehouse in far-away exotic Charles Village.

Not to worry, says BDC spokeswoman Kim Clark. “The cleansing device we used was much, much smaller than even the tiny nuclear bomb used at Hiroshima. It will only make the Govanstowne and Belvedere Square areas uninhabitable for a few thousand years, and they were pretty much that way already, due to Tom Kiefaber’s mismanagement of The Senator.” Clark added “Nuclear devices aren’t cheap. Tom owes us a lot of money for this.”

In spite of the warnings that their neighborhood would now be uninhabitable, local residents refused to evacuate. “We’ll just go ahead and mutate,” said one. “We’re already good at that.”

BDC President Brodie said he will continue to frequent the area. “Radioactive pits are what urban renewal is all about. Besides, genetic mutation holds no mystery for me. I’m well acquainted with it.”

“Tom Kiefaber’s family owned and operated The Senator Theatre in an award-winning manner for 71 years. The Senator would not still be here without Tom’s heroic efforts over the years,” screamed dangerous deranged psychopath and Friends of The Senator Managing Director Laura Perkins in barely intelligible expletives, before she was dragged away in handcuffs for approaching within a mile of the shiny new radioactive pit.

“The Senator Theatre is not still here,” noted Brodie, “and that’s Tom’s fault.”

Master criminal Kiefaber was unavailable for comment, but a neighbor in Baltimore County said he was busy digging a fallout shelter at his home.

BDC Recommends Interior Demolition of Senator Theatre

In a move more or less predicted by this blog over a year ago, in March of 2009, the BDC yesterday recommended that the city hand The Senator Theatre over to James "Buzz" Cusack, operator of the Charles Theater. This was easy to see coming, as Mr. Cusack long ago expressed interest in taking over The Senator, and has been, through his seat on the city's CHAP commission and along with Robert C. "Bob" Embry of the Abell Foundation, part of the cabal that helped Baltimore City gain control of The Senator with CHAP's action last May to propose unprecedented interior controls on The Senator over the objections of then-owner Tom Kiefaber.

As this blog has documented, the proposed controls, which have not yet taken effect, since they were never passed by the city council, served to scare other private investors away from The Senator and limit bidding at the foreclosure auction on The Senator in July 2009. This enabled Baltimore City to acquire the theatre at a cut-rate price, far below its market value.

Cusack's proposal, recommended by the BDC yesterday, proposes interior demolition of original features of The Senator at taxpayer expense. Cusack proposes to knock holes in the walls of the iconic circular outer lobby and destroy the original ladies' and men's lounges and restrooms, turning the ladies lounge and restroom into a crepe restaurant.

Click the image below to view Mr. Cusack's interior demolition plan:



It is unclear whether this interior demolition would be prohibited by CHAP's proposed interior controls, but this question is currently an academic one, as those controls have yet to become legislation.

Mr. Cusack's plan calls for a long-term lease that amounts to an ownership interest in The Senator at $1 a year. He needs it to grant him an ownership interest in order to apply for historic tax credits. In other words, he is proposing that city taxpayer's $1 Million investment in The Senator be handed to him essentially for free. On top of that, he is also asking for city taxpayer funds amounting to $700,000. It should be noted that city officials took The Senator away from Tom Kiefaber based on the excuse that they didn't want to subsidize his business, but Mr. Cusack is already asking for more public subsidy from city taxpayers than Mr. Kiefaber ever received or ever even asked for.

Get A Clue (#3)

In the intrepid spirit of investigation, here is today's clue:

Clue #3: A tip I received claims that Robert "Bob" Embry wasn't alone at the recent pivotal meeting with Towson University President Robert Caret, which seems to have rapidly triggered TU's withdrawal of their superior Senator Theatre RFP. M.J. Brodie, the controversial President of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) was also reportedly present.

So, Baltimore's own mysterious "Dr. Evil" who pulls on the levers of power and control from Abell's penthouse lair in the sky, apparently hoisted a tiny pinky to his lips and took along his "BDC Mini Me" to the recent closed-door meeting with Towson President Caret. Hmmm.

It appears that Abell and the BDC intend to maintain their control over The Senator, which took over a decade to accomplish, as well as decide for themselves the outcome of Baltimore City taxpayers' ONE MEELLION DOLLAR investment. Things are headed that way now that TU has abruptly withdrawn its Senator RFP and departed the field. I hear, though, that angry business owners in the Belvedere Square commercial district are finally catching on to the big fix ahead. Stay tuned...

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.

Take Action: Send a letter to the Mayor

Please join Friends of The Senator's campaign to ask Mayor Rawlings-Blake to intervene in the Senator RFP selection process, and require the BDC to open up the process and allow objective, bona fide historic theatre redevelopment consultants and film industry experts to weigh in on the Senator RFPs.

The Senator is a significant national landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. This decision is too important to be made by people who do not understand the issues involved. There is nothing wrong with consulting people who have experience in the field.

Please send the letter yourself, and then forward the link far and wide:

http://www.senatorletter.com
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1924

Letter to Mayor Rawlings-Blake

To The Honorable Mayor Rawlings-Blake:

I recently served on the Baltimore Development Corporation’s [BDC] Senator Theatre RFP advisory panel, along with other community leaders, as the sole representative of the Friends of The Senator [FOTS] group. I approached my duties on the RFP panel with optimism, determined to represent the interests and concerns of the FOTS and help identify an optimal future for Baltimore’s beloved Senator Theatre.

The Senator is a revered Baltimore City landmark and a celebrated State of Maryland historic showplace. It is also a renowned historic monument on the National Register of Historic Places and a source of pride among Senator enthusiasts and preservation groups nationwide, as well as a source of concern regarding its uncertain future.

I have invested considerable time and resources to research the complex issues involved with The Senator’s status as an endangered national historic landmark, and its future redevelopment and preservation potential based on successful models across the nation. My research was very encouraging, and I looked forward with enthusiasm and good faith to help produce an informed representative assessment of the two RFPs.

Madam Mayor, I applaud your intention to bring a new level of transparency and integrity to Baltimore City government practices, including the BDC. You have more support than you may imagine in that regard. In that light, I feel it is my responsibility to inform you and the public that based on my in-depth discussions with film exhibition professionals and historic theatre redevelopment experts, the alarming manner in which the BDC is conducting the Senator Theatre RFP selection process is procedurally flawed, and it must be rectified.

The process lacks the expertise and crucial transparency required for a high-profile civic redevelopment project that to date has required the investment of over a million dollars in taxpayer funds. It must become more objective and transparent as soon as possible. The Senator RFPs need objective scrutiny by industry experts to advise the panel and the BDC board, if the results, which they expect you to bless in announcing the new ownership and future direction of the Senator Theatre, are to have any validity. At this point, the RFP process is a shambles.

A key issue is the BDC’s refusal to allow a qualified historic theatre redevelopment consultant and a film exhibition expert to actively assist the citizen panel and the BDC in the professional evaluation of the two RFPs under consideration.

The Senator’s transition to new ownership and operation has many aspects to consider, including mercurial film industry dynamics, historic theatre preservation concerns and tax credit issues, evolution in programming models, deriving maximum economic benefits for the community, and models for non-profit structure and fundraising for historic theatres. It is vitally important to bring on board objective industry experts with successful track records from consulting on and managing similar projects nationwide. The industry experts have the professional experience required in managing the transition of an historic motion picture theatre like The Senator from its outmoded, single-screen first-run business model to a restored, thriving entertainment venue that delivers the maximum economic and cultural benefits to the community in perpetuity.

The Senator’s former owner, Tom Kiefaber, previously brought industry expert John Lind of Venuetech, Inc. from California to Baltimore as a consultant to meet with the extended community, and his knowledge and insights regarding The Senator’s future non-profit incarnation were invaluable. Mr. Lind is an accomplished historic theatre redevelopment professional who has the high level of experience and an impressive portfolio of success that would greatly assist the BDC’s mandate to identify an optimal outcome for the Senator RFP process. The FOTS believe that John Lind is an ideal candidate, although he is certainly not the only option available.

The BDC must reach out to include objective industry experts like Mr. Lind. These experts have developed a set of established procedures over the years, through many successful historic theatre redevelopment projects nationwide, to ensure that the final RFP recommendation submitted to you has been determined in the most credible and informed manner possible. So far, the BDC representatives have simply insisted on keeping the Senator RFP process shrouded in secrecy. In light of your recent reassurances to the citizens of Baltimore that your administration will lift Baltimore’s City Hall above and beyond its widely sullied reputation, I hope you will agree that this odd and provocative stance by the BDC is simply unacceptable, and that it warrants your thoughtful intervention.

Until qualified historic theatre redevelopment professionals are allowed into the mix in earnest, I cannot in good conscience participate further in the BDC’s tainted Senator Theatre RFP evaluation process. After careful consideration of the circumstances, I have resigned from the Senator RFP panel in protest and informed the BDC of my position in writing on behalf of the Friends of the Senator group, who support my actions on their behalf.

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter. I trust that you and your staff will assess the seriousness of this situation and agree with the FOTS group and others regarding the wisdom of encouraging the BDC leadership to open up the process and fulfill their mandate and responsibility to engage expert industry professionals in the Senator RFP evaluation process. This potentially damaging controversy will otherwise continue to escalate and potentially undermine the professional credibility of all concerned.

Sincerely,

Laura Perkins
Friends of The Senator

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.

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.

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.

In Case You Missed It: Grauman's Chinese Theatre For Sale

As "AstroGirl," I would like to particularly note the following quote in this Hollywood Reporter article about the most famous historic theatre in the nation, Grauman's Chinese in Hollywood, being up for sale:

"You can't make a profit on a single-screen theater," a top industryite mused. "It's just not possible."

But the BDC and various Baltimore City officials have consistently blamed The Senator's debts on Tom Kiefaber. People more familiar with the movie industry are simply astounded that he's made it work to such a high degree for so long with debts that are so comparatively LOW.

It simply goes to show you that Baltimore City and the BDC know NOTHING about the movie industry and should NOT be trying to decide the fate of an iconic historic theatre like The Senator without expert advice from people in the industry...such as Tom Kiefaber.

Really...the mind boggles at why Baltimore City is trying to make such an important decision about such a wonderful Baltimore landmark while figuratively driving the bus with a blindfold on and earplugs in.

BDC's July 20 RFP Draft for The Senator

I have obtained the July 20th draft of the RFP for The Senator Theatre and converted it to HTML. You can read it here. This is the second draft of which I'm aware.

Now I'm going to brag about my track record.

I predicted in early February that the City was "at least as likely to bring in a developer or a national chain as to create a community-owned nonprofit" for The Senator. While we don't know the end result, we know the city's steering committee recommended against a non-profit in April.

I suspected in January that the City's steering committee would recommend against The Senator becoming a non-profit, which they did in April.

I predicted in early March that the City would let The Senator go to a foreclosure auction to "clear the debt."

I predicted various times, starting in mid-March that the City's actions, including CHAP restrictions and various attempts by City officials to talk down the value of the theatre would confuse potential buyers and scare bidders away from any auction, which ended up happening, according to restaurateur and caterer Eddie Dopkin, who registered as a bidder at the auction:

Dopkin would neither confirm nor deny that he made a bid. Auctioneers would not say who besides the city placed a bid, citing confidentiality.

But Dopkin did say that if the city does issue an RFP, “I would seriously look at it.”

Dopkin said that questions about parking and other issues may have limited bidding.

“I don’t think a sensible person would buy it without knowing all the answers,” he said. “I think it limited all the bids.”

This obfuscation of the situation by the City seems to have been intentional and in my opinion essentially resulted in a rigged auction situation, where the City was able to take The Senator very cheaply.

The reason I'm bragging about my track record is, this is not over. If the auction is ratified (which it might not be), the city will then control The Senator through their RFP process. If I start predicting what will happen with that, or with the larger picture in the Belvedere Square district, just remember that I have a track record, OK?

What I'm hearing is that the City's plans don't just involve The Senator, but the entire Belvedere Square district. As I hear more, I'll be reporting on it. I'm saying right now, there is a larger plan afoot.

Auction Over: Baltimore City Cuts Itself a Deal

Baltimore City's auction of The Senator Theatre is over, and the way I see it, they cut themselves an unauthorized deal on Tom Kiefaber's property. Nobody I talked to foresaw that the City could set the minimum bid at less than the amount owed on the note on The Senator, or bid less than that approximately $950K themselves. I didn't know either of those things were even legal, especially given their fiduciary responsibility as trustee to try to maximize the auction sale price, and the fact that they claimed they were holding the auction to clear the debt on the theatre. Yet they did set the minimum bid lower and bid less, walking away with The Senator for a literal steal of $810K.

I assume they will now try to collect the rest from Tom Kiefaber, unless perhaps there was a higher reserve price that was not met and which the city will now consider paid off. It was not clear in the chaos that was this auction. If anyone knows, please enlighten me.

The auction was fishy from the beginning, with auctioneers from Alex Cooper auctions showing up early and immediately causing concern, but probably through no fault of their own. At least one person associated with the auction company appeared in my opinion to be clearly uncomfortable with their company being associated with such a tainted auction, and I heard when he assured Tom Kiefaber that they are a reputable company. No one was doubting that. They were just doing their job, however, when they were hired by the city to handle this property, they likely had no way of knowing what a corrupt process it was going to turn out to be.

First the auction company told us that the city might change the minimum bid after the beginning of the auction. Given that Kim Clark had said on record in public that bidders would have to bid $1 million dollars to outbid the city and buy the theatre, this came as quite a shock. Even then, I was thinking they would raise the maximum bid to prevent anyone from buying it, not lower it to cut themselves a deal.

Next, we learned that although there had been an agreement between the city, the auctioneers, and theatre management weeks ago to have the auction inside the theatre, they were going to move the auction outside at the last minute.

There was quite a commotion as the city tried to move the auction outside and Tom Kiefaber tried to get them to stick to their original agreement and hold the theatre in the air-conditioned theatre with a sound system, rather than outside in the heat on the sidewalk where there was no sound system and nobody could hear. Eventually, the auction started outside.

The city started the bidding at $750K, well below the published minimum bid that came out of the mouths of city officials, and well below the amount of approximately $950K owed on the note. There was a large crowd and no loudspeaker system. There were multiple shouts from the crowd of "I can't hear you," directed at the auctioneer. At least two people who said they planned to bid were so confused that they were still standing inside when the bidding started, and were brought outside by Tom Kiefaber. One or two other bidders bid it up to $800K, before being outbid by the city at $810K. The auctioneer seemed to rush through the process.

At the end, there were multiple shouts of "it was rigged," as well as tears and anger from members of the public who showed up to witness the auction.

The city does not yet officially own the theatre, as the auction still has to be ratified, which I hear will take approximately 45 to 60 days. Meanwhile, Tom Kiefaber is still the owner.

More later when I have a chance to process all this, upload some video, and find out more about what this all means.

Please note that this blog noted months ago, before the city's steering committee made their apparently pre-determined decision that The Senator could not be a non-profit, that it seemed that the city was trying to take The Senator from Tom Kiefaber and hand it over to some crony, in what seemed very likely to be a rigged process. That appears to be exactly how it's playing out. I'm not a psychic. I'm just doing my own investigation here. The dots are not that hard to connect.

Senator Theatre Auction Date/Time Set

I just received this in an email from the York Road Partnership, a local community/business association. It's an email from Kristen Mitchell of the Baltimore Development Corporation.

Hello,

I wanted to let you know that the City has scheduled the auction for the Senator Theater for Wednesday, July 22, at 11:00 a.m., at the Senator(5904 York Road). We are working with Alex Cooper Auctioneers, and more information will be available soon on their website. We also plan to post the information on BDC's website, historic theater websites, historic preservation websites, the Daily Record, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun.

Please forward this information to your contacts. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me.

Kristen

Kristen Mitchell
Senior Economic Development Officer
Commercial Revitalization
Baltimore Development Corporation
36 S. Charles Street, Suite 1600
Baltimore, MD 21201-3015
kmitchell@baltimoredevelopment.com
Phone: 410-837-9305
Direct: 410-779-3837
Fax: 410-837-6363
www.baltimoredevelopment.com

The Kim Clark Show at The Senator Theatre

My title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but last week's community meeting at The Senator Theatre and subsequent Baltimore Sun articles have revealed Kim Clark of the BDC to be an interesting, complex public figure with nuanced opinions and a flexible, changeable mind. If one were being unkind, one might say flip-flopper.

Now that I and others have videos and audio of the highlights of the meeting put together, let's examine the many conflicting opinions of that multi-faceted personality known as Kim Clark.

First of all, if you only have time to watch one video of the meeting, let it be this one from Arlette Productions. This highlights the discussion about the city's CHAP designation, which Kim Clark called "ill-timed" and "unnecessary," saying she had "in other people's face discussions" about it. I would have thought you only have "in other people's face discussions" if something is really wrong with what's happening.



But Clark softened her view about CHAP after the meeting, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Wednesday, both Clarke and state Sen. Joan Carter Conway, who called the meeting, questioned the timing and wisdom of the commission's action. But Friday, Clarke sounded less concerned: "I don't think it's as much of a roadblock as some people portray it to be."

Clark has changed her position about the likelihood of the theatre being sold at auction, too. In the meeting, she said she thought it unlikely that anyone would bid a million dollars for the theatre at auction, something she was strongly questioned on, given the extraordinary value and unique nature of The Senator.



After the meeting, she said that at least two parties with the necessary resources are interested.

Clark said she has heard from at least two prospective bidders -- one from Maryland, one from outside the state -- with the financial wherewithal to pay at least the minimum price for the theater. Plus, she said: "I'm hearing from other parties that they have been contacted. There seems to be definite interest out there."

OK, now to be fair, it may be there has been sudden interest since word of the auction got out that is surprising to Kim Clark, though not at all surprising to those of us who know and love The Senator Theatre.

But still, given that she does seem to change her mind a lot, can we really take her seriously when, confronted with the fact that her comments in a Daily Record article a couple of months ago made it seem that someone in city hall may have a personal grudge against Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, she claimed to have been misquoted? Her comments in the Daily Record set off a negative slew of nasty defamation of Tom Kiefaber that derailed the focus on The Senator from finding an appropriate solution to its future, by the way. Here you can (barely) hear her denying that she ever made those comments (she was off-mic for the denial). The comment she responds to with her denial can be found starting at about 4 minutes into this video:



What a fascinating character she is. Complex is the word, I believe.