Further Thoughts on The Senator's Conversion (Pun Intended)

Well, now that it seems Baltimore City officials have placed The Senator firmly on the track toward becoming an evangelical mega-church, how are they trying to undo the damage? By promising retribution after the fact.

The BDC's Kim Clark and 4th District Councilman Bill Henry recently threatened to control the situation by taking away The Senator's parking.

But she and Henry noted a deterrent to a congregation could be an existing agreement that allows for use of the parking lot across the street from the Senator only if the property remains in use as a theater.

Oh yeah. That's going to work real well (NOT!) --- let a church buy The Senator at auction and then try to take away their parking. This kind of meddling in a property owner's affairs may have worked to some extent to harass current Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, but do these city politicians really want to take on a whole congregation of churchgoers? Talk about a political landmine!

And what happens when the pastor realizes he can probably sue Baltimore City over constitutional issues related to church/state separation and remove ANY controls they try to put on use of The Senator, including the city's recent interior landmark designation?

But at least Bill Henry gave some insight into the city's thinking on this issue when, at a recent public meeting, he indicated the way they'd take away The Senator's parking is by making a deal with the owner of the Staples parking lot (currently also The Senator's parking lot), developer David Cordish, who Henry indicated has already agreed to go along with that.

On a separate, but related note, Bill Henry seems not to have gotten the message that Kim Clark, Joan Pratt and others agreed to at the May 20th meeting at The Senator --- the message about how it would be good for taxpayers if The Senator is sold at auction so the city can get its recent investment back (and its only investment in The Senator for the past 10 years).

If the goal is to get the city's investment back, why is Bill Henry trying to scare bidders away from the auction by pulling big numbers out of thin air and passing them off as estimates for the cost of renovations and upgrades on The Senator? This $500K number has no basis in reality, that I'm aware of. I'm sure it would be possible to spend that much over time, especially if doing a full restoration, but the cost to continue to run the theatre under new ownership would be nowhere near that. (I am speaking here as a volunteer who has been in the theatre for several hours almost every day for the past two months. Trust me, I have a good feel for the condition of the building.)

It's time for Baltimore City officials to recognize that the way to save the day in this situation is to come to the table with community leaders, the public, Senator owner Tom Kiefaber, and other interested parties, as they were requested to do back in January, and figure out how The Senator can transition into a non-profit multipurpose entertainment venue, and NOT a religious non-profit! Now, it's entirely possible that they planned to get around to that under the city's RFP process, but they made one miscalculation: they assumed nobody would buy The Senator at auction for over $1 Million. Now that it's clear that The Senator's national and international brand is worth a lot more than they bargained for, and that there are several probable bidders, time to rethink the game plan and do the right thing for The Senator while it's still possible.

They're Lying!

Even while encased in carbonite, Han Solo sees right through Baltimore City officials...



Meanwhile, the memorabilia sale goes on, including two props from John Waters' Cecil B. Demented, which was filmed in part at The Senator (one of these props is a fake sidewalk block):



There are also some vintage promotional materials...





STATUS: Today's bank auction of the theatre has been cancelled. The city will most likely foreclose on the theatre and then buy it at their own rigged auction, probably sometime in May, but they haven't given a date. Word on the street is that they will then use a bid process to turn it over to their favorite developer. The pseudo-government, semi-private Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) has apparently taken over the city government in a coup and Andy Frank is the real mayor (or at least the power behind Sheila Dixon's throne). The family that built the theatre and has preserved and protected it for 70 years is being forced out and getting screwed in the process.

Community-Friendly Business: What a Concept!

I went to the Mind Field premiere last night at the Senator. The skate scene isn't my thing, but the film was nevertheless pretty cool. It mostly consisted of footage of some amazing skateboard tricks, juxtaposed with music, animations, and short shots of trippy things. There was a slightly psychedelic aesthetic that made the film look almost hand-colored. Anyway, it was well done.

It really got me thinking about how important community-friendly business is. Between national premieres of films connected with Baltimore or made by Baltimore filmmakers, free public events at significant times like the inauguration or the Super Bowl to support the local food pantry, the many fundraisers for area nonprofits the Senator has done (someone told me they number at least in the hundreds), the tradition of getting the kids on stage in their costumes at Halloween, and the general friendly feeling you get of coming to a locally-owned neighborhood theatre, we really have a unique treasure here in Baltimore, not just in the Senator's architecture and history, but its management. There's a real hometown feeling at the Senator.

Would a national chain do all (or any) of the above? I don't think so.

This is one thing that worries me. News reports in the Sun have said the city aims to transition the Senator to a nonprofit, but one city official recently told me he isn't sure that's going to be the solution. Certainly the public perception is that the city is stepping in and turning the Senator into a nonprofit, but I'm not sure that's the reality. We don't know what's happening, and it seems to me the city is at least as likely to bring in a developer or a national chain as to create a community-owned nonprofit.

All of this keeps reminding me of something that was said at the January 22 town hall at the Senator, when Tom Kiefaber asked Senator supporters to contact their local officials and ask them to come to the table with him and discuss the Senator's future. I'm new to Baltimore, so it didn't all make complete sense to me, but red flags were raised nonetheless.

MaxGenus has footage of most of the meeting on YouTube, but his daughter must have run out of battery power for her camera before the end of the question and answer session. Below is one clip of Catherine Evans of the Belvedere Improvement Association. The rest of the meeting footage can be viewed here.



What MaxGenus didn't get, and it also wasn't reported by the media, was an interesting exchange toward the end of the Q&A part of the meeting. I didn't totally understand it, not knowing the history, but it was something like the following:

The discussion was about the importance of the Senator Theatre to this area.

A man sitting in front of me noted that he's been following the developments with the Senator Theatre for the past twenty years, and asked why the city government doesn't understand the significance of the Senator and its function in the local community.

Catherine Evans stood up and said she wanted to answer that question. I don't have the exact quote, so this is coming from memory and notes, but I think she said something like...Let me assure you that they do. When she came on board with the Belvedere Improvement Association, there were redevelopment issues in the area and she worked closely with then city councilman Martin O'Malley. Later, when Belvedere Square was closed, Andy Frank (now Deputy Mayor) was put in charge of this at the BDC. The city understands for sure the significance of the Senator and its future, but they're also determined to be the ones who control it, whether from a community standpoint, as Tom (Kiefaber) has always advocated, or a commercial development standpoint.

Then another woman stood up behind me and said basically, yes, that's true. The city has been waiting it out so they can step in and control it.

Again, I apologize for not having the exact quotes, but the exchange went something like that.

Those of us who support the Senator need to keep our ears to the ground carefully. Something is afoot, and I don't think it smells right.