Baltimore's Senator Theatre: Then and Now

I recently helped Friends of The Senator (FOTS) compile this YouTube video, documenting The Senator's appearance before and after Baltimore City forced a change in ownership and management:



The video is a companion to the FOTS petition, encouraging the new operators to maintain the theatre's exterior neon and incandescent lighting, the landscaping, and remove accumulated graffiti. The petition was started about a month ago and has garnered over 600 signatures, mostly from the Baltimore area, but also from across the nation and around the world. Hundreds of comments left by signers often go far beyond the petition's modest request for exterior maintenance.

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.

Coalition of Candidates Calls Election Wired

A coalition of candidates for the office of City Council President held a press conference today to protest the lack of public debate in the race for the office of City Council President. There have been fifteen mayoral debates, many of them televised, and not a single one for the second highest office in the City. Candidates for City Council President formed a coalition, after they realized their voices were being silenced.

The candidates said that the single scheduled debate for them had been canceled after the recent earthquake, when the City put pressure on the Pratt Library to close that evening, even though the building was sound. The debate was not rescheduled.

Candidates Tom Kiefaber, Leon Hector, Armand Girard, and Renold B. Smith were present at the conference. Two other candidates, Charles U. Smith and David Anthony Wiggins, had signed up to suppor the coalition, but were unable to appear at the press conference.

The 3 minute highlights video is here:



Press Conference:



Q&A:

Tom Kiefaber's letter to CHAP

Former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber copied me and also several others, including reporters for the local media, on this letter to Baltimore City's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) before their meeting today. I have asked for and received permission to distribute it.

Dear Ms. Kotarba and Mr. Leon: Please pass on my protest over the manner in which today's CHAP hearing is being conducted to the commissioners. I will also attempt to forward this communication to them individually as well. To proceed on this matter today under these circumstances is improper, as I elaborate below.

Sincerely, Tom Kiefaber

August 9, 2011

Dear Chairperson and CHAP members:

I am writing in my capacity as the former owner of Baltimore's once-beloved and currently degraded Senator Theatre and as an award-winning professional in the field of historic theatre operation and preservation.

It has become apparent through manipulation of the courts by way of a "Peace Order" that Ms. Kathleen Cusack, a key representative of the tenants seeking CHAP concept approval of a fourth new iteration to significantly alter The Senator Theatre, has tactically barred my in-person participation and testimony in today's CHAP commission hearing. My lawyer has advised me not to attend or risk arrest.

Today's CHAP hearing represents the forth major change in the "competitive" RFP plan awarded by the City of Baltimore, and it has become a fundamentally different project from what was approved by the BDC on behalf of the citizen owners of the renowned National Historic Landmark facility. Today's CHAP commission hearing is auspicious in that it represents a significant departure from prior CHAP approvals of three earlier concept plans for significant modification of The Senator Theatre.

From the incomplete set of drawings I was provided by CHAP staff upon request, it appears that the applicants have chosen to take the oft-delayed project in a disappointing direction by converting the remarkably intact historic structure to create a cramped and substandard four-screen film multiplex. This current direction of the controversial project is alarming, considering the ongoing seismic changes in the motion picture exhibition industry that have rendered such modified re-configurations of National Historic Landmark theatres as outmoded, costly folly. The truncated and incomplete schematics I was provided by CHAP staff show a plan that will effectively desecrate an irreplaceable and celebrated historic structure in myriad ways.

In seeking a viable alternative to my in-person testimony regarding this latest modification, which the the surrounding business and residential community has not yet been apprised of, I requested on their behalf a simple set of plans and renderings to review. I was planning, in my former capacity as the long term former independent owner and steward of the Senator Theatre, built by my family in 1939, to be able to submit to the commissioners a clear, well-reasoned written list of informed observations and valid objections to the plans being considered for concept approval at today's CHAP hearing.

Unfortunately, as often occurs surrounding past hurried CHAP meetings regarding The Senator, I was not supplied any complete and up-to-date information, and what I received also contained no second floor plan at all, nor the details of existing exterior openings, cut-throughs, fire exits, materials and elevations required to evaluate the plan.

At 11:15 am today a fuzzy image appeared by email that was useless to me, particularly with a written submission deadline to CHAP, at at noon. The additional material I requested prior to today from CHAP was also requested by me from designer Alex Castro personally. What just arrived from CHAP staff are crude electronic images that are wholly insufficient to comprehend.

In light of the factors listed above, and the highly-charged significance of this oddly convoluted, public/private profit-sharing joint venture project intending to modify one of the most intact and celebrated motion picture theaters of its type remaining in America, I respectfully request that today's CHAP hearing on The Senator be postponed for cause.

Please note as well that today's hearing is inexplicably listed on CHAP's online agenda and in the document I was provided by staff as being submitted by my Senator Limited Partnership, which no longer owns the theatre.

Please postpone and re-scheduled the CHAP hearing to allow the public and myself to actively participate in an open and transparent agency process that is accountable to, and respects the rights of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre.

Sincerely, Thomas Kiefaber

My Comments for Today's CHAP Meeting on The Senator Theatre

I am unable to attend today's meeting of Baltimore City's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), which will consider the 4th significantly changed plan for The Senator Theatre submitted by the new operators in about a year. Instead, as one of the founding members of Friends of The Senator, I submitted my comments by email as follows:

Comment to be placed in the public record

Baltimore City CHAP:

The Senator Theatre is an important, largely intact and rare example of art deco/art moderne theater design by Baltimore-born theater architect John Zink. It is a precious component of Baltimore City’s built environment, which once lost, could never be replaced. It has been recognized nationally as an important monument on the National Register of Historic Places, and as such, it belongs not only to all citizens of Baltimore, but all citizens of the United States, the world, and future generations.

Thoughtful and well-planned preservation of historic buildings of the caliber of The Senator is essential for any metropolitan area that aspires to be both livable and a worthy destination for tourists.

It’s too early to make any informed decision on the latest plan submitted by City’s appointed lessees of The Senator, which is the 4th significantly different plan they’ve submitted in about a year. This new plan has not been seen by the public, and the plan that was submitted to CHAP, as of a few days ago, is nonsensical and incomplete, missing elevations and exit doors. It turns the historic theatre into a poorly planned multiplex and winebar, and still includes a proposal to mutilate the facade’s sight lines.

This has been the pattern all along: the new operators have submitted poorly thought out, incomplete plans which have slid by every approval stage of the process at the City level. Later, when they find out the plans won’t work, those plans change.

The BDC’s choice of a new operator, without any significant or legitimate input by either the public or historic theatre preservation professionals, has been a disaster so far.

The promised increase in traffic to the theatre has not materialized, nor do the numbers thus far support the suggestion that traffic will increase as promised once the project is complete. There comes a point where even exponential growth will not be enough, and this project is never going to attract the approximately 1,000 visitors per day attendance level that was projected in the original proposal to the City.

Worse yet, the theatre is not being adequately maintained. Marquee lights that burn out are left off for months. When parts of the aged neon go out, they are not reconnected. Graffiti is ignored and left to metastasize on the building’s exterior. The inner lobby is now painted an inappropriate color, found nowhere in the original design. A large plastic chute that was used in roof work to funnel debris to a dumpster is left hanging off the building, flapping in the breeze for months after the work was completed and the dumpster hauled away. The place looks like a dump.

The new operators have also shown beyond a doubt that they do not possess the aesthetic, historic, or design sensitivities to do an appropriate restoration. They initially proposed tearing out the original Ladies’ Lounge, a signature feature of Zink’s design for the building. This mutilation would never have been proposed by anyone with a real appreciation of the building’s design.

When that proposed change didn’t fly, for reasons that were obvious to everyone but the new operators and the BDC, they submitted a series of changed proposals. The one they submitted to the Maryland Historical Trust, in an attempt to get historic tax credits, was rejected by MHT, apparently due to its proposed mutilation of the building’s sight lines on the facade and/or its proposed mutilation of the original Men’s Lounge.

Perhaps unbeknownst to most of its members, Baltimore City’s CHAP commission has already done immeasurable harm to the future preservation prospects of The Senator Theatre, when it succumbed to ill-advised direction, apparently from Commissioner Robert C. Embry, in 2009, and placed ill-timed and probably unconstitutional interior landmark restrictions on The Senator Theatre, just in time to drive down the theatre’s value at auction, scaring off viable interested parties. This enabled Baltimore City to accomplish a land grab of The Senator from its former owner, Tom Kiefaber – a man who had made planning for and gathering the resources for the eventual judicious and top-notch restoration and preservation of the theatre his consuming passion and the number one priority in his life for over 20 years.

CHAP thus succeeded in handing The Senator Theatre over to the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), a body that is notoriously anti-preservation.

That Mr. Kiefaber was brutally harmed over a decade, and not helped in his determination to preserve The Senator, by the BDC and the Abell Foundation, is a permanent stain on the records of those organizations, to their everlasting shame.

The CHAP Commission is also tainted in this matter. It’s rife with conflicts of interest, since Mr. Embry, who has long worked to undermine Mr. Kiefaber, and Mr. Cusack, the new operator chosen by the BDC, are both on the board.

This Commission has been rendered incapable of making any decision regarding The Senator that will not be tainted by its politicized record.

I’m through with pretending that The Senator Theatre was acquired from its former owner by a legitimate process, put through a legitimate RFP process by the BDC, and is now being put through a legitimate design review process. I’m not going to give lip service to those falsehoods any longer.

None of this is legitimate. It’s all been one big shameful corrupt fiasco from the beginning. As one of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre, I reject this body’s authority to make any decision that will allow any modification of The Senator Theatre by the current operators, who have clearly shown that they don’t deserve the honor.

The only legitimate decision that CHAP could make, in my opinion, is to put a moratorium on ANY changes to The Senator until such time as Baltimore City’s lease to the current operators is revoked, and a legitimate historic theatre planning process is done by real, nationally recognized professionals in the field, with the full input of the former owner and the community. Anything less is a travesty and a shame.



Signed,

Laura Perkins
Friends of The Senator Theatre

City Hall Revokes Kiefaber's Constitutional Rights

In a bizarre and illegal move, Baltimore City officials have banned former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber from attending public meetings at City Hall in clear violation of his constitutional rights.

Mr. Kiefaber has never harmed anyone and is not a physical threat, but City Hall officials clearly do not like what they think he might say. Kiefaber made one spontaneous peaceful protest at a City Council meeting and was thrown out. A week or so later, he was thrown out of a Board of Estimates meeting he had sat in for 40 minutes without saying a word and without doing anything, apparently because city officials thought he might have an opinion about the next item on the agenda, the West Side "Superblock" project.

The Baltimore Sun appears to be in collusion with City Hall on this, as I will illustrate below. When I saw the Sun article, which does not include a quote from Kiefaber, a hunch told me to call Kiefaber and find out what happened.

My call quickly confirmed that the Baltimore Sun had received the letter from City Solicitor George A. Nilson, but Kiefaber had not received it. When Kiefaber got a late Saturday afternoon call from the Sun about a letter he did not have, he questioned Sun reporter Tricia Bishop about why they had the letter and he did not. Bishop told him that Nilson had sent it to an address in Sparks, Maryland, where Kiefaber has not lived for over a year.

Bishop asked Kiefaber for a quote over the phone, but given Kiefaber's experiences over many years with the Sun, which has a pattern of either not quoting him or twisting his words and cherry picking the most negative part of his words out of context, Kiefaber insisted on putting the quote in writing. Kiefaber says Bishop then got miffed and wrote in her article that he refused to comment.

After the Sun article came out this afternoon, Kiefaber called the Sun and spoke with Steve Kilarp, who appeared to see that an injustice had been done and promised Kiefaber that if he sent him a quote in writing, he would make sure it got into later editions of The Sun. Kiefaber sent Kilarp the following quote in email:

I appreciate an opportunity to comment on this article for later editions of The Sun. Ms. Bishop reports incorrectly that I refused comment. That is not true. I merely insisted on providing prompt answers to her questions, in writing, a methodology that Ms. Bishop refused to indulge. She was apparently miffed and proceeded to mischaracterized my position in her error-laced article.

Rather than update the article as promised, however, someone at the Sun apparently decided they did not like the quote he sent them, and instead updated the article with the following lie in bold print:

Kiefaber refused to make a comment on the letter or criminal summons by phone, saying he preferred to do so in writing. No written statement had arrived late Saturday. He also said that The Sun was not covering him fairly.

Kiefaber then called the Sun again and spoke to Content Editor Andy Rosen. Kiefaber asked Rosen why the Sun had not printed the comment he sent them, and had instead lied and said he did not send a comment. Rosen told him they were not going to update the article.

Kiefaber also asked Rosen to meet with him to discuss the pattern of the Sun's documented smear campaign against Kiefaber. Rosen said no and hung up the phone, according to Kiefaber.

The Sun's article also falsely states that Kiefaber was recently escorted out of The Senator Theatre. I was there. Kiefaber came out on his own. Nobody escorted him. Kiefaber also called the police himself after his argument with the new operators.

It's official: Tom Kiefaber running for Council President

I hear it's official. Former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber has now filed to be a candidate in the Baltimore City race for Council President. He's challenging incumbent Council President Jack Young.

This all comes after Kiefaber was recently removed from a Board of Estimates meeting pre-emptively. He had been seated quietly in the meeting for over 40 minutes, not saying a word, when the Board of Estimates took a break in the meeting to eject him from the room.

Apparently the next issue on the agenda was the West Side "Superblock" project, which Kiefaber has a strong opinion about. As an advocate for preservation of West Side historic buildings, Kiefaber was recognized by the New York Times about a decade ago for having turned the tide for West Side preservation, by screening a short film called "Baltimore's West Side Story." This seems to be where Kiefaber's political troubles with the downtown power elite began.

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.

What’s Right With This Picture?

The other afternoon before dinner, I approached the gorgeous historic theatre with my family, walking under the beautiful marquee. After standing in line briefly at the box office, we purchased our tickets to a popular current film at a member’s discount.

The membership to the non-profit theatre had been a Christmas gift from my mother – one I had requested. My recent experience with Baltimore City’s inept and clueless handling of The Senator Theatre had made me all too aware of just how precious the other historic theatre in my life actually is.

We strolled into the outer lobby of the theatre, where an usher took our tickets. We stood in line for concessions, and were quickly served fresh popcorn with real butter, delivered in paper buckets and not bags. Passing through another set of doors, we strolled into the glittering inner lobby of the theatre, all of its gilding and original decorations looking stunning, as they always have for many years now.

Walking into the fully restored original auditorium, we found an open row of seats in front of the overhanging balcony. The gilding on the ceiling shone and dazzled as the organist played live music on the theatre’s period organ before the show.

My family and I had arrived at the most stunning entertainment venue in Southeastern Michigan – the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan – for a matinee showing of “The King’s Speech.”

The Michigan Theater was built in 1928 by the W.S. Butterfield Company, a regional theatre chain. It is now owned by a non-profit that uses memberships and donations to supplement its ticket sales and keep the restored theatre in prime condition. Hundreds of historic theatres across the nation are best served by non-profit ownership, which can raise the funds to keep the expensive buildings as beautiful as they were designed to be. Theatres like the Michigan often receive around 40% of their funding from donations and memberships, not ticket sales – an important consideration in today’s economic climate of dwindling attendance for films in theatres.

The Michigan’s schedule is a mix of high-quality, critically acclaimed new films, classic films, live music and other special events, and even the occasional blockbuster. Laurie Anderson and Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt will all appear there in January. Lewis Black will be there and the theater will also host a Charlie Chaplin film festival in February. Jeff Beck will appear there in March.

All in all, the Michigan is one of America’s prime examples of historic theatre ownership and operation done right. It should serve as a model for what The Senator Theatre should become, if only the input and advice of experts in the field would be sought and heeded.

I’ve described the Michigan in some detail above, primarily because I think Baltimoreans who have not been to a successfully restored non-profit theatre like it have often had a difficult time envisioning such a thing. No such thing exists in Baltimore, after all. In other cities, like Ann Arbor, however, such theatres are magnificent and thriving cultural assets.

Almost every little thing is perfect at the Michigan, but not quite. As I left the theater and looked back at the lit marquee, I noticed that just a few of the tiny little light bulbs surrounding the name of the theater were out. Just a few, and they’re those tiny little pain in the butt light bulbs that were so numerous on theatres of the Michigan’s vintage (older than The Senator). Really a major task to keep them all lit at the same time. The bulbs are tiny and there are hundreds of them, so it’s almost a given that a few will always be out on any theatre of that vintage.

Even so, I smiled to myself as I reflected that if my friend Tom Kiefaber were responsible for that marquee, he would not rest for a moment until each tiny light bulb was lit. Anal retentiveness, thy name is Tom.

Perhaps the lesson here is that, even if a city has the foresight and vision to do the right thing with its historic theatre, and even if it has enough funding to take care of the major restoration, it still helps to have an uncompromising, obsessive person or persons with a real passion for the theatre – people like former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber – if every little thing is going to be truly perfect, at least most of the time.

Sadly, this reminded me that the new for-profit operators of The Senator Theatre have been badly neglecting its marquee and its neon – allowing nearly half of the much larger, less numerous light bulbs under it to burn out over the past couple of months, neglecting to keep the neon behind the glass bricks lit, even allowing the neon letters to go out so that, last time I passed by The Senator at night, the letters read SE—TOR, and not The Senator. Tom Kiefaber would never have allowed this neglect of easily maintained key features of the exterior for even one day, if it was humanly and financially possible to repair them. The new operators have been neglecting these simple repairs for months now.

But unlit neon and neglected changes of light bulbs are not the worst of the new operators’ problems. Attendance at the theatre has not improved much since they took over, although they got a temporary boost from all the publicity surrounding the reopening. That means the basic underlying economic problem is still there.

It should be no surprise that people are not going to flock back to The Senator in attendance numbers to rival the 1940s, but somehow Baltimore City has been slow to grasp this fact. In fact, I recently ran across a Daily Record article from April, 2009, in which then Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank is quoted as saying “At its peak [the Senator] drew 350,000 people a year, and that’s the goal we’re trying to get back to.” Uh, Mr. Frank? There are 365 days in a year. That works out to almost 1,000 people a day. Hate to break it to you, but that’s not happening again with first-run films. NOT. EVER. AGAIN. This is quite a revealing quote, however, that shows one of the totally erroneous assumptions on which the City has based their handling of this matter.

To make matters worse, the new operators’ poorly-defined, ill-advised, and preservation-insensitive plans for renovation were rightly rejected recently by the Maryland Historical Trust, the state authority that determines the award of state historic tax credits, based on the national standards for historic preservation that have been set by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The rejection of the sub-standard plans is a huge opportunity to revisit the overall plans for the future of The Senator and course-correct a scheme that has gone badly awry from the beginning. Now is the time to do what should have been done in the first place, and consult historic theatre preservation and redevelopment experts, not just about the plans for renovation or restoration, but about the whole overarching plan.

Unfortunately, though, Baltimore City government is poised to bungle this again, as they may just continue to push through the existing plan, which has already gone so badly awry in just a few months. Outside experts need to be brought in, and they need to be brought in now, if we are to avoid the further slow decline and probable eventual destruction of The Senator Theatre.

Personally, I’d advise starting with a little research into the hundreds of theatres like the Michigan, all across the country, that are doing this right.

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.

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.

He Who Must Not Be Named

My new series, “Get A Clue,” has already sparked a number of varied responses from readers. A few responders have pointedly advised against the new endeavor as too provocative and possibly damaging. The warnings seem well-intentioned and sincere, but they don’t specify who or what may be damaged or why.

Some expressed a surprising level of fear and loathing towards the subject of these first two clues in the series. In Baltimore there seems to be a tacit taboo against broaching this particular subject. The scary subject that triggers the trembling isn’t the alarming proliferation of violent gangs in the city, the drug-related murders, rampant poverty, or Baltimore’s notorious culture of corruption.

No, the subject that elicits these fearful responses among my readers is a person: Mr. Robert C. Embry, the titular head of the Abell Foundation.

Who knew? Based on the surprising level of cautionary feedback received so far, Mr. Embry is a powerful “playa” who over time has surpassed Voldemort as “He Who Must Not Be Named,” unless it’s to heap unconditional honor and praise upon him and his accomplishments.

I scanned a series of fawning Sun articles on Robert C. Embry, and quickly got the message. This guy could journey from his high altitude perch at Abell’s luxurious aerie and stroll over to Federal Hill directly across the Inner Harbor without getting his socks wet, and probably raise a dead seagull along the way.

I’ve never met this reportedly strange, taciturn character who elicits such fearful reactions. It’s become obvious, though, that Embry’s role as president of The Abell Foundation grants him significant influence over Baltimore City government officials and surprising control over how our city and state function behind the scenes. There’s clearly a lot more to learn about this odd little man, whose range of emotions is said to run the gamut from A to B.

I appreciate those who are transmitting these fascinating insights and revelations regarding “Darth” Embry, the Byzantine netherworld of our city government, and the intense infighting taking place behind the scenes.

Regarding Baltimore’s tangled web of well-funded, non-profit foundations and entities, I concur with the concerns expressed over the degree to which Baltimore’s elected representatives and civil servants have abdicated their responsibilities, and handed over municipal power and control to these elusive and private non-government entities and individuals.

Among those in the know, the complicated back story of over a decade of efforts by Embry and others in positions of power downtown to gain control of The Senator Theatre is legendary, so when I got advance notice that Embry planned to meet with TU President Robert Caret, there was general consensus that this did not bode well for the Towson/WTMD proposal, and predictions among my associates that the meeting spelled the end of Towson’s bid for the theatre. The Godfather does not come to you, unless he’s going to make an offer you can’t refuse.

Thanks to the tipster who provided additional information supporting the significance of the meeting that took place between Robert Embry and the TU President. As predicted, the meeting appears to have played a pivotal role in the university’s abrupt withdrawal of their superior Senator RFP. The economic challenges cited have raised more eyebrows among insiders, whose reactions have corroborated claims that funding was not a credible reason to quickly torpedo the TU/WTMD RFP, following the closed-door meeting in question.

This all seems to jibe with a clarifying, off-the-record tip I just received regarding the recent meeting, which brings us to clue #3. Stay tuned.

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.

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.

I haven't gone away.

I just want to quickly assure people that this blog hasn't gone away. After the auction, it made sense to take a bit of a break, and I went on vacation too.

I'm back, and doing research into non-profit theatre models all over the country. What I'm finding out is that, as we knew already, the city's steering committee recommendation that said The Senator can't be a non-profit was absolutely wrong. It not only CAN be, it really HAS to be if the building is going to be restored and maintained to the degree that it should be in the near future.

CAN'T vs. HAS TO. That's a big difference, and one that I'll be exploring soon.

I'll be discussing models for historic theatres throughout the country and more. Stay tuned.

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.

Squid's reaction to Baltimore City's hostile takeover of The Senator

Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon HELD OVER!

Is this your last chance to see a movie at The Senator?

Held Over @ The Senator Theatre Through Thursday, July 30th
By Popular Demand!

Presented with a stunning digitally restored 35mm print

The husband, the wife... or the bandit?

"Rashomon (1950) struck the world of film like a thunderbolt."
Rober Ebert - Chicago Sun Times

Starring:
Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki & Kichijiro Ueda

Friday, July 24th and Saturday, July 25th
showtimes: 3:45, 5:45, 7:45 & 9:45pm

Sunday, July 26th showtimes:
3:45, 5:45 & 7:45pm.

Monday, July 27th Through Thursday, July 30th
showtimes: 5:45 & 7:45pm.

Admission $8

A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.

Running Time For "Rashomon":
Approx. 1hr and 30min.

The Restoration

The basis for this stunning new restoration was a 35mm print created in 1962 from the original camera negative; while the print itself was in good physical condition, the source material from which it was made was extremely battered. Due to the extensive printing and handling it had received over its lifetime, many shots were already starting to shrink and wrap, and there were numerous scratches, dust, and dirt in the damaged negative. Scanned at 4k resolution, that 47-year-old print has
been meticulously cleaned both digitally and by hand, complete with a new seamless soundtrack.

This essential restoration has been made possible by the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc., with funding provided by Kadokawa Cultural Promotion Foundation and
Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation.

Is this your last chance to see a movie at The Senator?

Frankly, I don't know.

Baltimore City was the highest bidder in a confusing auction on Wednesday, where chaos was created by the auctioneer changing the venue of the auction from inside the theatre to outside with less than 5 minutes notice.

Ownership of the theatre will not actually change until the auction is ratified in court, which I understand will take at least 30 days.

Who knows? Maybe the next auction will have a better result.

In any case, what the future holds is unclear, and I am unaware of any more events scheduled at the theatre in the near future, although it's possible more events could be in the works.

What REALLY Happened at The Senator Theatre Auction?

Well, if you live in Baltimore, you've seen the heavily edited news coverage, where in most cases, any hint of controversy was taken out. You've been told by the media that the city now owns The Senator. That's all wrong.

UPDATE: The auctioneer changed the venue from inside the theatre to outside with less than 5 minutes notice. Weeks ago, they had called Tom Kiefaber to request permission to have the auction inside the theatre. The auctioneer, the city, and Tom had all agreed upon the location inside the theatre, the auction had been promoted as being inside the theatre, and it had been reported as being expected to take place inside by the news media. Why the last minute change of venue?



By the way, Tom Kiefaber still owns the theatre until this farce is ratified in court.