Newstalk 970, WBLF. I’m Wes richards with some thoughts on the soap opera about the opera house.
The Garman Theater sure was a beautiful looking place when it opened in 1890 and for many years thereafter.
But the word on the street is they haven’t filled it since Irving Caesar’s Sing-a-Ling-a-Ling in 1947, and half the audience was returning WWII servicemen and women with free tickets.
A regional arts center -- proposed by preservationists -- needs four things: Determination, a evangelical belief that people would flock to attend the performances, actual people flocking to attend performances and a pile of money at least as high as Mount Nittany.
Advocates are pretty good at the first, superlative at the second, unsure about the third and wandering in the desert on the fourth.
We’re talking BIG bucks, here.Tens if not hundreds of millions.
Why so much? Because after you plan and design and start construction, all kinds of things you didn’t expect pop up. Like the poisoned rocks in the highway 99 construction. Like the unexpected delays in the 9-1-1 call center refurbishing.
You can book all the third rate acts and local performers you can handle into a tent or a school auditorium. You want first rate big names -- and of course you do -- you have to have a first rate hall.
And you can’t cover all the bases with pledges and promises and the occasional grant.
The Garman is a century past its prime. That it has stood as long as it has is the most interesting part of its history.
But monuments sometimes need to come down.
The alternative proposal for the Garman and the Do De, which apparently has smoother path to completion, is housing.
This, too, has its drawbacks. But it doesn’t need the kind of sustained widespread support that an arts center would.
So what, other than sentiment, is the problem with workforce housing?
Maybe it’s just who is in the workforce.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.
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