DRIC And The Symphony
As I am sure you will appreciate, because of the border file, I speak to a lot of people at the Federal and Provincial Governments. We speak about a number of issues, not just the border file. I assume that I am just another one of their contacts with whom they speak in Windsor as they develop policy. Presumably, I provide a different perspective on what is going on in this City.
The one thing that is very common amongst these officials is their lack of understanding of our Mayor. They cannot figure him out. They do not understand how a City with the highest unemployment rate in the country and with its main industry dying can turn down billions of dollars of new investment on issues that make no sense. I am not going to get into the fact again about truck emissions being virtually eliminated with changes in technology because I have talked about that before. However, that is what they just do not understand.
Now, I can explain to them with a specific example how our Mayor works. I am doing so to make life easier for them so that they can follow his model in order to get what they want.
It is a "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours" mentality, ably assisted by the friendly folk at the Windsor Star. It will explain again why Eddie had to make his $60,000 ad blitz presentation at Council and why he will continue being an irritant until they knuckle under and give him what he wants or get some nerve and tell him to [expletive deleted].
As I Blogged about the other day, I did not understand the story about the Capitol Theatre and this comment by the Mayor:
- “Doubt cast on Capitol's future as a theatre
Because of a prolonged legal battle for ownership of the Capitol Theatre, Mayor Eddie Francis said Friday he can no longer guarantee the 89-year-old playhouse will be used as a theatre in the future.”
What did not make sense before is now understood. Eddie never says anything without thinking it all through. We just need to put the hints together to figure out what he is really doing.
Check out this story from the Windsor Star today:
- “Windsor Symphony venue in jeopardy
The Windsor StarSt. Clair College president John Strasser said Monday the Chrysler Theatre is losing money and that if the losses continue, the school will stop renting the waterfront facility to the symphony and other community groups which have performed there for decades.
“If you were to tell me that in three years we would be losing a significant amount, we would not be operating a theatre,” Strasser said in an interview. “That’s for sure.
“The theatre would simply then become the practice place for our theatre arts and entertainment technology programs. There would be no formal productions put on there other than what St. Clair put on for its students.”
Strasser would not divulge costs to run the Chrysler Theatre, but noted that he still believes the business can be turned around so that the school can at least break even.
St. Clair bought the former Cleary International Centre for $1 from the city, which had been losing money for years.
Mayor Eddie Francis officially turned the keys over to Strasser March 11, 2007. St. Clair has since spent about $4 million to renovate the place to accommodate 600 of its almost 7,000 students in the downtown facility now called the St. Clair Centre for the Arts — which Strasser said is working out well academically…
Jeth Mill, executive director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra — which has performed at the Chrysler Theatre since 1960 — said times are already difficult. St. Clair raised its rental rates 13 per cent at the start of the season in October, and plans to raise them more next season.
“It was an increase of an extremely large magnitude,” Mill said.
“It was difficult because we had no recourse.”
Mill said the symphony will stage 23 events at the St. Clair facility this season and that if the theatre was no longer available without a new concert venue to take its place, it would hurt the WSO.
“We would have to scramble to find alternative venues,” Mill said. “It would be difficult. I’m not saying it would be the end of the world — but you could it see it from there.”
WSO conductor John Morris Russell said the issue makes the argument stronger for renovating the former Windsor Armouries into a concert hall, as symphony officials propose.”
The key line in that story is:
- “It was difficult because we had no recourse.”
I am sure that you get it now.
President Strasser helped out Eddie by taking the Cleary off his hands and thereby eliminated a possible Casino competitor. Now Eddie is helping him out by assisting him to get increased rents for the theatre.
Moreover, since the Cleary is losing money, who would object if the City gives the Capitol to St. Clair for a dollar to take it off our hands so that taxpayers will not lose money. That assumes of course that the City continues to be successful in its lawsuit against the Capitol's Trustee in Bankruptcy. Eddie and Strasser have the precedent of that amount for the Cleary don’t they.
It is as simple as that.
The WSO is stuck and they know it. The dream of the Armouries as a concert hall is not going to happen for years given this economy, if it ever does. Even if it did happen, where would the Symphony go in the interim?
I am sure that they could go to some high school to play but that certainly would not be a suitable venue. The only other place that I can think of offhand would be the Capitol although some changes would have to be made to the seating.
Eddie’s comment just destroyed that. Because of the lawsuit he cannot guarantee its future use as a theatre. Of course, his comment is absurd but if you are the Executive Director of the Symphony looking for location then he has just put a dagger into your heart.
The Symphony won’t be able to go to the Arena because the City controls that and the Casino is too large. So they have no choice. They have to go to the Cleary and pay whatever price St. Clair wants so that the President can tell his Board that they are making money and that he did not enter into a dumb transaction. He has to keep his job too.
Do not feel too bad for the Symphony however because they will be saved. Their first alternative is to increase the price of tickets by a dollar or two. They will do so probably but unfortunately their attendance will drop because of the increased amount.
However, if our Mayor has other political ambitions, he cannot afford to annoy the movers and shakers in town who support the Symphony and would be the people to whom he looks for political donations as well. Accordingly, expect that when the Symphony comes to Council begging for Arts money, Council will be very understanding and will help out.
I trust that the Senior Levels understand now how to deal with our Mayor. Oh, one other tip. Eddie does not want Greenlink. He wants cash, unencumbered cash, to do with as he so desires as he and FCM have stated about Federal Infrastructure money.
Now they know who is leading the band here and what his favourite tune is.
You are most welcome.
posted by JoeBlog at 11:15 a.m.
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