holy crap save the tower

Man, the mayor is really out of the loop on this one. How embarassing. Century has reached a deal with the owners of the downtown plaza (westfield co.) to add 9 screens to the movie theater downtown. They are going to add them at the same end of the mall the theater is already at. The mayor and downtown boosters had wanted them at the Hard Rock end of the mall because this would supposedly boost foot traffic. That is sad if people will really not walk from one end of the mall to the other to eat or buy stuff. Perhaps they should install a people mover-type gondola thing for those who won't walk. Or we could pay entry level teen workers to carry these people on their backs across the mall. The "Save the Tower" hystericalists (look I invented a word) are hystericall-er and say that this will drive the Tower out of business. The exact quote is, "We believe that adding anything more than five screens downtown will put the Tower out of business". It seems that a wind from the wrong direction may very well put the Tower out of business. I hope this is not true. I know that the Century Stadium 14 out in the burbs rarely shows any art films or has any overlap with Tower, but it does happen sometimes. But it seems to me that if the type of people who like to see these artier films simply had an experience at Tower that was more pleasant than the experience at these large, generic, cookie-cutter places this won't be a problem. So if Tower has projectors that work, proper lighting, a deal here and there on the concessions, and non-vomit-inducing bathrooms they should be OK. Think about it-you're a downtown resident who wants to see Sideways. To generalize, this probably means you live in Land Park or East Sac or Curtis Park. You probably like to drink good wine and eat good food, or at least care about that stuff a little, and you most likely also care if a business has a little bit of charm or history. Here and there there may be someone who would prefer rocking love seats to charm and history. These people are already lost to the Tower, because they would have just driven to the other Century in the first place. Although if it was put to a vote I would still vote to keep the downtown theater the way it is, just in case it could harm local business, I am stoked that I probably will be able to ride my bike to 9 out of 10 or more movies that I see now. About the only time I have to drive to the Arden area is to see movies at the Century Stadium. The UA always has crap. Less driving to the burbs is good. In a city with an urban center the size of Sacs, it's kinda ridiculous that I have to drive to the burbs to see about 1 out of 3 movies now.

I may post a couple of restaurant reviews later.