Thursday, June 07, 2007
nononnonononnononnnonnonnonnonnoooooooooooooo
Why take a fully functioning, viable business and change it to chase a pipedream? Build something if you must. Like the Mondavi Center. A wine country investment group is going to come into our city and fuck up one of my favorite things about it? How can this happen?
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13 comments:
Fine I am throwing my hands up, what ever.
Open a fucking starbucks in my living room, perhaps pierce jay's belly button and open a sushi joint in the can.
-Natalie.
I'm glad Michael Ault's so excited. He's always had a healthy vision for what downtown should be, starting with his plan in the mid 90s to revitalize K street by catering the Thursday night market to surbanites. You know because no one actually lives down here already who would want to patronize something in their own neighborhood.
-Mrs. Troublemaker
I've had a great run as the poster child for foolish development in Sac but I'm getting old & I'm thrilled to hand over this responsibility to The Crest. Best of luck!
-The Alhambra Theatre
This is really the first thing I've heard that makes me think that Sac could be made pretty lame. I'm usually pretty excited about Sacramento and take the good with the bad. If the Crest is no longer going to show movies then I wish the city had been able to get that plan to subsidize the corporate theater off the ground. We won't have any independent theaters in Sac without the Crest, and it's not like the corporation that runs the Tower is any better than UA.
The phrase "a wine country investment group" just keeps ringing in my ears.
The barbarians have arrived; pack your things and head hundreds of miles into the country. There's no one but former ex-Sacramentans here anyway. And some moonshiners.
Stephen Glass
I'd be happier if it were a beer country investment group.
-miller
If all else fails I will move to Stockton.
Okay, so I'm coming in off the ledge.... a little bit. I just spoke with a certain well connected someone who shall remain nameless and they pointed out a couple of interesting things:
1. The budget that said "wine company investment group" is working with is about 75mil. While that sounds like a lot of bones, when you think about the number of buildings they've purchased it's really not all that much in todays market. The cost of certain building materials has skyrocketed. Copper is a good example. Also, because of the age of these buildings, asbestos clean-up and other sorts of things have to be taken into consideration and that shit aint cheap.
2. The tone of this article doesn't totally jive with other things JB has said recently concerning this project and as such this article is most likely slanted towards the "HOORAY, for the mighty developer" angle.
3. Even if this piece is the god's own truth, once the building was aquired there would be some serious paper pushing needed to get things approved. With careful oversight certain things can be protect. Apparently the Sacramento Old City Association has already accomplished some major achievments on the railyards. The Asian Pacific Chamber has worked to preserve the Chinese history represented there as well.
That said I think anyone who is concerned about these issues and can attend the SOCA meeting on Saturday morning should jump on the opportunity. Then, if the Crest still suffers a heavy blow the ol' man and I can pick up stakes and move to the high country.
my apologies for the novel length post,
mrs. troublemaker
Aw, fugg it. Knock the damn Crest down and put up a Kohl's with an Applebee's on the ground floor, or maybe an Olive Garden. Who cares anymore? The whole damn town's already going to shit anyway, so why are we whining about the Crest?
I just wish the tribe I'm 1/16th didn't live in goddamn Oklahoma, so I could get me a "wine country investor group" together to buy the State Capitol and turn it into a world class native casino.
And when's that CPK opening up in that eyesore Firestone store at 16th and L, anyway?
--Mr. Anthrope
Is it a pipe dream? That is the big question. Perhaps all the gentrification of the K street mall over the last - what, 15 yrs? - is finally taking hold. To people like you and me, this is almost as bad as K street becoming a desolate skid row. But to the business people, maybe it is boon times. In other words, maybe the investors' vision for K street is not an urban hub where a wide array of social classes come to shop and play, but an enclave for people who can afford to lay down $250 for a dinner and a show nine or ten times a year.
Not that I have a shred of evidence that this is true. I'm just speculating.
Maybe they'll show movies, like Walter Reade at Lincoln Center.
Ben
It's not just a question of showing movies, it's a question of how many screens. And even more than that, it's a question of the local events that the Crest currently hosts, the film festivals, the Trash Film Orgy, the community events, etc. Even if this somehow leads to the Downtown Plaza sticking in a multi-screen arts theater, there will be no place downtown for those homegrown events to be held. Other events of a more "highbrow" nature might replace them, but what kind of a city doesn't have room for diversity downtown?
It's just incredibly aggravating that developers are looking to fix what isn't broken, instead of actually improving blighted areas. It's kind of like if someone put a whole lot of money into running succesful locally-owned businesses like Joe Sun, Records, Morelia's, etc., out of business or off of K street in order to replace them with different establishments, just to cater to a wealthier demographic.
Speaking of pipe dreams, will someone please tell me what the hell inspired some jackass to put in a piano/pizza bar on J st? "Twisted 88s ® Dueling Piano Bar" lasted afew weeks and I havent seen it open since. I went there and it was horrible, but its such a nice and large building. They should put a real venue there.
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