The Mayor wants to cut a sweetheart deal with a multi million dollar corporation to give them a million dollar parcel of city-owned land in East Harlem for $1.00, even though that corporation can well afford to pay market rate for the property. I must admit to some astonishment over this deal. I am also very troubled by it.
I am both astonished and troubled because Bloomberg, since he became Mayor, has insisted on charging poor Latino Theatre Companies market rate prices for city owned spaces in the same community, and refused to even consider a lower rate. This is nothing short of scandalous. How can you insist on charging market rate rentals for Theatres in a poor Latino community when there is no market for Theatre rentals in that area!
This “Brilliant” fiscal policy charges Downtown rates for Uptown spaces with the net result being that there is no regular Theatre being produced in East Harlem which is a significant part of the Theatre Capitol of the world! This is crazy! As a Theatre Person with over 20 years of experience producing Theatre in New York, I must Protest! This is an outrage! Nobody has been able or willing to rent these spaces from the City during good times, it is the height of arrogance to think that someone will be able to rent them at market rates during the coming hard times.
Moreover, why are poor Latino Theatre Companies being treated so differently? Multi-Million Dollar Corporations get a “Freebie” at the same time that poor Latinos have to pay an “Arm and a Leg?” How does that remotely make sense? Is there some Bias at work here? As Shakespeare once said, something is rotten in the State of Denmark!
Forgive me for raising the question, but doesn’t it make more sense for Bloomberg to charge the poor Latino Theatre Company a $1 for the Theatres and charge the Multi Million dollar Corporation Market Rate for the land? Am I crazy? Not for nothing, but what kind of Republican Bizzaro World do we live in; where there’s Welfare for the Rich, and Full-Fare for the poor? Isn’t that what caused the World Wide economic crisis we all now face?
Even if you put aside the apparent racial implications of this deal, it is at the very least immoral, and unethical! Not only does it not make ethical sense, it makes no business sense either! The fact of the matter is that two operating Theatres in El Barrio can generate more money for the whole City, than any “Sweet Heart Land Deal” could possibly generate for the local community.
It is an accepted fiscal fact that an operating Theatre generates $4 for the local economy for every $1 spent IN that Theatre. Our El Barrio Theatres have almost 800 seats, so they can potentially generate (Check my math, $50 per X 800 seats = $40,000 X 4 days a week = $160,000 X 52 Weeks a year = $8,320,000 spent in the Theatre. Multiply that by the $4.00 spillover, it means) over 33 million for the local economy!!! Now, that kind of economic activity in a poor community, any poor community, makes sense for the whole City, no? How much money do you think this “Sweet Heart Land Deal” will generate for the City? Is it anywhere near 33 Million? I don‚t think so.
In conclusion, Mr. Mayor, if you want to give away City Owned Property in El Barrio for $1.00, give us our Theatres for a $1.00!
Eugene Rodriguez, Playwright/Director
Puerto Rican Intercultural Drama Ensemble (P.R.I.D.E.)
