[Peace-discuss] News-Gazette article Boardman ART Theater

[Bob Illyes]

Robert wrote "a decent local government would seize the property by eminent 
domain"" to which Wayne replied "Zowie!  Il Duce!  And here I was thinking 
that Urbana was fascist..." I agree with Robert up to that point, which I 
trust was a joke. The Art is a real asset to both the community and to the 
downtown. I would have missed many good movies over the years were the Art 
not operating. And for Marti I point out that it was the Art that showed 
Martell and Patrick's documentary after it was seized to keep it off of 
UPTV. Aaron spoke at the showing to a packed theater.

The actual problem seems to be that the Champaign City Council aims to 
destroy businesses such as the Art by taxing them out of existence via 
parking fees. This is a different kind of eminent domain that favors the 
tastes of the nouveau-riche.

When M2 went in, a city parking lot was GIVEN to the developers to entice 
them to build. The city is now putting up a parking garage at our expense 
to make up for lost parking. The city doesn't like to raise property taxes, 
because these are higher for the wealthy, so it has instead raised parking 
fees, but more relevantly has extended weekday meter hours from 5 to 9:00 
pm. This means that it costs an extra $1.50 to go to the movie on weekday 
evenings, or to visit one of the many restaurants.

I believe this is a serious miscalculation, and can only damage what is now 
a vibrant downtown community. Unlike Urbana, which charges to park at the 
library, Champaign has so far shown the good sense to continue having free 
library parking. The downtown, like the library, should be for the whole 
community, not just for the high-end restaurant-goers for whom the $1.50 
tax per meal is irrelevant.

I am a big fan of so-called in-fill development, and pleased to see M2 
going in, but Champaign is shooting itself in the foot with the new parking 
policies.

Bob