CenterStage needs sunlight

With CenterStage set to open in September there are still lots of questions about how it will operate and why. Unfortunately, answers are sometimes in short supply. It’s no easy task even finding out who owns what.

For the second installment I’ve written on the tortured relationship between the City of Richmond and the entertainment industry at Richmond.com, “The Dark Side of CenterStage,” click here.

To read the first installment, “The Show Mustn’t Go On,” click here.

Posted in Hub's Blurbs, Performance

3 Comments.

I would love to see some sunlight on this, but honestly, what will it take for citizens to care, based on what we already know?

What might be more interesting is to name some names, which Richmond is always reluctant to do. Who supported this trainwreck?

Yes, we know Pantele, Jewell, Graziano, and other City Council members, but what about the corporate (welfare) leadership? Brad Armstrong, John Sherman, anyone? How about the artistic leadership? Right now the Times Disgrace is still singing arias for retiring Symphony members.

If we are going to get any accountability, we need to be prepared to put local leaders on the spot and ask them why they thought it was ok to blow $25 million PLUS of City taxpayer on a private opera house when the entire world is going into a depression.

anonymous @ May 14th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I feel the same way about the Center Stage fiasco as I feel about the new baseball stadium mess. How about you take care of the infrastructure that everyone uses and get it up to snuff, before you worry about the extras. Are the roads all paved? (Try out the bumps at the corner of Main/BLVD for size.) Is the sewer/water system all up to date? (How did that work out for the people in Battery Park?) Is the city jail capable of holding the peope sent there, and do the locks work? Have the school buildings all made ADA compliance yet? Just some ideas where to put some money.

Stu @ May 14th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
We aren’t even factoring in the $11 million already wasted by these same folks. Or the fact that they have rigged it so that taxpayers can’t get basic answers about what they are building.

And could you imagine a ballpark that refused to disclose what team would play on the field until after it is built? CenterStage plans on opening its doors and THEN informing citizens about who its artistic director will be.

Oh yeah, and their private fundraising has trickled to almost nothing. Guess who will make up the difference? At first the city put in protections that would have halted CenterStage from coming and asking for more money from the city. Thanks to council, those protections have now been taken out.

This is why a referendum on the ballpark is the only way to go. You cannot trust this city council to do the right thing with the public’s money and resources.

Don @ May 19th, 2009 at 5:17 pm