In 1985, when the 6th Street Marketplace opened, those who questioned the wisdom of the venture were said to have been anti-Downtown. Some boosters for the project suggested it was racist to say the mall was a bad idea. Although private money wouldn’t touch the concept of dropping a suburban style shopping mall into the middle of a decaying downtown retail district, with no surrounding residential neighborhood, Richmond’s City Council thought it knew better.

Now, in Richmond, to invoke the specter of the 6th Street Marketplace’s utter failure is to speak of folly, of good intentions gone wrong. Public money was used to build and dismantle it.

Since 1985, using public money, Richmond has also built a convention center and a canal walk. It has built the CenterStage complex. If all the money it has cost taxpayers to finance such projects, since 1985, was laid out in a row of one dollar bills, it would stretch halfway to Cloud Nine.

Probably the best thing that has happened in/to Downtown Richmond in the last decade has been the First Fridays Art Walk, which was born and has thrived without the City of Richmond‘s help. In fact, so far, City Hall has done far more to undermine this monthly event, which has art lovers strolling from one gallery to the next, than to help it.

In addition to raining stifling regulations onto the First Friday parade City Hall has passed new statutes to discourage nightlife in Richmond, in general. Now, it seems Richmond’s City Council wants everyone to go home to dance. And, once there you’d better keep the music turned down way low — perhaps headphones would be better.

Putting pubs and nightclubs out of business hardly seems to be consistent with notions of revitalizing Downtown Richmond. But it is consistent with what Richmond has been doing to strangle the life out of show business ventures for decades. Why Richmond turned against the entertainment industry after World War II is debatable. But anyone who is familiar with how this city treats theaters and live music venues knows that Virginia’s capital city has been decidedly anti-show biz a long time.

Perhaps the most damaging policy mistake Richmond’s government continues to make is to cling to its out-of-date admissions tax revenue, as if it couldn‘t be replaced with other money. The City of Richmond takes seven cents from every dollar spent on an admission ticket sold within its boundaries. But please note: this admissions tax comes off the top of the gross — before any other splits or payments are made.

Since Chesterfield County and Henrico County don’t have such a tax, here’s how that’s a problem: The movie theaters and distributors generally agree to split the revenue that comes in at the box office. The percentage each might take can vary greatly, depending on the situation. To keep this simple, let’s say the distributor of “Hellhounds at My Heels,” a new summer semi-blockbuster in its first run, agrees to a 50/50 deal with two theaters.

The Suburban Cinema in Henrico County and the Urban Theater in Richmond open the picture on the same Friday; both theaters will pay the title’s distributor 50 percent of the box office take.

Unfortunately, “Hellhounds at My Heels” flops; it plays just one week. Both exhibitors take in the same amount of money — a paltry $2,000 each. So, according to terms, the distributor will get a check for $1000 from the Suburban and a check for $930 from the Urban, which had to send the City $140. Of course, the beleaguered Urban will also be subject to all the ordinary taxes and fees businesses must pay.

Which means theaters within the city limits are operating at a disadvantage. Traditionally, they have had a harder time getting good product from distributors. That’s part of why there was a 37-year gap between the opening of MovieLand in 2009 and the last new cinema to open in Richmond — the Biograph Theatre in 1972.

The same problem plays out with live shows, too. If you are managing a tour for Bruce Springsteen that will put him into 20 venues, you will weigh several factors in choosing the best situations. In this region, one will stand out — if you rent a music hall in Charlottesville absolutely zero admissions tax will come out of the gross.

Seven percent off the top of a $1 million gross from a Bruce Springsteen live show is $70,000. Why would a savvy promoter choose to blow off that kind of money?

Richmond takes in about $1.4 million a year in admissions taxes. No doubt, City Hall will say it needs every blessed penny. The admissions tax in Richmond is not unique. Unlike Charlottesville, most cities in Virginia have such a tax; the rate varies. Which only means backward thinking exists in lots of places.

But there’s no admissions tax in Austin or Nashville. There are so many music-loving tourists and conventioneers going to those cities, every year, to spend money in all sorts of other ways that get taxed, their governments hardly miss what revenue might come in from an admissions tax. When the hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and theaters are full a lot of revenue problems take care of themselves.

Meanwhile, in Richmond, which like Austin and Nashville has an abundance of musicians, our government officials are still wishing they could charge a seven percent admissions tax on a show that didn’t come here. They’re dreaming of taxing shows at theaters and clubs that don’t exist … while we all turn down the volume on our stereos to listen harder for hellhounds that didn’t bark.

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– Words and art (SLANT cover June 1985) by F.T. Rea. The flag in the ‘toon was Richmond’s official flag then, which I found amusing at the time. To look at (or join, if you like) the Facebook page Stop Taxing Tickets, click here.