Victoria Theater: An Ornate Lady in Waiting
2008 April 16
Update on the progress of the Victoria 5 [amNY]
Piles of junk are stacked in the once ornate lobby. The concession offers $1.25 Pepsis and Slice, 5th Avenue candy bars and Butterfingers to absent customers. A lone cat slinks around the premise.
Stumble It!
If Lincoln Center and City Center need grants and endowments to stay alive, why not the Victoria? Is Harlem and Harlemites so lowly and discarded?
We will no longer be the “object of entertainment.” We will take stakes and be franchised in it? We will produce, own and profit for ourselves.
I suggest decline these “NICE” sounding morsels that will have us forsaken the prize.
“SAY NO TO” ESDC , HSDC and Danforth Development Partners. We decline to give away to you or anyone:
our dignity;
our jewels;
our legacy;
our history;
our today;
and… our tomorrow!
As an alternative approach, I suggest that Harlemites take a look at a better thought out proposal found at- http://www.haarlemvictoria.com.
It would be a shame to loose the Victoria- a big piece of Harlem History in exchange for a few bones thrown to the Harlem community to build a coupla matchbox auditoriums and s’more hi-priced condominiums.