The Senator Theater is the kind of place where I'd pay ten dollars to sit and watch an empty screen for two hours.
End of an era at the Senator Theatre
After years of struggles, longtime owner Tom Kiefaber shows his final film
By Mary Carole McCauley and Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun
It really was the last picture show.
Baltimore's most passionate advocate of historic movie houses stood before the stage last night, and addressed a standing room only crowd of about 1,000. His voice cracking a little with emotion, he said, for the final time: "I'm Tom Kiefaber, and welcome to the historic Senator Theatre."
Kiefaber, 58, ended his at times controversial career at the Senator's helm — and the family history of 71 years of continuous operation — by presenting two free public screenings Wednesday of " Star Wars: A New Hope," the George Lucas classic about Jedi warriors fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds
Report Looks at Efforts to Increase Bicycling and Walking in the U.S.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation today released new data from the Federal Highway Administration's 2009 National Household Travel Survey which shows that both bicycling and walking trips have increased by 25 percent since 2001. The FHWA funded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center included this data in The National Bicycling and Walking Study: A 15-Year Status Report. The report details trends and changes in bicycling and walking since 1994.
"This report demonstrates what we've been saying here at the Department," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Americans want and need safe alternatives to driving. And by making biking and walking safer and more accessible, we'll be able to provide Americans with more choices and help foster more active, livable communities."
Necessary evil or proper tool for urban traffic management? What do you think? This story comes from Wired.com.
May 13, 1935: Enter the Parking Meter
By Tony Borroz
1935: An entrepreneurial politician files a patent application for a device that will elicit curses and contempt from generations of motorists: the parking meter.
If it weren't for Pearl Harbor, FDR might have called May 13 a day that will live in infamy. It was 75 years ago that Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City sought a patent for the world's first parking meter. Many will come to see the invention as a bane of urban living.
Soon after Magee filed to protect his intellectual property, the world's first installed parking meters were put into nickel-gulping service right there in Oklahoma City in July 1935. Your five cents (about $.80 in today's money) got you anywhere from 15 minutes' to an hour's worth of parking, depending on location.
Some would say things have been going downhill ever since.
During the last election, we scanned the websites of both Obama and McCain looking for some indication on where they stood on transportation policy. At the time, we found both candidates had little to say in any detail about where we should be spending the billions of dollars the federal government outlays for related infrastructure. Now we have an answer, and as far as I'm concerned, it couldn't be better news. This comes from Wired.com. Let us know what you think.
Feds Deem Pedestrians, Cyclists and Motorists Equals
At long last, the feds have said the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists.
In what amounts to a sea change for the Department of Transportation, the automobile will no longer be the prime consideration in federal transportation planning. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the needs of pedestrians and cyclists will be considered along with those of motorists, and he makes it clear that walking and riding are “an important component for livable communities.”
“People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning,” LaHood wrote on his blog. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
He goes on:
We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
By any measure, Karen Heller is one the best columnists in the country. In this recent piece, Karen nails the problem of the proliferation of gambling right on the head. We've grappled with our own reasons why we believe the move toward gambling a revenue source in the rust-belt is a losing bet any way you look at it. Now that every state will soon have its own slot parlors, the pie slices get increasingly smaller while the liabilities imposed only increase further. Go get 'em Karen!
By Karen Heller
O Table games, O Table Games How lovely are your profits! Your lucre green will always grow In Harrisburg through winter snow
Oh, snap and craps! Here we thought the Pennsylvania legislature was going to deal us blackjack and poker for the holidays because nothing quite says Christmas like seven-card stud.
But no. Table games have been tabled. We will have to wait until January, or perhaps Groundhog Day, to get the roulette ball going.
Gov. Rendell, in what might be called a snake-eyes-for-students move, held up $647 million in appropriations for Pennsylvania State, Temple, and Lincoln Universities and the University of Pittsburgh until Thursday night in an effort to get his games. Now, he says 1,000 government jobs are on the line if the measure isn't passed by Jan. 8 to generate a projected $250 million in revenues to close the budget gap. Basically, it's shut up and deal.
This piece comes from The Buffalo News, and it contains some excellent points. We applaud the town of Hamburg's efforts to make Wal-Mart bend to their aesthetic will, though at the end of the day, this may amount to not much more than mere lipstick on a maloderous pig. Still, other towns and communities need to read this and understand that they should not sell themselves short just to curry the favor of another sprawl spreading big box store. Thanks to Doug Smith for the tip.
By Donn Esmonde
There was a grand opening Wednesday for the Walmart in Hamburg. It was a celebration not just of commerce, but design.
Tens of thousands of people will drive by it or come to it over the years. This is how it is with a building. It becomes part of the landscape, for better or—too often— for worse. Which is why what happened in Hamburg should happen all of the time, everywhere, with any public or commercial building.
The new Walmart on Southwestern Boulevard is not the glorified concrete-block bunker that the company usually builds. Its walls are red brick. Massive white pillars topped by peaked roofs frame its three entrances. It is not the Parthenon. But it is not a massive scar on the landscape, either.
That is not an accident.
Read more about this article and its comments by clicking here.
Public Radio station WNYC in New York recently ran this piece about the economic spinoff yet to come to the neighborhood surrounding the new Yankee Stadium. When the Yankees and the City of New York proposed the new stadium, they argued in favor of more than $350 million in subsidies and tax breaks reasoning that the business from the fans would more than make up for the outlay. Trouble is, the new sports arenas function much like many of the new casinos we see sprouting up all over the country: Each one is designed to keep customers and their money within the building.
Now, it's no secret that I'm a Yankees hater, but I oppose spending any public money on professional sports facilities. These are private, profit-making enterprises and should be financed with private investment. Study after study show that public financing of stadiums show no positive financial return for the governments that pay for them.
As this article shows, the problem gets worse because the surrounding businesses not only do not see any additional business, the City's ill-considered actions have the opposite effect.
NEW YORK, NY — The first World Series in the new Yankee Stadium begins today. In the third part of our Main Street series, WNYC returns to the shopkeepers on 161st in the Bronx.
They’ve seen their businesses suffer in the shadow of the new stadium, and the playoffs didn’t improve matters much. Many of these shops expected to do better with the new stadium. But WNYC’s Ailsa Chang takes a look at how the new Yankee Stadium is getting Yankee fans to spend more money inside rather than outside the ballpark.
REPORTER: Eddie Morrison has been coming to Yankee Stadium for 30 years, but right now, he’s chomping on the fanciest nachos he’s ever bought at a game. He’s sitting next to Gate 6, in the brand new Hard Rock Café.
MORRISON: It should say THE BRONX Hard Rock Café, not just the Hard Rock Café. Because this is the Boogie Down Bronx, so you gotta show respect.
REPORTER: It may be the Bronx, but those nachos just set him back 13 dollars.
MORRISON: That’s just a part of the tradition. You have to uphold the tradition of buying very expensive food at the ballpark.
REPORTER: And there are more than a hundred separate spots in this stadium where you can spend lots of money to uphold that tradition. They’re mostly big chains – like Nathan’s hotdogs, Johnny Rockets and Carvel Ice Cream. Yankee fan George Figueroa says he forgets he’s at a ballpark.
FIGUEROA: You walk around and it’s like you not even in a game. You walk around and it’s like you in a mall. You have whole bunch of stuff you could do. You can buy food, you can buy merchandise – whatever. It, like, takes you away from reality. That’s a good thing. I mean, we don’t have that in the Bronx. We don’t have a big mall to walk around, so this is our mall right now.
REPORTER: But that’s the problem. Businesses just a couple blocks down 161st street didn’t think they’d be competing against a new mega-mall. Abdul Traore is managing a near-empty store called Jeans Plus. It sells Yankee souvenirs – many of them identical to the ones sold at the stadium, but about 30 percent cheaper. Traore’s been sitting on a stool by the door during the playoffs, as if waiting for customers to come in.
TRAORE: This playoff is different. Totally different. Like Saturday, I stay here until two o’clock in the morning – from the time the game start until two o’clock in the morning. I don’t even make thousand dollars.
The Wildwoods, NJ – The Wildwoods will hold its 29th Annual Halloween Parade on Friday, October 30, followed by a FREE Halloween Fun Fair at the Wildwoods Convention Center, located at 4501 Boardwalk in Wildwood. The parade begins at 6:15 p.m. at Wildwood and Pacific Avenues and will proceed south to Andrews Avenue, east on Ocean Avenue and ending at the Wildwoods Convention Center.
It really was the last picture show.
At long last, the feds have said the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists.
