Get this: That "Majestic 12" movie theater in the heart of downtown Chattanooga - the one that forces you to buy 3-D glasses for 3-D movies instead of letting you bring your own and that has a private Republic Parking lot that charges an arm and a leg for parking. Yeah, that theater - you're paying for that. And you will be paying for it for over a decade. See, local "planners" thought that the movie theater downtown needed to "compete" with the one in Hixson, otherwise other downtown business, which are privately owned, might not make as many profits. And we all know that private profits made by private corporations are the deepest concern of public officials. So everyone got real busy and set out on this huge collaborative effort to make certain that the tax-payers can guarantee that businesses will thrive!
The Majestic 12 property is actually owned by RiverCity Co., a private "non-profit" organization whose Board of Directors is comprised of the usual corporate suspects (like Jim Berry whose Republic Parking is a corporate leech of the worst variety) as well as numerous publicly elected officials who serve in an unelected capacity to plan, finance and manage downtown developments to the benefit of private companies.
RiverCity Co. owns the building that the Majestic 12 theater is located within but agreed to lease the building to Carmike Cinemas, a Columbus Georgia based theater company, for the next 20 years.
All together, RiverCity Co., the Lyndhurst Foundation and the Benwood Foundation have invested over $12 million dollars in the theater, providing the necessary finances for a roof that recycles rain water downstairs in the toilets and a lot of other green goodies that help contribute to the smug sense of self satisfaction that comes from eating a crab cake while watching Twilight in a LEED certified movie theater. This makes me want to rename the theater: "The Majestic 12 Million".
But that is not the end to the great collaboration! The Hamilton County government agreed to give Carmike Cinemas a tax-abatement for 15 years! The Chattanooga city government, not wanting to appear stingy when it comes to corporate charity gave the theater a 14 year abatement on city property taxes. So we the tax-payers are picking up the tab for a movie theater that charges more for a bucket of popcorn and a soft-drink than I have ever been hired at an hourly wage.
What this story tells us is that the Foundations, area non-profits and city and county governments are literally more committed to working together to subsidize a private for-profit corporation that shows movies while serving gourmet snacks, than they are to fund the social welfare agencies which incurred several millions of dollars in losses resulting from the fallout between the City and County governments during the expiration of the 45 year Sales-Tax-Agreement. Social welfare agencies that provide necessary services to the homeless, abused and neglected children, and provide early testing for speech and hearing disorders.
What this tells us is that the urban priorities of our city and county governments reflect those of private interests. Our elected politicians are more concerned in padding - and guaranteeing - the profits of businesses (some of which, like Carmike Cinemas, are not even locally owned) than we are in meeting the most basic needs of our most vulnerable citizens. Tourists and suburbanites get to ride a free electric shuttle to the tax-payer subsidized and foundation financed movie theater. Folks living in public and subsidized housing have to pay a tax to ride a CARTA bus, sometimes for hours round trip, to get to a grocery store or a job interview - unless that interview is at Volkswagon, because the bus line does not even go out there.
What this tells us is that the neo-liberal urban agenda affects everything. Our government operates for and on behalf of private interests and acts accordingly. Our communal resources are just a trough to guarantee the gluttony of insatiable corporate parasites.
So, if you want to view a good piece of fiction, all you have to do is go to the Majestic 12 movie theater. It is there that you can such fantastical and ironic pieces entitled "free markets" and "government for the people".
UPDATE 3.26.2012 9:20 AM: After talking to a few folks I think it would be a good idea to make some clarifications:
1. I do not think a "free market" is a good thing, so I am not advocating on behalf of free markets. What I am saying is that most of these large downtown corporations are parasites on our community: they steal resources, exploit our labor and privatize profits while socializing the cost and the risk of doing business by getting our government to agree to stipulations that work to the benefit of private interests over the broader public - that is neo-liberalism.
2. If we were going to spend our community's resources on a movie theater downtown, then it needs to be one that is community owned, operated and managed. The workers should get paid a living wage. We should have a community board that determines what movies are played. How cool would that be? What if we could showcase movies made by local highschool students? If adverts were for local businesses? If we showed historically important films, indie films, if we catered to the particular interests of the people in our community? Why is it that a publicly financed, owned, and operated movie theater seems absurd - but not a private for-profit business that leeches off all of us, pays their workers shit, and is totally unaccountable to the population that is supporting it is not?
UPDATE 3.26.2012 9:20 AM: After talking to a few folks I think it would be a good idea to make some clarifications:
1. I do not think a "free market" is a good thing, so I am not advocating on behalf of free markets. What I am saying is that most of these large downtown corporations are parasites on our community: they steal resources, exploit our labor and privatize profits while socializing the cost and the risk of doing business by getting our government to agree to stipulations that work to the benefit of private interests over the broader public - that is neo-liberalism.
2. If we were going to spend our community's resources on a movie theater downtown, then it needs to be one that is community owned, operated and managed. The workers should get paid a living wage. We should have a community board that determines what movies are played. How cool would that be? What if we could showcase movies made by local highschool students? If adverts were for local businesses? If we showed historically important films, indie films, if we catered to the particular interests of the people in our community? Why is it that a publicly financed, owned, and operated movie theater seems absurd - but not a private for-profit business that leeches off all of us, pays their workers shit, and is totally unaccountable to the population that is supporting it is not?