Proctor's is flowing in red ink. Even the former failed City comptroller can't cook these books. The latest show Queen's "We Will Rock You" could not fill half the theatre. And for good reason. The operatic vocals would make most fans sick. This was Broadway shtick masquerading as a rock show. Three more days of heavy losses by Morris and his DEM buddies. Proctor's has over 80 employees including Karen Johnson and Leesa Perazzo on it's payroll. Let's see how long the brain dead County Leg looks the other way at the fiscal mismanagement and featherbedding at Proctor's. All of our County hotel tax is dumped into this blackhole. Not to mention funds for laughable County tourism bookcase. The one percenters on the Proctor's payroll should donate their services and work for free. No wonder the County finances were criticized by the State Comptroller.
I just got an amazingly slick mailer from Proctor's today. A full color catalog on heavy paper. Who paid for that, I wonder? Mailed free, of course. A rather lavish display of financial health. I also got a cheaper mailer from a salon on Upper Union Street. It's interesting, this salon was in downtown Schenectady from 2002-2010. Why leave at the height of the renaissance? Anyway, I wish the owner well and hope her investment in advertising pays off for her. I know those things are expensive, when you are paying out of your own pocket.
They mail these 4 color mailers out like crazy. 3 or 4 to one household. They take full page ads in the useless Metroland rag. Morris is over his head, spending like a drunken sailor and looking for new venues to keep the okey doke going. The fact that they hired the City treasurer speaks volumes. The County Leg needs to man up and stop dumping County funds into this black hole. Proctor's also should lose it's tax exemption for political activity and go fully on the City tax rolls like every major theatre in NYC.
People are fooled by all the razzle dazzle. That's what Broadway does, suspends disbelief. We are seeing someone with just enough talent to fool people. Remember the "there's a sucker born every minute" quote? It's been attributed to P.T. Barnum, although it probably didn't come from him, it was said about P.T.'s abilties as a showman, by a competitor of his, probably, but we can all learn a lesson from it. I think what is happening with Proctor's is that it was functioning well enough as a venue to show second-string Broadway to people who weren't going to travel to NYC for the real deal. The problem is, it has morphed into something it was never intended to be, and can't be, at the instigation of someone who is apparently getting his belief in his abilities from his own press releases. Downtown Schenectady is not the Great White Way, and it is never going to be the Great White Way, and large sums of money spent toward that end may as well have been flushed down the toilet.
It's been pointed out to me that the Proctor's mailing is not a brochure, it is an actual calendar. Just what we needed.
What is needed is a all new management. Morris and his running dogs should be sent back to Jamestown. Proctor's is flowing in red ink. Have heard about $800,000 loses last year alone. Remember where you heard this first as it is breaking wide in the next few weeks.
This could have been averted, had anyone heeded the warning signs. I'm sure that when this all comes out, it will be spun as a heroic effort to "save" Proctor's, against the bad forces of Schenectady, City of the Damned. I get so tired.
Proctors cannot be used as the end all save all....it's for a specific targeted group of people.....and it's expensive to go to a show.... then you have to get the time off from your stupid $10/hour job....
making $10/hour you'd have to work about one and 1/2 days to POCKET enough $$ to buy a freaking ticket....
but those $10hour service jobs are GRAND!!! aren't they.???? Even $15/hour isn't enough.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I know of a couple who got hit really bad in the 2008 reassessment, they can't afford ANY entertainment whatsoever if they want to keep their house. Yet their money gets thrown into that black hole instead of going for decent snowplowing or replacement of our water system. Can you imagine that, you buy a house you think you can afford, put money and a lot of hard work into it, and now these people are extorting you, and they are holding your house for ransom? And they are handing your money over to these mostly non-resident carpetbaggers? The thing to remember is, with this nonsense about parking meters, it just proves that they are well aware that there are problems, that house of cards is falling down, but they are trying to conceal that fact from us.
We got criticized for having what, seven layers of 'industrial development'? "Downtown Revitalization" was just a new name for Urban Renewal, which is what helped kill inner cities in the first place. Basically, a bunch of people without any understanding of real life as most Schenectadians know it, decided they knew best what Schenectady "needed",and it just happened to be in line with their self-interest.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."