The Empress is a canary

There are differences between a mines canary and the Empress much more than feathers. 1) The theatre known as the Empress has closed twice in the past and was not a indicator of Vallejo's future. Why it is an advanced warning system now and not then needs explanation. 2) Canaries were tools to do a job, not "icons". They were cheap and expendable. There is nothing "cheap" about the Empress as far as tools go. Whether it is as useful as a Canary will depend on if it is used as well as a Canary. 3) Canaries had a defined specific job. It was a cheap reliable indicator. If it died, the company simply got another. 4) Miners could count on the Canary to do its job. Failure of the Empress to do its job (whatever that is) is not impending doom for Vallejo. It will be, however, an extremely expensive tool that was gambled on and failed. The miners will be asked to make more adjustments and sacrifices to make the mine safe and productive again because this particular "Canary" was a bad idea. Time (1-2 yrs???) will only tell.

Staying inside your metaphor, downtown is a dry hole.

In reality, the Empress is a plain little sparrow that someone has spared no expense trying to turn into a peacock. There really is nothing "special" about the Empress except that it cost an inordinate amount of money to create the transformation. And, yes, it is indeed beautiful, but it's only "skin deep."

The phrase "Build it and they will come..." is nonsense. Who will come? And what is the ultimate goal of the Empress? To show second run movies to a handful of people? To hold expensive events that only an elite group of area residents can afford? The Empress is not big enough to support bringing in "name" acts and yet will be to costly for use by small community groups. So who will be the recipient of all this largess?

The only way a venue, such as the Empress, can survive is to be heavily subsidized and, unfortunately, the tide is moving in the other direction.

I know that you ardent supporters of the Empress won't like the message, but the truth often hurts.

Now what fellow Vallejoans?

Another "NON PROFIT" The city cant make money on anything Ask Bartee he got a hotel for PEANUTS!!! How about the citys Bluffs apartment deal....Many Millions LOST...Tear Downtown Down its DEAD

I really don’t know what it takes to make a theater a financially self sustaining entity but I did have the opportunity to do a video production in the empress last year. I would like to see us bring in authors and lecturers so we could video tape the presentations in a c-span like format. The skills and equipment are present in the community to produce the video product but it will take some leadership from someone or group to pull it all together. I don’t know what kind of revenues we could directly generate from this activity but I’ve heard people talk about the side benefit of pulling patrons in and spending their money for local services. We’ve got this very expensive asset now so we should try and capitalize on it as best we can.

vallejo had at one time, about 7 movie theaters and 2 drive ins. now we have dvd's and save a bundle at home. as johnny said, downtown is dead, time to admit it. let's really start over. make the property owners level their old delapited buildings and save our tax dollars for fixing up what the city needs to like street repairs, sidewalks, and the likes.

Why do I always read negativity among my neighbors? Well for what it's worth it took me awhile to figure out what the writer, Allen, was even talking about! Ok so it's an artsy description! LOL! Could had just come to the point though easier! But for what it's worth, again just think out of the box. Ok old movies may only be one form of entertainment, The Napa Opera House has diversified it's entertainment with different types of programs. I haven't been inside the Empress yet however is it only designed for movies? Can't it be a venue for say lectures, comedy shows, etc?

George wrote:

Why do I always read negativity among my neighbors? Well for what it's worth it took me awhile to figure out what the writer, Allen, was even talking about! Ok so it's an artsy description! LOL! Could had just come to the point though easier! But for what it's worth, again just think out of the box. Ok old movies may only be one form of entertainment, The Napa Opera House has diversified it's entertainment with different types of programs. I haven't been inside the Empress yet however is it only designed for movies? Can't it be a venue for say lectures, comedy shows, etc?

You may view unfavorable posts as negative, but the fact is that the ambient night time community in downtown is interspersed with criminals and crack heads. I do not believe that venues of any kind will be profitable because people will not be willing to take the risk of encountering one of these types that will see easy marks in the parking lots next to alleys. Vallejo is an armed thug town now, so why take your chances in that environment?

It absolutely true that the Empress can be used for lectures and comedy shows. But if it is going to be subsidized by the GF to do those types of venues then that should have been part of the information as it was being promoted to be renovated. I don't think the stage is even big enough for the Vallejo Symphony? Who needs a $6 million lecture stage (the council chambers in city hall is already built). I hope the Empress is a success. However, on one hand we have criticism regarding 'pot holes' ruining cars because of employee salaries and in the other hand the city invests in a theatre that will compete for GF $'s that could address the pot holes? I suppose the attitude is to spend a seemingly grande sum of money on a theatre that may/may not provide a community service, but spend less than a competitive $ on employees and expect excellent community service from them.

The empress was a trade off between Traid and the city of Vallejo, Its was a scam and the people once again have paid for it.

No one is going downtown because its a pit hole with nothing to offer period. I say bulldoze the whole area and start new. Maybe a city name change is due also Vallejo has always had a bad name recogination since 1969 and its not going to get better.

Change Vallejo's name and we will see a buig differnce.