Today’s Sunday paper heralded the news of a proposed new 600 seat auditorium and safe room located at MCHS. Super! You got my vote.
My memory being what it is, razor sharp, I can easily recall another time not that long ago, when Carl Miller – Music Man Square ram rod and former mayor – wanted to construct a 250 seat auditorium adjacent to it’s location South on Delaware Avenue between their building and the former Willison Bakery building. All hell broke out…… NIACC said no way and so did the city council.
Sitting on that drug infested campus was was a 2,000 seat auditorium that failed 99% of the time to fill its seats, even by half. maybe if they ran tractor pulls they would have fared better. This was certainly not a reflection on the concert series offered by the college, but rather I saw it as an affirmation from a community that as a whole were not interested in the level of cultural offering being presented. Different strokes for different folks. In my opinion there was a definite need for a smaller version of such a facility then as now. That location was nestled in the so called “cultural center” with unlimited parking directly across the street in the South-bridge Center parking lot.
Millers plan would have acquiesced beautifully the need for more affordable smaller venues. Jazz groups, smaller theatrical companies, speakers and a myriad other others.
That was then, this is now…but I wanted to remind those of you who follow this site because we report all sides of an issue including what might have been had those with prejudiced minds been silent.
Peter Children
Right! Donations only…ha-ha-ha! Just like the dog park, statues, etc.
Why do we need two auditoriums? The one at niacc has filled the need for many years already.
Well we are still waiting for donations from the blue zone I say nothing is built until money is in hand!!!!
The way I understood the article was they were financing it through donations and already had received some. If they can do this at no additional cost to the taxpayers then I see nothing wrong with the idea. Let the college sink or swim on its own merit just like everything else should do. I would hope that someone somewhere did a feasibility study to establish the justification of another auditorium. If it can’t stand on its own feet without taxpayer support then they should not do it.