hope for the Hippodrome
The RTD is reporting that Walker Row Partnership has a line on getting a blues club and 2 restaurants into the historically decrepit Hippodrome. City Council President William J. Pantele says that he’s seen a letter of intent to put a blues club in the Hippodrome and has asked the council to come up with $600,000 to help finance the project. Ronald Stallings of Walker Row Partnership was recently named 2008 Real Estate Visionary of the Year by the Richmond Real Estate Group.
Photo by treasuresthouhast’s via the Carver/Jackson Ward Flickr pool.
Great news. Except… this could’ve happened three years ago:
http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=10742
The Hippodrome is not the only one that was being “held hostage.” (BTW: Pantele was on the board of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation when all of this was occuring).
http://styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=10613
Would it be cynical of me to suggest that mayoral candidate Pantele is indulging in a bit of orchestrated political theater here with this announcement.
Where was he three years ago?
$600,000 for a public subsidy for a blues club that will need to compete with the Capital Ale House Music Hall, the National, Toad’s, The Camel, and how many other small venues?
This while the City is acting illegally by underfunding ADA access for its public schools?
Gross.
Though I would love to see the Hippodrome come back with just private money.
The importance or re-opening the Hippodrome would strongly, in my opinion, rest on the hopeful idea that it would not only pay respect to the deep history of what Jackson Ward and its African American community means to Richmond and its history and be able to gravitate that artsy grass roots feeling of artisans and young professionals interested in culture. This venture needs enthusiasm from the public and it should focus on what the Hippodrome was as well as what it could be, a new haven for those of us artisans that still believe that art and history are important aspect of a city.