Conejo Post

A comment came in from Tom regarding the consultant’s recommendation to build cinemas at The Lakes shopping mall to increase customers there.  I am posting it here separately, because of the new information he has.

To quote Tom:  “While the preceding comments are all accurate and disturbing, a story on NPR the morning before Council considered this issue is more unsettling.  Movie producers are considering direct release to home users of movies soon after the movies are first released.  According to the story, such a change has the possibility of wreaking economic havoc on the entire movie industry, especially the movie theater business which already seems shaky, and DVD sales. 

The advantages which the consultant suggests a theater might provide are based on past performance of the industry.  Past performance is likely not a good guide to its future since the industry is not stable, thus prediction of benefits is not reliable.  If the movie business is uncertain it is a bad time for the City to go into a partnership to open a new theater for two reasons.  First, the new theater is likely to lose money, which means tax money down the drain.  Second, any business a new theater does takes customers away from existing unsubsidized theaters, decreasing their economic viability. 

Last time I checked, which IIRC was a couple of years ago, operation of the Civic Arts Plaza required an annual subsidy of about $800,000 of tax dollars, and the level of subsidy had been steadily increasing.  This indicates of the level of business competence we can expect from such public-private ventures. 

The City should not gamble with public money by investing it in business ventures.  The City should not use public resources to compete against private business.”

Posted by Janna Orkney, Text by Tom.