The shutdown came without warning; one day the old Nortown theater was open, and the next day it was closed.
They are a plucky group, but the odds are against them; they are operating at a time when community investment dollars are short and renovation costs high. Their success or failure will measure the ability of city residents everywhere to find the money to rebuild their communities in a period of social-spending cuts and war overseas.
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The community is a mixture of Jews, Greeks, and East Indians and other Asians. For the most part, they get along. The schools are good and property values stable. A few years ago there were some attacks on a few of the Indian-owned stores on Devon. But community groups rallied around the shop owners.
The Nortown task may be more difficult. The theater is owned by Cineplex Odeon, the movie-theater conglomerate based in California. A few years ago Cineplex subdivided the Nortown into three smaller-screen theaters–a move that disappointed movie fans and architecture buffs. When Cineplex bought and enlarged the Lincoln Village movie-theater complex a mile or so away, the Nortown was doomed.
“I love the idea of a cultural center, everyone does,” says Rabkin. “But it’s one of those feel-good ideas, with no real meaning until you get specific. Is it one big theater with a lot of little arts groups around it? Is it a bunch of artists and arts groups renting space in a building? You have to have an identity and you must identify a need before you build it.”
Not that it would make much difference if they did; with money so tight, even Daley’s hands are tied. Mayor Washington, who saw the arts as a tool for economic development, put Rabkin in charge of developing art studios, dance spaces, and theaters throughout the city. Though Daley has expressed similar sentiments, federal urban-aid budget cuts have forced him to slash money for such ventures. With the federal deficit rising and more money being spent on the war against Iraq, there’s little hope the programs can be revived.
“I grew up in Hyde Park, so I had never been to the Nortown until my husband took me there,” says Lukatch. “He said, ‘You have to see the Nortown.’ That was our first date, long before we were married. We went to see the movie Star Wars. When I walked in, I was overwhelmed by the decor. I was so busy looking at the decor that I almost forgot about the movie; it kind of snuck up on me.
