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Chopping up the UC Theatre would be a mistake — repeated

Garrett Murphy
Tuesday May 28, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

How absurd! The very idea! 

That was my reaction to the travesty of the attempt to chop up the UC Theatre into numerous units. 

Do they not realize what the personal and moral cost would be of obliterating this gem from the numerous landmarks of Berkeley? Granted, it is somewhat seedy to a degree, but that can be corrected with the right amounts of vision and foresight. Thank goodness for people like Steven Finacom (May 23)---Berkeley's planners could do far worse than considering his remarks. 

Dividing the UC into numerous---boxes---would not be any kind of smart "progress;" rather, it would simply be another sad chapter of the blandification of our society, which we hardly need more of.  

This would be especially ironic in Berkeley's case, for there is at least one Berkeley example of one former landmark theater that's now a sad ghost of what it once was---remember the UA (United Artists)? 

 

Garrett Murphy 

Oakland