Public Comment

Greetings. I write as a longtime devotee of the Shattuck Cinemas, where one can see independent and foreign films as well as blockbuster movies and great documentaries. Check out ¡Vive Maestro! on Gustavo Dudamel, the founder of the great El Sistema in Venezuela that provides music education and instruments to poor children and creates orchestras in towns all over the country.

So, after your very appropriate selection of the Shattuck Cinemas as the Best Movie Theater, it was discouraging to see a photo of the UA Theatre.

It is especially concerning because, as in 2015-2020, the Shattuck Cinemas—eight screens, hand-painted murals in some of the screening rooms—is in the sights of another for-profit developer. I met him a couple of weeks ago, after having written him to ask his intentions towards the Cinemas (he did not reply to my letter), and when I asked him in person, he informed me that movie theaters were now obsolete and of course he planned to demolish them.

Berkeley will be greatly damaged should our fine multi-screen theater be sacrificed to the profits of a developer and real estate investors.

These developers do not serve our great need for low-income housing. They produce cheaply-built structures, built to the bare minimum of energy-efficiency standards, and bring them on the market at the highest rates they can achieve. They effectively displace long-time residents by lifting the average rents with their very high rents.

The proposal by Alamo developer Bill Schrader to replace the Shattuck Cinemas with an 8-story speculative housing development will be discussed by the Berkeley Design Review Committee this Thursday, for advisory comments on the new building portion of the project. I do hope the Daily Cal will have a reporter attend the meeting and let students know about this threat. Film at its best is an art form. We’re very fortunate to have the Shattuck Cinemas, as well as the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and to be able to see the great films, as well as those that are primarily made for entertainment. But PFA complements the Shattuck Cinemas; it would not fill the huge void that would result from their demolition. 

I plan to put together an information sheet and ask moviegoers to contact the city council if they want the theaters protected. Of course there's a low-attendance problem now thanks to COVID, but the Shattuck Cinemas required proof of vaccination and masking as they reopened and they added early afternoon screenings, so it was quite safe to attend, as I've been doing for months 

The DRC agenda and agenda materials are available online at the link below: 

https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Planning_and_Development/Level_3_-_Commissions/Design_Review_Committee/April_2022_Linked_Final.pdf