Missouri Theatre vies for elevator

Members of the Missouri Symphony Society hope to use $125,000 in Community Development Block Grant money to install an elevator at the Missouri Theatre.

But David White, executive director of the society, sparked a debate Wednesday night when he made a pitch for the money before the Community Development Commission.

The symphony society is one of seven local agencies asking for a share of the money, which comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city expects a grant of about $850,000 in fiscal 2007; the agencies’ requests total $422,768.

Members of the commission and others who spoke at the hearing Wednesday disagreed about whether the elevator project is an appropriate use of the money.

Community Development Block Grants are given to cities to address community development needs. According to HUD’s Web site, at least 70 percent of CDBG money must be used to help low- to moderate-income people and address urgent development needs that pose a “serious and immediate threat to the health and welfare of the community.”

Mary Hussman, organizer for Grass Roots Organizing, doesn’t think an elevator at the Missouri Theatre is an urgent community need.

“If you took a vote in the First Ward here on whether they want more affordable housing or an elevator in the (Missouri Theatre), I already know how that vote would go,” she said.

Hussman does think that the Missouri Theatre should be accessible to people with disabilities, but that CDBG money should be used differently and that the society didn’t prove to the commission that it can’t find another way to pay for the elevator.

“I just do not feel that it is an appropriate use for Community Development Block Grant money for an elevator at the Missouri Theatre when we know that low- and very low-income people are not the main attendees,” Hussman said.

Commissioner Becky Wagner disagrees. She said that at first she didn’t think the request was appropriate, but she changed her mind after hearing the society’s proposal.

“We have a lot of needs -- there’s no question about that -- and housing is the biggest, but at the same time we have to have other things, too,” she said.

Wagner also said the planned Missouri Theatre expansion will create jobs for youth and bring money into the community. An elevator, she said, would make the theater more accessible to seniors and guests with disabilities. She noted that CDBG money can be used for projects that bring buildings into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

White told commissioners that the arts nurture the soul and that all people, regardless of income, should experience them. Wagner agrees.

“There’s all different walks of life, and all different walks of life need to be exposed to different kinds of things,” she said.

White also said that the Missouri Theatre’s ticket prices are fairly inexpensive and that an outreach component has been added to the theater’s agenda to encourage people in under-served communities to attend theater events.

The commissioners are charged with recommending to the City Council how CDBG money should be divided. The agencies’ requests follow a pitch by city officials last week for more than $900,000 to pay for infrastructure projects and housing programs.