Parkway Theater / Cerrito Theater - Catherine and Kyle Fisher

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On YouTube.com

In the ongoing gaga of the Parkway and Cerrito theaters in Oakland and El Cerrito respectively we have read or heard the views of many people over the past seven months except two: Catherine and Kyle Fisher, who created both the Parkway Theater in Oakland, California and the Cerrito Theater in El Cerrito, California.  I was honored to be given the exclusive first video interview with the Fishers over brunch at the Lakeshore Cafe in Oakland.  

They talked with me on video for 19 straight minutes - nothing edited - about what happened that led to the closure of the Oakland Parkway Theater and that led to the current very messy relationship between the Fishers and the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency (ERA) regarding the Cerrito Theater, a situation which saw the Fishers lose that business too, and watch as the owners of the Rialto stepped in to take over. 

First, some house cleaning: this is the Fisher's platform. The interview style was to give them a place to explain what happened in their own words and with comfort.  This blog entry is not a text transcript for the video: I'd prefer you watch or listen to the video because how anyone says what they say is as important as what they say.  Got that?   Lastly, I do have my views on this matter - no surprise there - which I present at the end of this post.

Regarding what happened in El Cerrito, the Fishers said its hard to expand a business and especially do when you can't rely on all of the players involved in that process.  Kyle Fisher said that they were approached by the City of El Cerrito in 2001 with the idea of starting a new theater in that town.  The Fishers said "no" because they didn't have the financial resources required to open a second location.  The agency came back to them in 2002, and had what Kyle Fisher called a "back and forth"  such that the Agency said "What if we pay for it?" in other words, the ERA would give the Fisher's money to open what's now called The Cerrito Theater.  

The Fishers were excited that the public private partnership served as a template for community centers in America.  But the time they spent on the development of the Cerrito hurt the Parkway, and the ERA and City of El Cerrito's promise of money to help them never came through.


The Parkway was always profitable

The popular perception is the Parkway closed because it wasn't making money; not true.  "The Parkway was always profitable", Kyle Fisher said.  But the Fishers were using money from the Parkway to keep the Cerrito going with the idea that the City of El Cerrito's promise of money to help them with the Cerrito would come through; again, it never did.  Because of this, the Parkway was "crippled" as Catherine put it.  So the Cerrito's underfunded condition cost the Parkway.   If they closed the Cerrito, the Parkway would have survived.

On the Parkway employees and the last minute closure

I said to the Fishers that many Parkway employees felt like they had the rug pulled out from under them.  They got the notice that the Parkway would be closing, and they would be losing their jobs, just four days before the March 22nd Sunday it closed.  Kyle said "I completely screwed that up, and there's no excuses for that.  I misread a notice.  I misread a legal notice.  I'm an attorney and misread a legal notice.  We had fully intended to give our employees a month's notice before closing."  Kyle was under the impression the Alameda County Sheriff was coming to evict them but that was not the case.  But Kyle admits he made the mistake and did so right on camera.  Good for him. 

The Parkway was the Fisher's labor of love

The Parkway started in 1996 because the Fishers wanted to have a place where their friends could get together and watch movies over pizza and beer.  Then-Councilmember John Russo was one of their earliest supporters.   He contacted them because some neighbors were concerned about what their plans were for the building the theater was to be located in.  He connected them with the right people and essentially "held their hand" through the process of working with the City of Oakland.  As a gift, they gave John what he wanted: a sandwich named after him. 

The Parkway was the Fisher's labor of love.  They were a young couple when they got involved in making the facility and essentially grew together and had kids - two now - while they were growing the Parkway. 

The future of The Cerrito

Now, the Cerrito has a new operator who's currently running it in a conventional fashion.  They're the same group that operates the Elmwood Theater.  Kyle says that eventually they want to have the "pizza and beer and couches"  formula that the Fisher's established.    I shared the view that it seems like the City of El Cerrito has stolen their business.  Again, that's my personal view.  Kyle doesn't see whatever they do as being a speakeasy theater.


Support for the Parkway

The Fishers support whatever the Oakland Redevelopment Agency does with the building that was the Parkway Theater on 1834 Park Blvd near E. 18th.   They love the community and the theater and would do anything to help if asked.  Catherine says it needs a lot of work and investment, some of it the person or group may not get back.  For them the Parkway was an expression of their love for Oakland and the community.



The Thrill Ville


This entire episode has broken up the close relationship between Will Vaharo and the Fishers.  Will has been one of the main driving forces behind the planned resurrection of the Parkway.  Vaharo and the Fisher's have known each other for 25 years, having worked together at the Berkeley Faculty Club, and before that published a book for him called "Love Storues are Too Violent for Me."   According to the Fisher's it was Will who started the "Thrill Ville" on Thursday nights to bring more people in.

The Thrill Ville was a kind of celebration of B-movies that featured a kind of weird and funky movie preview with Will and Kyle.  It's also the place where, according to the Fishers in the video,  Will met the woman that would become his second wife.  (In fact, the Parkway was the scene for a lot of dates and pairings!) A lot of memories, but for reasons we didn't talk about on or off camera, Will and the Fishers are not the friends they used to be.  Sad, because it was their collective creative energy that made the Parkway go.

The Fishers' next stop 

Right now, the Fishers are living on unemployment, taking care of their kids and trying to deal with the horror that has become the Cerrito issue.  After the close of the Parkway, they put materials from that theater into storage at the Cerrito, but they can't get them back for reasons that are not clear to me.  One thing is certain just from reading this webpage report of the March 19th 2007 minutes of the City of El Cerrito City Council meeting, the City had a really unrealistic view of what was capable with the Cerrito: they wanted first-run movies.  If not getting them was the City Council's reason for not supporting the Cerrito, it was really bad for them to ask for that to begin with.

Ok, it was just plain stupid.

The Fishers speciality was second-run and "B-movies" and getting first run movies calls for number of distribution deals and relationships they weren't set up to do.  In my view, the City of El Cerrito should at least take responsibility for bring the Fishers in and making representations that they would give them money to operate.

There's a lot of mess here.  The El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency had recently offered to help the Fishers make a business plan for presentation to the City Council, but due to "personalities" that didn't happen.  But the ERA did put that in writing.    Also, while the ERA expained in a letter dated January 27, 2009 that Downey Street Productions was not paying rent but when businesses are having that kind of problem, where they're saddled with more debt than they can handle, the ERA's job is to step in and help. That didn't happen.

As I stated on camera and will write here, the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency seems to have engaged in a kind of taking of their business without just compensation for it.  That's a serious legal issue the Agency should answer for; the question is will it do so?  It would be great for them to do something that at least gets the Fishers out of their current financial situation.  After all, it was their business and they say their property is still behind the walls of the Cerrito Theater. 

For those who bring up the matter of reported taxes owed by the Fisher's business Downey Street Productions,  that too is something the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency can take care of; it could have forgave (and still can forgive) the tax debt . When I worked for the Oakland Mayor's office, I personally worked to eliminate a $989,000 tax owed to the City of Oakland for a property owner so that person would have enough money to refurbish his building.  If I can do that, El Cerrito can certainly handle $200,000.  When I look at it, there are more questions I have for the City of El Cerrito and the way they handled this matter, but for the present someone needs to hire the Fishers as theater consultants.

The Parkway Video series:

The last day: March 22, 2009



Save the Parkway meeting of March 29th 2009

Parkway Theater to get help from Oakland Redevelopment Agency

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Remember the blog post I wrote about a week ago stating that Oakland District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan should get the Oakland Redevelopment Agency (ORA) involved in the effort to save the now-closed Parkway Theater? Well, I was just contacted by an unnamed source who explained in great detail how and when the ORA will work to redevelop the Parkway Speakeasy Theater, located at 1834 Park Blvd in Oakland. The effort will mean the "best of" the Parkway's employees will be asked to return to their jobs, if they want to do so.

First a brief review.

The once-popular Parkway Theater closed its doors on March 22, 2009 after its owners, Catherine and Kyle Fisher of Downey Street Productions, received an eviction notice from their landlord, the Cheng family of San Francisco just four days before closing. The news caused a major panic within the ranks of Parkway employees, who didn't know what they were going to do for work on the short notice of losing their jobs, and within the community, which didn't know how it was going to replace what came to be a center of the neighborhood. Without the Parkway, the area would be a certain candidate for anyone's definition of "blighted neighborhood."



With rapid restoration of the Parkway in mind, a Facebook-based community group was formed called "Save The Parkway" which kind of morphed into a new group called "I Like The Parkway Speakeasy Theater." (I guess "love" is too strong a term.)

At any rate, the organization, led Peter Prato held a large meeting on March 29th that drew about 40 people, including Kernighan and several long-time Oaklanders. There, it was decided that the organization would work to find a theater operator to rebuild and maintain the Parkway as it was before it closed, but better.



Eventually, an organization called Motion Picture Heritage Corporation (MPHC) stepped in to start talks with The Chengs and Kernighan to in some way acquire the Parkway Theater. While the negotiations have been "back-and-forth", the Parkway community folks were digging for information about and then writing and blogging about MPHC, an action that reportedly upset the groups' head Bill Dever. Since Dever and his partners hail from small Shelbyville, Indiana, they're not used to the very public communications that come with the matter of saving buildings and businesses the community values in California. Dever reportedly threatened to pull out of the deal if the chatter didn't stop.

Well, it subsided, but it didn't stop. Indeed, it got worse for a time, as it seemed Councilmember Kergnihan had one direction, the Parkway Community people another, and the former employees just wanted to be left alone, even as the Parkway Community people held another meeting and a party on May 31st to help get money to them. It was a huge mess. But, as I pointed out before, the best solution was for Councilmember Kernighan to bring everyone together, get the ORA involved, and go on the hunt for a number of developers and operators to compete for the right to rehab and run the facility, not just one.

Finally, it looks like we're on the way to seeing that happen. On Tuesday, members of the ORA, including Deputy Director Gregory Hunter, met with concerned Parkway Theater operatives and MPHC (Kernighan was not in the room) to determine a course of action for the ORA. According to my source, Hunter said "we're stepping" in. What that means is the agency may loan the group money or help MPHC purchase the building from the Chengs. As of this writing, the ORA has all of the property condition information and documents and correspondence that have been written to date. They can now do their research work before determining a specific plan of action.

The next step is a meeting with Kernighan and the Chengs, but my source - who was in the room - is confident that this will jump start the effort to save the Parkway. But my request is that the ORA include a meeting with the Parkway community as well to get their input and see the results of their survey work. I don't think their efforts should be ignored.

Parkway Theater: Pat Kernighan must lead now!

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The "Save The Parkway Theater" movement, once a seemingly happy collection of like-minded Oaklanders, has rapidly degenerated into the same kind of feckless factionalization that's doomed the effort to keep the Athletics baseball team in Oakland.

Yes, once again, we have groups that don't talk to each other and with different agendas and a common problem: a lack of leadership from the elected officials involved. In the case of the Athletics, it was Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums (until he began to really insert himself into the process and call for meetings) and now it's Oakland's District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan.

(A bit of housecleaning: I like Pat; I really do. Always have. But I don't like the way she handles community controversy and this is an example.)

Four Factions

When the Parkway Speakeasy Theater closed after its last show on March 22nd 2009, a rag-tag group of neighbors, concerned Oaklanders, and even people outside Oakland, banded together to create the "Save The Parkway" movement. The first meeting of the "organization" was successful, and Councilmember Kernighan arrived to give her valued input.



But after that the wheels came off the wagon. Once a potential buyer of the theater was located, factions developed:

1) The Parkway Employees - This group of loyal former workers at the theater got notices that it was going to close just four days before it happened. They're rightly upset, but now, months later, they're trying to find jobs. The main "Save The Parkway" members worked to raise money to help them, but the former employees I talked to, while they appreciated their help, felt it was delivered in an over-zealous way, with "out of the blue" calls and contacts from people they didn't know.

2) Save The Parkway - Peter Prato is the spark plug behind this Internet-based organization that has marshalled support for reopening the theater. What's happpened here from my point of view, and the many calls and emails I've gotten, and a video I've not yet installed, is that once Kernighan went to work behind the scenes, it seemed they felt a bit "pushed out" of the proceedings. That's not from them; that's my read alone.

3) Catherine and Kyle Fisher - Once loved by everyone, now hated by some, and still loved by many, has seen their business collapse under the combined weight of the economy, the changing movie climate, declining revenues and rising business costs. No one of the other two groups talks to them or wants to, sadly. The Fisher's view on all of this is hard to determine for publication; they've gone almost completely underground.

4) Councilmember Pat Kernighan and Councilmember Jean Quan - Ok. Now, you're scratching your head on this one, right? What's Jean Quan got to do with this? That's what I was wondering when Quan showed up in the middle of the May 31st Parkway Community Meeting and presented herself as a concerned citizen (who happens to be running for Mayor of Oakland; my view interview with Quan will be installed Sunday June 14th). At first I wondered if Pat knew Jean was coming to the meeting and gave Quan her blessing as the Parkway's in Kernighan's district. All things considered it would be more appropriate for At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan to have attended the meeting or for Quan to be there with Kernighan. But frankly it looked weird to me.

There's a lot of drama from these factions but all of it can be taken away or at least lessened by one action: Councilmember Pat Kernighan calling what former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb would call an "all-hands" meeting, with everyone at the table. And I mean everyone Pat can think of regardless of her relationship with them. (Get the message, Pat?)

This is Councilmember Kernighan's time to shine. Right now, she's adding to the gossip mill (what Bobb calls "sniper fire") rather than rising above it. This community development problem is in her District and its rapidly spinning out of control.

It's Councilmember Kernighan's time to step up and lead.

"Save The Parkway Theater" Community Meeting, Sunday May 31

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The Parkway Theater's last day of operation was March 22, 2009, and while it seemed this Oakland institution would be a thing of the past, the undying sprit of a group of Oaklanders and the participation of thousands of members of the community (and the World, with former-Oaklanders and current Parkway fans overseas too) have kept the dream of reopening the unique theater alive.

In case,you missed the lastest news, Carolyn Jones of The SF Chronicle broke the story of a "midwestern group of investors" called the Motion Picture Heritage Company (MPHC) and their plan to buy the Parkway Theater building from the landlords and revive the movie business that was within it. Patsy Eagan's blog OaklanderOnline tells us the group came to discover the Parkway via the efforts of Parkway Programming Director Will "The Thrill" Viharo, who presented the I Like the Parkway site to Bill Dever, the representative of MPHC.

But none of this could have happened without the tireless involvement of Peter Pierto, Patsy Eagan, Councilmember Pat Kernighan, and the members of the original Facebook group "Save The Parkway" which led to the development of the "I Like The Parkway" Site.

Still, I can't help but feel sorry for Catherine and Kyle Fischer who created the whole concept of having pizza and beer at a movie in 1996, raising $140,000 with zero aide from the City of Oakland because they didn't want it. Under the plan, the landlord gets money for the building, but it seems the business model the Fisher's started, lives on without them at the place where they created it. That's got to hurt them, big time. It hurts me just to think about it.

Sunday's Meeting

Patsy informed me the Save the Parkway group is having another community meeting this Sunday at Rooz Cafe at 1918 Park Blvd in Oakland. By the way, there are two Rooz Cafe locations, so for those who think they know where it is and have the Piedmont Avenue store in mind, here's a map:


View Roos Cafe, 1918 Park, Oakland in a larger map


Regarding the meeting itself, Patsy's email reads:

Details of this pending deal shall be revealed this Sunday, May 31, at Rooz Cafe. The meeting kicks off at 3 p.m. and will serve two purposes: 1) to update the community about the said investor, and 2) reach consensus on what the public wants in their new theater. You can start this process by completing the survey at iliketheparkway.com. Following the meeting, attendees are invited to fest former Parkway employees at the Parkway Lounge. Cocktails will flow at 5 p.m.

Please join us Sunday and participate, even if you're just getting involved in this project.

A Long Short Journey

Frankly, I'm amazed and delighted to see this happen so quickly, even as it seems like a lot of water flowed under this bridge since the last day of the Parkway's operation. For those who may be just now aware of the history of the closure of the Parkway, here are two videos I created, the first one is from the cinema's last day, and the second is from the first community meeting held at the same Rooz Cafe location that's the venue for Sunday's meeting.

The Last Day Of The Parkway Theater:



First "Save The Parkway Theater" Meeting:

The Blog Report TV Show: Josh Wolf; Parkway Theater's Last Day

 

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YouTube, Blip.tv and Sclipo

Wow, sorry I was away, but I spent all of Thursday traveling from Atlanta to San Francisco, then covering Bay to Breakers events, and finally just taking time off. Pretty fried, frankly. But the World turns on.

Each Saturday, my new television show is on. It's called The Blog Report With Zennie62 and features the use of my video blogs in a weekly 30-minute format broadcast and co-produced by CoLoursTV in Denver. The start time is 3:30 PM Pacific Time, 6:30 PM Eastern Time and the show is replayed at 11:30 PM and 2:30 PM respecfully. Then it is replayed on Sunday at 12 noon pacific and 3 PM eastern.

The third installment of The Blog Report with Zennie62 features the introduction of a new documentary film made by Sierra Choi and about SF Bay Area journalist Josh Wolf. I met Josh and Sierra in 2006 when both was working for The Peralta Community College District's "Peralta TV" network in different capacities and I was trying to establish something called The Monte Poole Show. Sierra's now a segment producer for The Blog Report with Zennie62.

Josh Wolf was the longest jailed journalist in history

Wolf's story is an interesting one to say the least: he was jailed for 226 days for defying a judges order to give up a video tape he created at the scene of a crime. Josh kept the video because he believed the FBI was actually trying to determine who "subversives" were and develop a list of them and to surpress American journalism. A large number of organizations called for his release:

Tom Hayden
Committee to Protect Journalists
American Civil Liberties Union
Society of Professional Journalists
National Press Club
The Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America
National Lawyer’s Guild
Northern California Media Workers Guild
California Newspaper Publishers Association
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Center for Media and Democracy
Reporters Without Borders
National Writers Union
First Amendment Project
Washington Independent Writers
National Press Photographers Association
Judicial Equality Foundation, Inc.
League of Young Voters
Grand Jury Resistance Project
San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris
San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee
San Francisco Labor Council
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Daniel Ellsberg
California State Assemblyman Mark Leno
California State Senator Carole Migden
Steal this Wiki
COA News
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Bay Guardian
Contra Costa Times
Charles Cooper, Executive Editor, CNET News
Keene Free Press
Peter Laufer, Huffington Post

Eventually, he was released from Jail on April 3, 2007 but the case affirmed how the media is able to protect its sources in the State of California, but not from the Federal Government; that is still an issue.

Some, including the San Francisco Chronicle's Debra Saunders in one of her worst moments, argued that Wolf was not a journalist, but the appeals court in the case of Apple lawsuit against bloggers leaking product information actually protects Wolf and other bloggers because the holding was that the California Shield Law, which protects journalists from revealing their sources, also applies to "web publishers" which include bloggers.

In part as a result of Wolf's ordeal, a move to craft a new Federal Shield Law protecting bloggers was established in 2007 and a new bill was presented this year. The portion that bloggers are interested in reads:

“COVERED PERSON- The term `covered person' means a person who regularly gathers, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports, or publishes news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain and includes a supervisor, employer, parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of such covered person.”

It looks like this bill's going to pass, even with its flaws it has 40 sponsors and does protect journalists in those states that don't have sheild laws. For example many bloggers who work for free would not be covered by this Federal Law, but video-bloggers who are YouTube Partners and are compensated by Google AdSense by generating views from their work would be.

Interestingly, Wolf was just accepted into the U.C. Berkeley journalism school. He starts this fall. If I were a professor there, I'd have an entire class based around Josh's experience.

Choi is seeking partners to help finance the documentary. You can reach her through me via email.

Save The Parkway

The second video on the show is the story of the close of the famous Parkway Theater and why its important beyond Oakland's boarders. This was done before I knew about the "Save The Parkway Effort" which is underway, but it's good to look back and see what happened. Only this time, the last day of the popular facility will be in shown in 17 million homes. Be sure to watch it on DISH Network.

The show also features my take on the story of Terrell Owens' separation from the Dallas Cowboys, and why newspaper managers don't get new media.

No. I didn't bury the lead.

Oakland Parkway Theater Closes Today: Evicted By Landlord

The landlord of the Parkway Theater at 18th Street and Park Blvd in Oakland evicted the Parkway Theater after severely raising the rent. It's last day was today, March 22nd, 2009, but the theater can be saved.

As an employee reports in this video, the closure was fast; the employees got the notice just four days ago, giving them little time to make adjustments and throwing lives into chaos. Apparently, the theater just had not drawn a lot of people -- or at least enough to pay the rent -- to maintain itself. In the words of the persons I talked to -- some on the video -- the movie house was not showing what the public wanted to see.

I think a larger issue was marketing, or the lack of it. A new approach should include having ways that bloggers can put a Parkway widget on their blogs. Also having the Parkway on as many social networks -- like Twitter -- as possible would really keep its name out there.

The bottom line is the place Kyle and Catherine Fisher raised $140,000 to start in 1996 and opened the following year can be saved. But the landlord has to really have a different strategy and be more a part of the business than it appears they are not. A closed Parkway is a blight on that neighborhood at a time when people need reasons to feel good about what's happening in their lives.

As Michael Cabon over at "An Oakland Citizen" points out, the Parkway has been an interesting place. (You have to read his post.)

It's watch time. Which business institution will fall next? Which landlord will prove not to realize that there's not a lot of money out there and thus can't increase rents?

Will the Parkway employees find other means of work? Will the City of Oakland, which just purchased a $7 million building with redevelopment funds step in?

The Parkway was a friend to then-Oakland Councilmember John Russo, who's now City Attorney. They even named a sandwich after him for his support of the facility. (It's not on the menu anymore.) Will Russo step in?

So many questions, which only mean that this whole issue is far from...closed.