Vincent Gray wants to increase taxes on movie theaters to force one to set up shop across the river

[Anonymous]

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/2011/10/mayor-gray-proposes-5-sales-tax-on.html

The flawed logic behind a man who doesn't understand economics. There are very good reasons why there are no theaters across the river.

[jsteele]

I suggest that you protest this naked act of wealth redistribution by refusing to buy popcorn at movie theaters.

As to your point about economics, financial incentives are used at every level of government to attract businesses. Indeed, we just witnesses a bidding war for Northrop Grumman's headquarters.

There is kind of a chicken and egg problem in wards 7 and 8. Movie theaters -- and other desirable businesses -- don't open because there are not enough people with disposable income. Because there are no movie threatens or other desirable businesses, people with disposable income don't move there. Incentives are one way to resolve this conundrum.

[Anonymous]

Jeff. Be realistic. No one is moving to Ward 7 & 8. Census proves it. High crime, terrible schools, awful demographics, bad housing stock. By trying to force people to do this you just end up creating blowback. People go to theater in Arlington or Maryland.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff. Be realistic. No one is moving to Ward 7 & 8. Census proves it. High crime, terrible schools, awful demographics, bad housing stock. By trying to force people to do this you just end up creating blowback. People go to theater in Arlington or Maryland.

Plenty of people go to movies in DC. We have a lot of great theaters now. Also, the folks in Hillcrest, among other places, would object to your description of their ward.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff. Be realistic. No one is moving to Ward 7 & 8. Census proves it. High crime, terrible schools, awful demographics, bad housing stock. By trying to force people to do this you just end up creating blowback. People go to theater in Arlington or Maryland.

Plenty of people go to movies in DC. We have a lot of great theaters now. Also, the folks in Hillcrest, among other places, would object to your description of their ward.

Let them object. They should spend less time objecting and more time electing better councilmembers. Yvette isn't going to cut it.

Have you ever been to theater in Alexandria near the Target? I think it's Potomac yards. Tons of DC residents go there. Movies (just due to the business) have become pretty expensive, The government jacking up the prices especially when you can easily go across the bridge will have a negative effect. I'm not advocating no taxes. I Just think it's folly to believe that increasing taxes especially on a luxury item will spur any kind of business. Gray should be working on school reform and creating good elementary and middle schools in ward 7&8 so the next generation has better opportunities. Making the District the highest cost area for everything is the totally wrong approach.

[Anonymous]

In the past 10 years I have been to two movies in DC both times there was a shooting near by.......

[Anonymous]

Landmark E Street Cinema
555 11th Street NW, Washington, DC - [phone]

Part of the Landmark Theatre nationwide independent movie theatre chain http://www.landmarktheatres.com/ located in DC, and they show GREAT movies and have the best food that I have ever tasted in a movie theatre--reminds me of the old Hitchcock Theater from college days in Boston/Harvard Square.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Let them object. They should spend less time objecting and more time electing better councilmembers. Yvette isn't going to cut it.

Have you ever been to theater in Alexandria near the Target? I think it's Potomac yards. Tons of DC residents go there. Movies (just due to the business) have become pretty expensive, The government jacking up the prices especially when you can easily go across the bridge will have a negative effect. I'm not advocating no taxes. I Just think it's folly to believe that increasing taxes especially on a luxury item will spur any kind of business. Gray should be working on school reform and creating good elementary and middle schools in ward 7&8 so the next generation has better opportunities. Making the District the highest cost area for everything is the totally wrong approach.

There has never been a movie made, nor will there ever be, that would cause me to drive to Alexandria near Target to see it.

Gray says he is going to modify his proposal. But, as it stands now, it doesn't affect the cost of the movie. It's a tax on concessions. Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that theaters charge fair prices for concessions. So, when you go to buy your over-priced popcorn, there will be 5% added on. Most people won't notice and I doubt it will cause them to change their movie-going choices.

BTW, because concessions are so overpriced at theaters, I almost never buy them. That's one reason this is not a big issue to me.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Let them object. They should spend less time objecting and more time electing better councilmembers. Yvette isn't going to cut it.

Have you ever been to theater in Alexandria near the Target? I think it's Potomac yards. Tons of DC residents go there. Movies (just due to the business) have become pretty expensive, The government jacking up the prices especially when you can easily go across the bridge will have a negative effect. I'm not advocating no taxes. I Just think it's folly to believe that increasing taxes especially on a luxury item will spur any kind of business. Gray should be working on school reform and creating good elementary and middle schools in ward 7&8 so the next generation has better opportunities. Making the District the highest cost area for everything is the totally wrong approach.

There has never been a movie made, nor will there ever be, that would cause me to drive to Alexandria near Target to see it.

Gray says he is going to modify his proposal. But, as it stands now, it doesn't affect the cost of the movie. It's a tax on concessions. Nobody in their right mind is going to argue that theaters charge fair prices for concessions. So, when you go to buy your over-priced popcorn, there will be 5% added on. Most people won't notice and I doubt it will cause them to change their movie-going choices.

BTW, because concessions are so overpriced at theaters, I almost never buy them. That's one reason this is not a big issue to me.

IFf they made a porno about DCUM and the moms on it-you would go to see it there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff. Be realistic. No one is moving to Ward 7 & 8. Census proves it. High crime, terrible schools, awful demographics, bad housing stock. By trying to force people to do this you just end up creating blowback. People go to theater in Arlington or Maryland.

This is silly. Family size is shrinking, as it is everywhere in DC. But the housing stock east of the river is largely single family homes, not density and massive condos as in areas like U Street, etc... There is plenty of gentrification going on east of the river. That's only going to accelerate. The reason that there aren't many commercial services east of the river is that it's largely suburban. You're not going to walk anywhere anyway, so if you're going to buy groceries, you may as well go to Wegmann's in PG County. It's only an extra five minutes.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
IFf they made a porno about DCUM and the moms on it-you would go to see it there

Only if I couldn't bittorrent a Russian bootleg.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:...when you go to buy your over-priced popcorn, there will be 5% added on. Most people won't notice and I doubt it will cause them to change their movie-going choices....

I disagree. There's all the lunatics who do their grocery shopping exclusively outside of the city in order to avoid the bag tax. Maybe they can catch a movie while getting next week's groceries.

[Anonymous]

When the cinema opens in Ward 8, the first flick it should show is "Back to the Future" (as in the DC government feels like it's going back to those go-along-get-along days of the Barry kleptocracy). One city, baby!

[takoma]

Anonymous wrote:When the cinema opens in Ward 8, the first flick it should show is "Back to the Future" (as in the DC government feels like it's going back to those go-along-get-along days of the Barry kleptocracy). One city, baby!

I'm disappointed in Gray, so I won't comment on substance. But as to mode of discussion, if you think repeating the same rants makes them more convincing, your idea of human psychology is backwards.

[Anonymous]

Question. Who will actually go to see the movies? Jonetta Barras has an interesting take on this. With the ward hitting 25% unemployment is this theater going to be state run? I can't see a single private entity doing this. It's so weird that people in America believe that the government should be forcing private enterprise where they should set up shop. So weird. Sounds like something you see in China.