The Curtain’s Going To Remain Down At This Theater

Some of you who have lived in Canarsie for over 20 years might remember the last movie you saw at the Canarsie Movie Theater on East 93rd Street and Avenue L. Some of you might remember what you did that day on Avenue L when the theater showed its last movie. Perhaps you can still remember the sticky floors and the tight seats you tolerated – after all, the theater was close enough to all of those fun eateries on the commercial strip and your house wasn’t that far away, so who cared about a couple of hours of discomfort? 

Those who have only lived in our community for a little over 10 years don’t know what the old days of Canarsie were like – and, if you ask me, they’ve accepted the doomed fate of the property that once gave so many residents memories of a lifetime.

I’ve received so many letters and calls about the condition of the defunct movie house, which was, at one point, slated to be a catering hall…and then a skating rink. You guessed it – NONE of that happened and everyone just accepted that, too. Sadly, the letters and calls we get are mostly from old timers and those who see the horrible recent photos posted on Facebook. Some memories of the good old days overshadow the carelessness of the punks out there and plenty of people want to know why “we’ve” let things deteriorate so badly.

Our decrepit movie theater remains...decrepit!

Residents don’t seem to care about the condition of the beloved old movie house. They and their children are too busy defacing its property, with overflowing trash bags near the corner, leaving the ruins of the building…ruined! With all of the negative attention that location gets, who would be attracted to that parcel of land?

Let’s get real! Canarsie is not a community where millions upon millions of dollars are spent on renovating private businesses. While the Kings Theater is thriving in Flatbush after being closed since the 1970s, what’s our excuse for leaving our old theater abandoned? Are we waiting for Donald Trump to rediscover real estate on our next-to-empty shopping strip? If any business owner looks to establish something at the huge property, where else would the hundreds of patrons go on the avenue? One of the Chinese food take-out places with less than 10 seats? Maybe they’d get their nails done…

Since Avenue L really has little to offer shoppers, what would the incentive be to place anything of substance at that corner? 

If you visit well-to-do towns in the suburbs, you’ll see their communities reviving old movie houses and making progress. Just for the hell of it, I looked up theater renovations that took place in the suburbs within the past couple of years.

According to The New York Times, the Westbury Theater, built in the 1920s, was a local movie house in Nassau County that featured art films through the 80s and 90s. In the 2000s, it closed and fell into disrepair. Like our theater, it was riddled with graffiti and derelicts until a real estate developer saw an auction for the property and toured the crumbling building in 2004. By 2013, the property was acquired for about $1.7 million and the entire site was renovated with about 1,000 parking spots (imagine having to make this kind of space on Avenue L!). For this project, The New York Times noted, plenty of Long Islanders wanted to get involved and utilize the new and exciting space.

Why can’t that be our story? The truth is, no one CARES enough! For all the people writing in about Avenue L’s fate – do YOU have the money to put into our community? Can you easily take out millions of dollars in loans and remodel the building you’re bragging that once meant so much to you?

Is it really a shame when there are no developers out there who are willing to take a chance on our crappy-looking commercial strip where there are no popular restaurants, no clothing stores, no franchises, no variety of specialty shops and no recreational facilities for children?

I propose that a developer think on a much smaller scale when it comes to this eyesore. Knock down the whole building and don’t worry about its “potential” to serve as one establishment. The only thing that might survive the nightmare of Avenue L is a strip of average-performing shops that don’t require extensive parking or massive crowds. Turn that one site into three or four small stores – and rent them out to business owners who want to offer something different to our community.

The fact that nothing is being done – period – irks us even more than the decrepit conditions of the old movie house. Constant complaining and choosing to not take any action to bring something to our community doesn't make things better, don’t you think? I grew up a couple of blocks from Avenue L and remember ‘the good old days,’ but since I don’t have the money and I’m not business savvy enough to get a sustainable idea going, I choose not to get annoyed. Another bag of microwaved popcorn please!