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The group that runs the Arts Tix booth is still fighting for its spot. At least one alternate option, to move into the Balboa Theatre, appears unworkable.
Downtown planners drew up a vision for creating more accessible public areas as part of a massive renovation for Horton Plaza. Those plans exclude the Arts Tix booth, a fixture there for more than 20 years, where you can buy tickets (sometimes half-price tickets) to local theater, dance and music events. A CCDC spokeswoman told me the agency suggested a possible space-sharing relationship for the ticket-selling booth and the nearby Balboa Theatre. Currently the booth pays rent to Westfield, the mall’s owner.
But that doesn’t sound good to Don Telford, who runs the city-owned theater. I’d asked him to follow up my post Friday; here’s what he wrote this morning:
We haven’t received an inquiry from the Performing Arts League nor from Westfield. However, with the extremely limited space currently at the Balboa Theatre, I wouldn’t see any opportunity of being able to accommodate other operations here.
The Performing Arts League is the group that operates the booth. The chairman of its board, Bruce Warren, said the booth doesn’t keep numbers about how many people use the booth. But between their ticket-selling window, email offers with discounted tickets and telephone box office, the booth’s impact is wide, he said.
Warren and the league’s former executive director visited a staff member from City Councilman Kevin Faulconer’s office today to discuss with CCDC staff the booth’s dilemma.
“The basic position from the CCDC staff is that the booth is going, the die is cast,” Warren said.
But he’s hoping the arts groups associated with the booth care enough about it to contact city leaders in support of lobbying for the booth to stay in its spot even as the new plaza is configured.
“I have not the slightest doubt you could work it out,” Warren said. “There’s absolutely no reason that that booth can’t remain. All there has to be is a desire to preserve it.”
Have you bought tickets at the Arts Tix booth? What do you think should happen to the booth? Leave a comment below or on Facebook.
I’m Kelly Bennett, the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531.
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