Chris McQuillan—one of the co-owners of the Revue Cinema—has contributed a long comment to the North Ronces Blog making his case for why historical designation would be a detriment to the future of the Revue—not only for he and his partners, but also for any future owner and, thus, the community as a whole. I have excerpted Chris’ argument against historical designation below. You can check out the full post, in context, here. For now, I have decided to let Chris speak for himself and reserve my response for a future post. (By the way, Chris, I apologize for not getting this up sooner; I was away for the weekend.)

Over this past week, Darryl (the webmaster at NorthRonces) and I have had a bit of an off-line debate around the proposed pursuit of heritage designation for these properties—and in a larger sense—how to best promote community cinema at the Revue. I can entirely understand why the idea of Heritage Designation appears, on the surface, to be so appealing. On a quick pass, it seems to grant the neighborhood the institution it seeks in perpetuity. The real effect will be the exact opposite. (more…)