Is Hancher Headed Downtown?

Here around the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area, the flood of 2008 is still obvious. The wife and I took the kids down to the Bohemian festival in the neighborhood were a few artist-types reside and work only to notice the ever-present water line mark on the homes and endless boarded up windows.
We drove through the downtown area to get there and it looks like a ghost town. There were endless signs in the windows promoting “We’re back!” and other promises of resurgence, but very little in actual activity. It was a late Saturday afternoon and we noticed virtually no one walking the streets of downtown Cedar Rapids.
I’m well aware that these things take time and I know that there will be a point where the district bounces back to a level they were at before or better. I hope that the Paramount Theatre is a major part of that plan since it is the one venue that drew my wife and me downtown.
Iowa City, on the other hand, seems to be chugging along with contingency plans and, maybe because a lot of the rebuilding centers around the public university, much of those plans are available to glance over.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that momentum is growing to bring Hancher Auditorium downtown, well away from it’s current location, an un-restorable venue next to the Iowa River. The idea is that a downtown location will help push the downtown as we know it further south as there really is no other area for it to expand. There’s also a larger picture here: for those of you not familiar with Iowa scuttlebutt, there are growing voices to restore rail service in this part of the state, tying Eastern Iowa to Chicago. Where would that rail service end up? The depot would be close to the area that Iowa City planners would like to see the downtown area moving towards.
For me, I think a downtown Hancher would be great with one vital caveat. If the U of I wants to use federal money to help build Hancher at a different location, then make it more of a place for the people. For close to twenty years now, Hancher has answered only to its biggest donors and created an environment that provides limited appeal for the community and surrounding area. I have no problem with the high arts and the facility being used as such, but there are other art forms that are more Pabst Blue Ribbon than pinot grigio and those art forms have been excluded from using Hancher. The first time I saw R.E.M. was at Hancher. Camper Van Beethoven opened and the show was part of the Life’s Rich Pageant tour. This was my first experience with the venue.
The last time I was there was for a ballet set to the music of Prince. That should give you an idea of the type of crowd that Hancher has been pursuing since those days.
So forgive me if my perception of Hancher has changed from one of a venue with universal appeal to one that’s exclusivity is neither representative of reality and the ground in which it sits on. I’m not asking for Hancher’s door to open for Gwar or even stray too far from its intention as a premier venue for fine arts. But in order to be a true house for the people and to be a venue that promotes the arts, Hancher’s promoters need to take off the blinders and look at what is best for the legacy that this new location will leave.