The Neon Jungle Favors a Museum over an Arcade

The city of Glendale, Calif.,
paid $1 million dollars to purchase an arcade in 2010. Let’s just
start with that. They wanted the property, not the machines, as
part of a redevelopment plan, but eventually the owner just gave
them everything for $1 million dollars. The way the Glendale
News-Press
recently described the sale, it sounds like the owner threw in
the towel under pressure:

The former owner, Andranik Shahinian, initially didn’t want to
sell the building to the city, preferring to close the arcade and
bring in a retail chain, but those plans never came to fruition.
There were talks of eminent domain and actor Zachary
Quinto, known for portraying Spock in “Star Trek” movies in
2009 and 2013, hosted a Save the Arcade event there in 2009.

In the end, however, Shahinian handed over the keys.

Glendale had its own plans for the space. It has pulled in the
Museum of Neon Art from a
temporary location in downtown Los Angeles to a permanent home in
that spot (and two other nearby properties), to anchor the city’s
plan for a cultural arts district.

But then Gov. Jerry Brown killed off the notoriously corrupt
redevelopment agencies (RDAs) in cities across the state in order
the try to bring the tax revenues redirected to the agencies back
into the school systems and other special districts. It left the
assets cities bought with redevelopment agencies frozen, and cities
would eventually be required to sell them off and send the money
back to Sacramento.

So Glendale was left with 50 old arcade machines in storage
while the building was renovated for this museum (the deal for the
property having been completed before Brown’s actions).
This week Glendale was told that the arcade machines could be
sold, and they’re planning to dump them. After paying $1 million of
taxpayer dollars for the property, they’re hoping to get about
$100,000 for the games.

That sounds about right, thought they might get a bit more for a
few machines if they’re rare enough. There is a culture of Gen.
X-aged arcade nostalgia
enthusiasts who buy old machines, refurbish them, and make
their own home arcades in dens or basements (I would probably be
one of them if I had the money, a den, or a basement).  

In the meantime, three years after the purchase, the Museum of
Neon Art is still trying to raise money to finish the
renovations to move into the space. Their site indicates they need
$1.5 million to complete the interior and notes that this is after
the city gave them money to finish the building’s exterior. So the
city paid to buy the building and paid again to renovate the
exterior. The city wants this museum to anchor its art district,
but the museum is still struggling to get donors, still looking for
more than $1 million to finish its internal renovation and open the
museum by the end of the year.

I called the museum just to verify they were still needing
donations and ended up having an interesting conversation with Kim
Koga, the museum’s executive director, who explained that the death
of RDAs added delays to the fundraising. She had plenty of praise
with Glendale’s redevelopment agency, which she credits for saving
the museum after the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency
(CRA) was unable to continue helping them stay in the downtown
area. She explained that as downtown Los Angeles revived, the
museum didn’t fit the developer’s plans anymore.

It’s an interesting observation about the way RDAs can end up
working out. At one point, the CRA thought the museum was a great
addition to downtown Los Angeles, but as circumstances changed they
found themselves pushed out. Now Glendale thinks the museum would
be a great addition to their city, and they were willing push
others out to bring the museum there. So what happens down the line
if the museum doesn’t take off the way Glendale hopes? Will they be
pushed out for something else?

Former Reason Editor Tim Cavanaugh railed
against the corruption of the CRA and redevelopment agencies in
general back in 2011 and 2012. But even absent corruption or crony
capitalism, the involvement of government in making development
decisions creates the possibility of property owners being forced
out because officials have a different idea of what their city
should look like. It creates an unstable environment where nobody’s
ownership of property feels safe.

Also, as an aside, doesn’t it feel weird that Shahinian would
have to give up his arcade for a neon museum? Talk about two great
tastes that go great together. Maybe the museum should try and snag
those machines and incorporate them in as a way to earn some extra
change. At the very least, they should approach whoever buys the
machines to see if they’re interested in donating to the
museum.