URGENT!! HELP US OPEN ON TIME!!

[WigglyWorld]

Dear Patrons and Supporters;

The NWFF desperately needs your help!! We need you to read this letter
(below), sign it, and Fax, Mail, or E-mail it to Mayor Schell, or WE MAY
NOT BE ABLE TO OPEN OUR CINEMA ON TIME!!

As you probably know, the Grand Illusion is undergoing its first remodel
since opening in 1967, courtesy of the King County Arts Commission, the
Hanauer Family Foundation, Microsoft, and over 65 individual donors. 
However, after 5 months of aimless, pointless, inane negotiations with
the city, we have wound up befuddled, angered, permitted, unpermitted,
and finally in a state of limbo.  This wouldn't even be a problem if we
had done the whole thing without a permit (which looks like the way to
go, FYI), but we naively thought that, with a 5 month timeline, and a
$10,000 total budget (Hint: that's less than 1/1000th of the Benaroya
Hall budget!), it might be possible to work with the city.

HERES THE PROBLEM:  The city now threatens to delay the Grand Illusion's
re-opening, just as they've delayed everything else.  We don't think
they will, and if they try, we will give them a run for their money, but
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT RIGHT NOW!! We need to send a loud an clear message
to the MAYOR OF THIS TOWN letting him know that TIME IS BEING WASTED and
GOOD PEOPLE ARE HAVING TROUBLE DOING GOOD DEEDS with PUBLICLY GRANTED
MONEY!! THIS STINKS!!!

Please forward the below letter to the mayor, ameliorate it and send it,
fax it, or call his office.  And, please, please, do it tomorrow!! We
need his office flooded with phone calls, faxes, and e-mails, and maybe
we can speed this stupid process up. Also, please call Jamie @ 329-2629
with any questions.

You must beleive that your voice will help us open our lovely remodeled
theatre on time. And you must believe we need this help.  If you wish to
use the mail, STOP BY WIGGLYWORLD FOR FREE STAMPS!! 

Thanks;
Jamie
NWFF/WigglyWorld
1004 Turner Way E.
Seattle, WA 98112
206/329-2629

================================
Mayor Paul Schell
600 4th Ave., 12th Floor
Seattle, WA 98104
Tel. 206/684-4000
mayors.office at ci.seattle.wa.us

June 17, 1998

Dear Mayor Schell;

As a supporting member of the Northwest Film Forum, I am writing you n
support of their Grand Illusion Cinema remodeling project, and in fierce
complaint of the City of Seattle Department of Construction and Land
Use’s obstructionist tactics. 

I understand the Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) was granted $25,000 in
February, 1998 from the King County Arts Commission to install an
archival projection system in the Grand Illusion Cinema.  I further
understand that at that time, the NWFF entered into negotiations for a
permit to perform the $10,000 worth of remodeling that it would take to
accommodate the proposed projection equipment.  Now I understand that
the city is continuing to stall the permitting process, and threatening
to disallow the cinema to perform the remodeling and re-open on
schedule, even after issuing and then rescinding a permit.  I am aware
that the NWFF has elected to continue to re-model the cinema in defiance
of the city’s egregiously elongated timeline, and I support this
decision..  

As a citizen and taxpayer in the City of Seattle, I wish to make my
voice heard in objection to this idiotic situation.  The Grand Illusion
is this city’s last remaining independent cinema, and is the city’s only
publicly owned, non-profit cinema.  The NWFF (a non-profit collective)
operates the Grand Illusion for the public good, and with a great deal
of public support.  If the city’s Department of Construction and Land
Use cannot, on a 5-month timeline, allow a 30 year old landmark to
perform a $10,000 improvement, and better the comfort and quality of its
auditorium for its patrons, than I am in grave judgment of said
department.

As the Mayor of Seattle, I hope you will seriously consider the decrepit
state of the Department of Construction and Land Use’s bureaucracy, and
will add your voice to those in support of the Grand Illusion Cinema’s
remodeling project.

Sincerely;
(Your name (and title) here)