In letters and at community association meetings this week, neighbors of the Senator Theatre are voicing concerns over its possible takeover by Towson University radio station WTMD. Complaining that the university has not been a good neighbor in the past, they want assurances Towson officials will pay closer heed to their concerns once even more students start flooding the area.
"There's certainly more of a potential for disruption in the area than when it was just a movie theater," says Debbie Jones, who has lived in the Lake Evesham community just north of the Senator since 1988. "Not really having proven to be a good neighbor in the past, it has raised a lot of concerns from neighbors about the possibility of live events where a bunch of young people are coming into the neighborhood."
City Councilman Bill Henry, whose district includes the Senator and surrounding neighborhoods, spent Wednesday night listening to Lake Evesham residents hesitant to embrace the WTMD proposal, which would transform the 71-year-old movie theater into a performing arts center and include the radio station.
Even though bringing more students into the neighborhoods "would be a real challenge," Henry said, the bigger problem residents have is trusting that Towson will look out for them. "There are more people concerned about the relationship they've had with Towson in the past," he said, "than there are people concerned with the increase in students."
Towson officials insist neighborhood complaints are taken seriously and investigated, sometimes with campus police visiting the house in question.
"We do all we can to educate [students] on being great neighbors and being responsible citizens," says Marina Harrison Cooper, the university's assistant to the president for external relations and communications.
Cooper said unruly students face discipline, including fines and university probation, through the university's Office of Student Conduct and Civility Education.
The WTMD proposal is one of two still being considered by a review panel whose recommendations will be submitted to the quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp., which will in turn make recommendations to the mayor and City Council.
The other proposal, from Charles Theatre owner James "Buzz" Cusack, would keep the Senator as a single-screen theater and flank it with two small restaurants.
The Towson plan has been championed by former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber. "I strongly support the [WTMD proposal]) because it closely mirrors the ... collective vision for a multipurpose, nonprofit-wned Senator Theatre that emerged from numerous town meetings and roundtable discussions that included historic theater redevelopment experts," Kiefaber said Thursday night. "What the public needs to better understand is that, without nonprofit ownership, the Senator is doomed."
Still, some residents living near the Senator, while careful not to reject the WTMD proposal outright, can't separate its merits from their dissatisfaction with Towson's past responses to the community. They note that several area houses are rented out to students, and say Towson officials have turned a deaf ear to complaints.
"There are parties there with 300 people, there are high-stakes poker games going on," says Ashira Barbosa, president-elect of the recently re-formed Lake Evesham Community Association. "There's trash piled up outside of the houses, unkempt homes - basically, they attract crime."
Steven Yasko, WTMD's general manager, says fears that his station's plans would bring an influx of potentially unruly college students to the residential neighborhoods surrounding the Senator are overblown. Performances would appeal to a wide range of audiences, he promises.
"We're a public radio station who really has to have an adult base of people who financially support us," he said. "People really think that we're just going to attract a bunch of college students. We're not."
Many neighbors, however, remain unconvinced. "We would support them in their efforts," says Barbosa, "if they would support us a little bit more."
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