RPI 'postpones' showing of 'American Sniper'

PHOTO by "CAMPUS REFORM"

The Union Program and Activities Committee at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute postponed a Friday showing of “American Sniper” because of complaints from the college’s Muslim Student Association.

The blockbuster movie – based on the life of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and directed by Clint Eastwood – was replaced by “The Theory of Everything.” Rather than part of the regular Friday night movie schedule, “American Sniper” will be shown at a later date as part of an “educational forum” according to the UPAC Cinema Facebook page.

“RPI has long upheld the values of respect and coexistence, thus it is only our highest concern that this screening would not create any tensions or hatred among students at RPI.RPI has long upheld the values of respect and coexistence, thus it is only our highest concern that this screening would not create any tensions or hatred among students at RPI. RPI has long upheld the values of respect and coexistence, thus it is only our highest concern that this screening would not create any tensions or hatred among students at RPI.RPI has long upheld the values of respect and coexistence, thus it is only our highest concern that this screening would not create any tensions or hatred among students at RPI,” according to the UPAC Cinema’s Facebook post. “It is our hopes that the educational forum, which will include representatives from the portrayal of multiple identities in the movie, would create a better environment of dialogue and understanding on campus.”

UPAC is a student run movie theater sponsored by the Student Union. The Facebook post says the "education forum" will be held later this semester or early next semester. There is no firm date mentioned.

One person, Andy Thrift, a former Fire Support Sergeant in the U.S. Army, responded to the decision to postpone the filming on the UPAC Facebook page.

“I wonder if you would do the same thing if students of German descent or Japanese descent would have requested to cancel Saving Private Ryan or Letters from Iwo Jima?” Swift wrote. “I'm guessing not.”

UPAC said it has received “numerous emails and even a petition suggesting that the cancellation is censorship, however this is not the case.”

“Censorship is an attempt to bring a subject out of focus; our action is an attempt to bring strong issues into greater focus,” according to the UPAC Facebook post. “We want to hold an educational event that invites members from MSA, the Student Veterans of America, and any other organizations that could take interest in this film to lead a discussion open to all RPI students and faculty members.”

Kyle was made famous by the autobiography: “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the most lethal sniper in U.S. Military History.” The movie was released in November, 2014 and has grossed $540 million, the highest grossing war movie to date. It received six nominations at the last Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Kyle is credited with 255 kills in four tours in Iraq, 160 of those are officially confirmed by the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to the “Campus Reform” the University of Michigan also tried to pull the movie after the school’s Middle Eastern and North Africa Association and the Muslim Students’ Association “condemned the movie as offensive and asked it not be shown.” The Campus Reform website said the college has since decided to show the film along with a discussion.

Across the board public safety fee is an idea worth exploring

GORDON

For years, decades even, the City of Troy has tried to get Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to pay for city services and for years, decades even, the college has refused.

The easiest way to accomplish that would be to charge a nominal public safety fee, as it’s been called in the past, as part of the tuition and that money would pass through the college to the city. But, the city can’t just impose a fee on RPI or any other specific entity without imposing the same fee on all properties, like the recycling fee. And it can’t tax any of the non-profits.

As I mentioned, this has been going on for decades. Now, though, there is a sense of urgency because the city is in the worst financial shape in 20 years.

Councilman Jim Gordon, R-District 1, while appearing on Talk 1300, said he and his Republican colleague, Councilman Dean Bodnar, R-District 3, will propose a possible way to get some much needed cash from RPI and other non-profits.

It’s an out-of-the-box idea, and I have no idea if the city can find a way to implement it, but on the surface it is worth exploring.

BODNAR

According to Gordon, he wants to take all or part of the public safety budget – which equals about half of the city’s total spending per year – and rather than pay for it with taxes spread the bill out among all the properties in the city – including non-profits like RPI – and have them all pay a fee. By bringing such huge non-profits like Samaritan and St. Mary’s Hospital and RPI into the mix, the average homeowner will see an overall decrease in what he or she owes Uncle Sam per year while at the same time it represents a huge, untapped source of much needed revenue.

There are all sorts of road blocks in the way – including how much each property will pay, how to collect the fee, what happens if the fee isn’t paid, odds are the state Legislature will have to pass some sort of law and God knows they can complicate tying a shoe and that’s if the city can even come up with a rationale home rule request.

But, as reported in the Times Union, the city is facing an $800,000 deficit, which is more than 1 percent of the budget. If the city runs the deficit through the end of the year it risks again coming under the auspices of the state Comptroller’s Financial Control Board. That means the Comptroller will pretty much take away the city’s check book and every other aspect of the city’s finances.

Not surprisingly, police and fire overtime are over budget as is temporary help, which is surprising. At the same time some revenues aren’t coming in as predicted such as building permit fees – which I wrote about more than a year ago – and collection of vehicle and traffic fines.

My guess is if the administration of Mayor Lou Rosamilia is saying there is an $800,000 deficit then it’s really $1 million-plus, which will be even harder to make up before the books are closed at year’s end. Or maybe all the mayor, a former accounting professor at Hudson Valley Community College, is worried about is getting the deficit below the 1 percent threshold, or about $750,000.  

ROSAMILIA

And that’s not going to help out next year or the year after that at all. If anything it will just make it harder to get a balanced budget. All of the unions are without a contract, reserves have been spent down in recent years and the city already deferred $1.6 million in pension costs from next year to 2016.

Troy maybe in a little worse shape than other upstate, older industrial cities but it’s not alone in its financial woes. It’s also not alone in having a huge number of non-profits – close to 50 percent – that require a huge amount of city services they don’t pay for.

That’s why Gordon’s idea is at least worth exploring. Of course there will be naysayers and it certainly isn’t going to be an easy lift. But it’s better to get a little creative and explore new ideas rather than point fingers and unilaterally raise taxes on the average homeowner.

 

 

Rice Building to change hands

The Rice Building

The historic Rice Building is close to changing hands.

Luther Tai, an attorney from New Jersey, and the current owners – the Troy Architectural Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and First Niagara (formerly Troy Savings Bank) – have spent months guiding the final sale’s approval through the bureaucracy of state government.

While there have not been any bumps in the road towards that end, selling a building to a private entity that has had $2.5 million of public money invested into it does take a while. Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s influence, the state bankrolled a big portion of the project that at the time was a unique partnership between government, academia and non-profit organizations.

Once the rehabilitation was complete, the building was opened for business in 2000 and it was largely filled with upstart tech businesses from the RPI incubator program. While the building maintains its stunning historic exterior character, the interior was completely modernized to accommodate high-tech companies of the 21^st Century. It remains filled with similar companies to this day.

Joe Fama, executive director at TAP, said he would not comment on the inevitable deal but didn’t deny it was in the works.

An undated photo or drawing of The Rice Building
before the Fire of 1920

(As an aside, few love Troy architecture as much as Fama and he and TAP spearheaded the effort to bring it back to life. Safe to say the sale would not happen if Fama didn’t approve of the buyer or the buyer’s plans, which I understand is to keep the status quo and make the necessary investments to keep the building structurally sound and technologically up-to-date.)

In May, 2013, Tai and his sister Lolly Tai, purchased 17 First Ave., home to the bar Footsy Magoos, for $340,000.

The now five-story Rice Building, according to the Preservation League of New York, which gave it an “Excellence in Historic Preservation” award in 2001, is a “rare example of high Victorian Gothic style in Troy with its use of Venetian Gothic elements, most notably pointed-arch polychrome voussoirs.” A voussoir is a wedge-shaped stone used to build an arch.

It was constructed as an office building in 1871 by Benjamin Hall, a poet and lawyer, and for a century or so was known as the “Hall Building. It originally had six stories with three spires on top, but the Fire of 1920 that ravaged a good portion of River Street destroyed everything above the fifth floor. There is some talk of Tai rebuilding the spires, but Fama would not comment on that or anything else regarding the potential sale.

In the 1980s the building was foreclosed for taxes and it sat vacant for more than 12 years. It was literally falling apart with reports of masonry falling off the building and crashing to the street below. The city was ready to demolish it when TAP stepped up and kick started the partnership that saved one of Troy’s most stunning structures.