August 25, 2025
Dear editor;
I empathize with Karen Christensen and her article in The Voice August 21 on the city of Aurora government’s budget cuts to the Aurora Civic Center Authority. I felt the same emotion when the Paramount Theatre priced out the Fox Valley Symphony from using the venue.
After Paramount’s capital projects in the early 2000s decade, the rent was higher than our symphony could afford. The Paramount attracted bigger and better (?) shows; alderman Carl Franco, at one of his 5th Ward meetings, sympathized and explained it well: Not enough interest in the symphony and the Paramount space was now not practical from the economic point.
It was no one’s fault. It is what it is. Supply and demand. Classical music fans adjusted to using churches and also Aurora University Crimi Auditorium. It has worked well and in some ways it is a better experience to have the seating space match audience occupancy. Too many empty seats perhaps is what also is driving the canceled BOLD series? Regardless of the way Paramount cuts are made by their leaders, it is the responsibility of our city leader, mayor John Laesch, to manage our budget. He can’t ignore the debt; I see cuts to Paramount as essentially just doing his job to which we elected him. If he allows the debt to increase, he is not doing his job.
Another writer, a regular columnist, made the comment, “My Dad told me when I was a kid: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The City budget is broke, so the mayor is trying to fix it! The City is not bankrupt, don’t get me wrong. This is all figurative-speak, of course. We all have opinions on spending priorities. We just can’t mix government function with private enterprise. We all probably have forgotten this on account of the Covid-19 Pandemic blurring the line between government/essential/mandatory and private/entertainment expenses. Perhaps we have also been too accepting of government leader’s making economic decisions by the stroke of their pen.
If it is a mistake to weaken the Paramount’s ability to have more events, we will learn by mistake. They probably can’t make their surgical budget cuts just yet, but maybe this can and would be corrected once the revenue projections are made….
Another part of the equation is the costs the venue incurs. I observed the decline of Fox Valley Symphony after maestro Harold Bauer left to semi-retire. The many volunteers were energized by his wife, Sally, himself, and the Paramount staff. When they left, the rehearsal dinners also left. It was an intangible loss and perhaps started the gradual decline in ticket sales. Just a thought. Chicago has wealthy donors; attracting interest in wealthy donors to support local enterprise such as Paramount is another subject. I am not qualified to write on that one.
Too bad we can’t get department stores to come downtown Aurora. That is the way things used to be in small and medium-size cities. They moved out to outskirts for convenience of customers, who avoid city traffic. The traffic problem will only get worse. Perhaps the future will see a different type of downtown.
Sincerely,
Mary Goetsch, Aurora