New York City just spent $85 million dollars renovating a theater in Central Park. That’s your tax money going to fix up a fancy venue for elite Hollywood actors. While working families struggle to pay rent and put food on the table, city leaders thought this was the priority.
The Delacorte Theater hosts something called Shakespeare in the Park. They claim it’s free for everyone, but nothing is really free when taxpayers foot the bill. The city ponied up $42 million in public funds for this project while our streets have potholes and our schools need repairs.
This season features big-name stars like Lupita Nyong’o and Sandra Oh. These millionaire actors will perform for wealthy Manhattan tourists who have the time to wait in line for tickets. Meanwhile, hardworking Americans in Queens and the Bronx are too busy earning a living to enjoy this taxpayer-funded entertainment.
The theater was closed for 18 months for renovations. They added fancy new wood siding made from old water towers and doubled the wheelchair accessible seats. All very nice, but was this really the most important thing to spend $85 million on right now?
City officials keep talking about making culture accessible to everyone. But let’s be honest about who really benefits from Central Park theater. It’s not the working families struggling to make ends meet in the outer boroughs.
The Public Theater runs this program and calls it a palace for the people. That’s rich coming from an organization that caters to Manhattan’s cultural elite. They even let donors pay $5,000 to name a seat, showing exactly who this really serves.
New York has real problems that need solving. We have crime, failing infrastructure, and struggling small businesses. Instead, politicians chose to spend millions on outdoor Shakespeare performances for people who can afford to take summer evenings off.
This whole project shows how out of touch our leaders are with regular Americans. While you’re working two jobs to pay bills, they’re throwing money at pet projects for the wealthy. It’s time to demand better priorities from our elected officials.
