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It was an afternoon like many recently. With rain. Then a bit more rain. Followed by some additional rain. In effect, the perfect day for an unexpected trip to the movies.
There’s just something about visiting a new movie theater, or one that’s still close enough to that outta-the-box feeling. And, so, that recent, rainy afternoon meant a ride across the river to the region’s newest tri-plex, in the heart of Granite City. Located at the corner of Niedringhaus and Delmar in the center of Granite’s downtown, the Granite City Cinema is playing it in the popular style, bringing first-run movies to a neighborhood in need of some economic revival.
As many a visitor has noticed, the civic center of Granite City’s been through our nation’s economic changes at a heightened, almost exaggerated, clip. Well before the country’s most recent economic downturn, Granite’s business district took multiple and heavy hits. Big box stores and strip malls cut away the public’s desire to shop at independent retailers, in a more urban context. Heavy industry, long the backbone of Granite, suffered cutbacks, closures, and lost revenues. The feeder businesses to those massive companies took a shot. And even the entertainment options were lost, with the big screen and couch replacing the movie theatre.
All that would suggest now as not the right time to build a moviehouse in a depressed downtown. But in a unique arrangement, Granite City did just that, using development funds to construct the space, then bringing on the local St. Louis Cinemas chain to run the facility.
The GCC is built in a style befitting an urban moviehouse. (And Granite City, as the name implies, really was built as a small city, not a small town, with businesses hugging the streets, many of them a couple stories high.) Though obviously new, the GC Cinema doesn’t look as if it fell from outer space, which happens with a lot of new construction. Notable from the street, too, is a small sign erected just outside the space: No Skateboarding. Obviously, the city knew that kids would find this place an irresistible magnet. They’re welcome, but their boards are not.
In fact, plenty of kids were inside the theatre on our rainy Saturday, most of them buying tickets for the latest comic-to-film adaptation, Thor. In another house, the stadium seats were filled to half capacity for the Kristin Wiig comedy Bridesmaids, which drew a surprisingly older clientele. The lobby was humming with popcorn sales and people were gathered in small clumps outside the actual theatres, doing what people are supposed to be doing in the public space—talking.
On this Saturday afternoon, at least, it appeared as if the theatre was doing what it was supposed to do. Whether it serves as a long-term boon to Granite City’s downtown, or serves as just an isolated, well-intentioned monument to civic and economic change, well... you’ll have to forgive the cliche as: Only time will tell.
(Addendum: for this week’s video, I simply drove the blocks immediately surrounding the Cinema, with my Flip in-hand and out of the window; it was just after Monday’s thunderstorm. Lots of wind-noise to the piece, so turn down your sound. Thinking, though, that the visuals give you a sense of the surrounding blocks better than my words above. Also, I stopped by a tiny bar in the neighborhood, El Gato, which could’ve served as the inspiration of the Mickey Rourke film “Barfly.” Oof. A story for another day...)
Granite City Drive-By from Thomas Crone on Vimeo.
