In a recent (Jan. 26) update to our petition page we encouraged supporters to contact the Menlo Park City Council about its “goals setting” meeting on Jan 29 -- or if a local Guild supporter, to come to the meeting, where residents had 3 min. each to express their views on key projects for the city in 2018. Thank you for your support! Of special interest to us was the new non-profit group, the Peninsula Arts Guild’s proposal for the Guild property. The proposal is the first substantial one we have seen in our efforts to find city support and/or “angel investors” to save the theater once we learned in 2016 that the property might be redeveloped for another purpose, or even demolished, the fate of the owner’s other Menlo Park theater down the street several years ago. As we mentioned in our recent update, the key element of the Peninsula Arts Guild proposal is to renovate (or redevelop) the site a "state-of-the-art" venue for live entertainment. Their proposal includes other programming options and opportunities to the community as rental space for "arts" activities, and in terms of film, they expressed an interest in “Retaining the ability to show movies” as a priority, but they weren’t sure that the theater “would be able to continue to offer first-run movies”. This comment, reported in our local paper, the Almanac, motivated us to contact the President of the Peninsula Arts Guild, Drew Dunlevie, and to speak for our petition supporters to urge that the “new Guild” more thoroughly integrate programming, beyond their proposed speakers series and film festivals, by incorporating a regular schedule of the type of films the Guild now features into their venue, to balance their live entertainment and other programming. We have urged the non-profit to use their experience in the movie industry and in film distribution, and their entrepreneurial spirit to find a way to do what the Guild has been doing for many years, securing films that draw movie lovers to the “smaller” indie and foreign films on their schedule. The Guild still draws full house attendance of discerning film buffs, such as at recent screenings of “Ladybird” and “Ransom Thread” and the screening of other Oscar contenders (and winners) through a month-to-month agreement with Landmark Theaters. Other film distributors are possible sources. A successfully “curated” schedule of films at a shiny new facility, not the admittedly “funky” Guild building, we're confident, will be a success, paired with the live-entertainment options. The other development relevant to the future of the Guild, is that at the same meeting last Friday, when the City Council gave a "go-ahead" to the “new Guild” proposal, it also committed to a related city project, an underground parking garage with a multi-screen theater at street level. This other project is an effort to alleviate current and future parking problems, but it will also bring mainstream movies to increase the appeal of our central downtown shopping “district” and restaurants a few blocks from the Guild. The combination of these two projects, a new live entertainment venue that also offers a complementary full schedule of arts and indie films, and a multi-screen theater with more “conventional” movies, can be a win-win combination to ensure that both kinds of films will be available to our residents and those in neighboring cities, and bring new life – and revenue - to Menlo Park. We can “be on the map” for movie lovers of both types of films. Our work is not over just because these two projects have been given the City Councils "approval." There will be various zoning and parking issues, as complete renovation/construction plans are submitted to the city, and construction begins. All these will knock the Guild out of commission for months. The other Landmark theater in the vicinity, Palo Alto's Aquarius, will be available in that interim to fill the gap. But the restoration of the core business of the Guild, its regularly scheduled distinctive films, will be back if the "new Guild" restores them to the community as part of its venue. Menlo Park deserves its own theater(s) and we hope to have restored to us regularly booked films of the sort now shown at the Guild, AND a multi-screen theater as well for different, more mainstream films. Surrounding cities and Stanford will find it easy to choose Menlo Park as a destination for both types of movies, support our shops and restaurants, and find the books the movies are based on at Keplers. With both the Aquarius and the "new Guild" in business, we will have the varied film options we've become accustomed to. The theaters have always partnered to give us a greater variety of films than either of the single theaters can provide. Our priority now is to work with the Peninsula Arts Guild to achieve our goals for the “new Guild” on behalf of our more than 4000 petition supporters. We may lose the building, but we stand against losing the spirit and the film options that the Guild has provided. I just sent a file to the PAG with the comments about the survival of small, often single screen theaters with the type of film offerings the Guild now provides from local residents and former residents on our petition page (of the 1514 online comments) - although it doesn't include all the more recent comments. And we have the print petitions of the rest of our supporters collected at the theater too. That's a community endorsement and appreciation of films of a special sort that we feel will enjoy a renaissance, especially with a new venue! We ask that you send comments and suggestions to our email address: saveguildtheater@yahoo.com, so that we can continue work with the new non-profit to expand their film programming. While we recognize the new life that will come to our downtown with a live entertainment venue, we urge the Peninsula Arts Guild to keep the heart of the Guild's programming as well. We honor the best of the past and the promise of the future.