Ever notice that ithaca is the non-profit capital of the universe? There are nonprofit movie theaters, nonprofit shrunken head and baskets marts, nonprofit banks, nonprofit hairstylists, nonprofit delis, nonprofit car washes. Nonprofit you name it. There are more nonprofits in Ithaca than Martha Stewart has teaspoons.
Recently, the folks that run the movie theater on the Commons, the local showcase for toney European art flicks, sensitive, heartwrenching, slightly grainy avante-garde psychodramas, etc complain that plans to introduce a first-run cinemax downtown will threaten their existence as a nonprofit. It's not a question of competition, they say. "We're a nonprofit. This is a community service. We make these films in our basement. The director is actually a volunteer from Cannes."
Sounds more like cultural red-lining. None of that Disney shit in our neighborhood.
Did you know that Ten Thousand Villages employs 52 itinerant Ecuadorian basketweavers to keep their shelves filled with high end baskets and handmade toilet seat covers just for the love of free trade? Like those 52 basketweavers all have health insurance plans and 401K's, send their kids to alternative schools and drive Volvos?
Ez has always had a problem with the concept of volunteers moving merchandise in a retail business. Yeah, go past the 10,000 Villages store and you see a sign asking for volunteers. It's sort like the Catholic Church recruiting stockbrokers to say Mass and administer the sacraments. They pick your pocket right after they give you the Last Rites.
Only in ithaca.
The local nonprofit pizza parlor claims to be donating 70% of sales to the San Giacometti Water Conservtion Project. Short for Marco's new heated outdoor swimming pool.
Ben and Jerry's spent years, giving back to the communities in which they did business. Mostly directed towards job training programs. Now dozens of lower income Ithaca youths know the secret of balancing two scoops of Rocky Road ice cream on top of a slender little sugar cone.
Basically the only thing in Ithaca that's for profit anymore is this blogspot.
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 7:59 AM
