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Editorial: Who’ll run the Greek Theatre?

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For four decades, the Nederlander Organization has operated the Greek Theatre, a beloved music venue built in 1929 and owned by the city of Los Angeles. Now, a year before its current contract expires, Nederlander has partnered with AEG Live to compete against Live Nation Worldwide to win a renewal for the next 10 years, with a possibility of two five-year extensions.

After the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks hired an outside firm to evaluate the competitors and scored Live Nation significantly higher than Nederlander, the bidding turned into a brawl. Nederlander assailed the scoring system, noting that its proposal guaranteed $77 million for the city over two decades while Live Nation was promising only $60 million. Nederlander started a petition for community support and set up a website, wearethegreek.com. Live Nation, for its part, accused Nederlander of “mounting a campaign of misinformation” and noted that it proposed to spend more on much-needed renovations to the historic theater than Nederlander would.

Meanwhile, some local civic groups say that Nederlander has prevented the Greek from encroaching on the safety or quiet of the neighborhood, and some residents worry that Live Nation — which put on the Made in America extravaganza downtown over the Labor Day weekend — would bring in noisy acts and turn the Greek into a Grand Park-like festival site. Live Nation officials say that in all their venues they make sure the musical acts they book don’t overwhelm the neighborhoods.

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It’s fine for businesses to slug it out over lucrative city contracts. And city officials should take residents’ concerns seriously. But it’s not good for the city’s choice to become hyper-politicized. There was controversy over the awarding of the contract in 2000. This time, the city hired the independent firm Strategic Advisory Group to score the two companies; the firm gave Live Nation more points, largely because it pledged to spend $40 million renovating the venue over two decades as compared with Nederlander/AEG’s approximately $19 million.

The outside evaluation was commissioned to keep this contract award relatively insulated from political jockeying, pandering and lobbying. Yes, when the Recreation and Parks commissioners meet on Thursday — and later, the members of the City Council and the mayor — they have the right to reject the findings of Strategic Advisory Group if, say, they disagree with the way the scoring was done or anything else in the process.

But if they do, they should explain their reasoning clearly so Angelenos can be sure the process was fair and effective.

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