Hollywood Diner operator gets reprieve from Board of Estimates
Board agrees to withdraw the termination of Richard White’s lease. Rawlings-Blake voices objections, describes diner’s business plan “a failing model.”
Above: Richard White (left) and his supporters stand in front of City Hall prior to their attendance at today’s Board of Estimates meeting.
During the informal session before today’s Board of Estimates meeting, top city officials agreed to withdraw the termination of Richard White’s lease on the Hollywood Diner and give him more time to improve its financial performance.
The board’s decision amounted to a repudiation of a report, submitted to the panel on Monday, asserting that White had voluntarily asked to close his operation of the chrome-clad restaurant made famous in Barry Levinson’s movie “Diner.”
White yesterday told The Brew that he had never agreed to a termination and wanted to stay at least to the end of his 18-month lease to develop his youth training program.
City Comptroller Joan Pratt, whose real estate office suggested the lease termination, said she strongly favored letting White continue after meeting with him on Monday.
At the board’s pre-session – which is held before the public meeting and which this reporter attended – Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake seemed surprised and displeased by the comptroller’s position.
Mayor Says Current Operation Not Sustainable
“I got a briefing document, and it said the lease will be terminated,” the mayor told Pratt upon hearing the news. Pratt said that White would instead continue his operation and provide her office with month-to-month progress reports.
“He needs some money. He needs to pay his bills. A non-profit will help him, and there is a tentative commitment for a grant by the Abell Foundation,” Pratt responded.
Rawlings-Blake said, “We should be realistic and plan for – there were concerns raised about [the] capacity, capital and ability [of the diner] and these concerns have come to light. I don’t think we are doing [him] a service not to have a date by which we have an evaluation.”
She added, “When will we acknowledge it won’t work, that this is a failing model?”
“We need to look at the financials,” Pratt agreed, but said she was a strong supporter of the diner’s purpose to train students in food services as well as make enough money to pay the city’s rent of $700 a month.
“I would encourage us to make a decision in three to six months,” Rawlings-Blake concluded. “Month-to-month is a death by a thousand cuts.”
At the public meeting, the board’s clerk announced that the passage in the report saying that White would terminate his lease within 90 days would be withdrawn from the record.
Hollywood Diner’s supporters today. From left, Richard White, Nina White (partly obscured), Tina Griffin, Larrell Campbell, Beth Ebby, Charles Perlie, David Rice, Bryan Kennedy and Amber Wilson. (Photo by Mark Reutter)
“I Love You”
White was allowed to address the board, whose elected officials are Rawlings-Blake, Pratt and City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young.
He said he had been employed at the diner when the program was started by then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer, and it helped turn around his life. He said he is now dedicated to using the diner to provide opportunities for “at-risk” young adults.
“I know this is a daunting task,” he told the board. “We need your support to empower these youths.”
White then told the mayor: “I love you. Stop in and say hello to them [the student employees]. Let them know we have your support.”
The mayor smiled but did not publicly respond.