God is Change.
Octavia E. Butler

It is the year 2040 and it’s been years and years of debates now regarding my future. There were plans to refurbish my body and restore it, then plans to divide me into a few houses, or rebuild me, temporarily, at the outskirts of the city. The arguments were loud. From one side people shouted: Times have changed – demolish! From the other: The past is the future – preserve! Initiatives in favor of keeping me as a site of historical and cultural significance clashed with initiatives for using the land on which I was built for affordable housing. Activists collected signatures and brought my future to a referendum – This building used to be vivid, these stages used to be fully booked, but accept it – not anymore! Everybody had an opinion: local and state officials, city planners, environmental activists, people who loved me, people who despised me, people for whom I was a home, people who couldn’t afford a ticket and hadn’t walked through my doors even once in their lives. They all gave speeches or told their personal stories and didn’t stop arguing whether I should be restored or left behind,...