The Performing Arts Center in downtown White Plains at the top of the City Center mall is in trouble financially, its future murky. It’s a shame but not a surprise. The 410-seat performing arts center opened downtown in 2003, near the more popular movie multiplex. It has struggled to find its niche all along, offering performance and comedy acts that I, as a former White Plains resident, found to be, well, ho-hum.

Then the center’s Board of Trustees hired Jack W. Batman as the artistic director in 2007 to, as my colleague Keith Eddings reported earlier this month, “re-imagine the space as an Equity house for classic musicals.’’ That sounded great, and I really did want to try to get to such a show right in my backyard. But, like too many folks, time, family, job and money were pressing, and opportunities slipped by. Yes, I feel a little guilty. I believe strongly in supporting the arts, and community-based enterprises and businesses.

The center had been supported by a $100,000 annual subsidy from the City of White Plains — and the enthusiasm of Mayor Joseph Delfino, who has controlled a lot of the seats on the center’s board. Yet Delfino has announced he will be stepping down, the city has a multi-million-dollar deficit, and there has been too much political intrigue associated with the center. For example, John Ioris, whom Eddings cites as a “top political operative’’ for the mayor, was appointed by him to the theater’s board in 2006; soon after Ioris became its chairman and president. Meanwhile, the Democrats on the City Council generally aren’t too enthused about Republican Delfino and are hardly jumping forward with a rescue for “his’’ Performing Arts Center.

Like I said, a shame. Put the politics aside. And, yes, times are tough, but it’s hard to believe that a center with 400-plus seats wouldn’t be attractive to everyone from local (and generally excellent) high school theater performers, to administrators planning high school and college graduations, to nonprofits, business groups and industries looking to book seminars, to the larger, and immensely influential, arts community in Westchester and beyond. Look at how popular the Westchester County Center, just across town, is for events, graduations, coin shows and the like.

Here’s hoping that the center survives and thrives. I promise to attend just about anything to show my support. Although I will skip any reptile shows.

Photo: Members of the Allegra Junior Ballet Elite Company perform Granada during “Journey of Hope” the 3rd Annual Dance Benefit for African Children helpd at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in White Plains Jan. 26, 2007. Proceeds from the performance went to the Esther’s Aid For Needy & Abandoned Children Inc. which brings aid to youth in Rwanda and other parts of the world. ( Rory Glaeseman / The Journal News )