In an antipodean message, you write:

<< So if we pursue Ralph's line of thought, I guess that means that after all
the repair operations have failed, we just have to let these grand old ladies
die, before sending them to the great architectural museum in the sky ...  >>


Wait a minute.  Percentage-wise, if New Yorkers spend $1,000,000/year on the
brownstone-stucco-industrial complex, just what percentage of that is real
repair/conservation?  This (paper-pusher's) eyeball tells him most is
cosmetic.

Christopher Gray, who threw up the first thing he did when he moved to NY
(age 9)