Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]> Received: from relay23.mx.aol.com (relay23.mail.aol.com [172.31.106.69]) by air17.mail.aol.com (v43.17) with SMTP; Fri, 22 May 1998 08:22:35 -0400 Received: from majordomo.netcom.com ([206.217.29.105]) by relay23.mx.aol.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id IAA23436; Fri, 22 May 1998 08:22:24 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by majordomo.netcom.com (8.8.5-r-beta/8.8.5/(NETCOM v1.01)) id FAA27798; Fri, 22 May 1998 05:17:26 -0700 (PDT) From: DRypkema <[log in to unmask]> Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 08:16:14 EDT To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Economics of Preservation X-Mailer: Casablanca - Windows sub 170 Sender: [log in to unmask] Errors-To: [log in to unmask] Precedence: bulk Reply-To: [log in to unmask] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Ilene Tyler writes "Well, friends, it was depressing, as I expected, and we lost another building to the pressures of economic threats and ignorance....." A sad but all too common tale. Again, the economic arguments for historic preservation are far less important than the cultural, aesthetic, sociological, historical or psychological ones. But while we preservationists are making those arguments to each other and to the garden club, buildings are being lost for economic reasons. That's why the premise that "too much time is being spent making the economic case at the expense of the other reasons for preservation" misses the point. In the Platonic world of the ideal the economic arguments have little or no significance. But in the real world of the bulldozer those who have the authority to make decisions (elected officials, building owners, bankers, the real estate community) listen first to the economic arguments. If there were really too much time being spent on preservation economic analysis then there would be far less of the "...economic threats and ignorance" Ilene writes about. Sorry about the lost battle, Ilene. You probably know about the incorporation of a wonderful Deco bus station here in Washington into a new development. It might be worth at least a photograph of how that can be successfully accomplished for your next challenge. Donovan D. Rypkema