In a message dated 1/31/98 4:17:55 PM EST, [log in to unmask] writes:

> We have just finished four of the five planned neighborhood meetings and
>  will be putting together our recommendations by March.  I will keep you
>  informed.  I will contact this fellow for information exchange.
>

Leland:

Sounds like good "case study" information for Bradford White.  New Haven
certainly has had its difficulties in the preservation department.  What is
the National Preservation Trust?  Is the Liveable Cities Initiative state or
federal? (Christie Whitman's answer to livable cities last year was a $20
million revolving loan fund for demolition -- although it was available for
rural areas as well. I hope she means what she said in her State of the State
speech about the importance of the environment and the State Master Plan!)

The windows problem is a difficult one for any kind of affordable rehab. I
have run into it most recently in historic school buildings in Montclair, NJ
-- use and reuse.  Being publicly owned, money is a big concern (NJ local
governments are strapped for funds these days), and lead abatement and thermal
efficiency also rate high on the list of priorities.

Arguments in favor of preserving historic integrity fall flat in the face of
these public needs, even though we always try to direct them to expertise that
would clean up the sashes and retrofit some form of double glazing or interior
storm system.  They don't like to mess around with rehab -- they don't know
enough, and it takes too much time for what they see as minimal benefit.

The result:  wholesale replacement of all of the historic windows in NR-
eligible and potentially eligible (Van Vleck & Goldsmith; Starrett & Van
Vleck) schoolbuildings with "cost effective" but seriously inappropriate ones.
Not an affordable housing story, nor a rehab tax credit story, but a question
of "affordability" nonetheless and one on which preservation advocates often
seem to be on the losing side.

Thanks for the information on New Haven.  A huge challenge.

Mary Krugman