it is quickly apparent that John Gilderbloom's statistics (about how historic
preservation leads to lower rental prices) are irrelevant in Philly, because
his statistics were for an area where historic preservation created
additional triplexes and prevented the construction of more expensive
apartment buildings with 100+ units.
Correct ... and especially interesting because at last night's astonishingly well-attended (over 100, I lost count, but it was SRO by about 8:00 pm) open community meeting (at which Chris Card was the only SHCA Board Member I saw who bothered to show up in the audience and get a chance to hear what people outside the insiders' clique might think or care about), Matt Wolfe made a case FOR the "nomination" and used this as one of his key arguments.
In the past 30 years, the only demolitions I can remember other than because of extensive fire damage and Mill Creek or other apparently irremedial structural problems were: a) Penn, of course (over protests by the people in the neighborhood), b) the 4500 block of Walnut where some one-story stores and two derelict apartment-hotels were razed to build the Mercy-Douglas assisted living complex & the 4500 block of Chestnut where some derelict apartment buildings (not 'original home' conversions) were also razed for a Mercy Douglas facility, c) the property at 43rd & Market which SHCA brazenly and ignorantly or disingenuously said "the community" favored as a site for a MacDonalds over the strong protests of the people in the area and the community at large, and d) whatever (I forget) was at 42nd & Chestnut where the 7-11 and Indo-Asian store are now.
So, as Richard noted -- and as I reminded Matt last night -- this argument has essentially nothing to do with our neighborhood. Of course, it actually discusses the trade-off between rehab of derelict buildings housing versus demolition in favor of high-rise complexes. I think we'd all agree that we'd object to this in Spruce Hill (Penn campus notwithstanding) were there more than the odd derelict building being held by a highly atypical owner for purposes of economic rent seeking. But that's not the point of the opposition to the Historic Homologation hysteria at all. The point is arbitrary, irrelevant, and often frivolous dictates by a bunch of bureaucrats that will raise the cost and complexity of simple maintenance and repair work while disallowing for personal preferences and exposing people to dime-dropping by self righteous or mean spirited people who happen to have different taste, world views, or lifestyles.
Al Krigman
