Historical October 1976 letter opposing aspects of the proposed Historic District; financial examples and predicted effects are the writer’s argument.
To the Editors of the PAPER The paper reported that the vote taken at the June 24 meeting of RNA on the proposed Historic • District ordinance turned out to be 8:1 in favor of the idea. One might get the impression that all the good arguments were on the side of the majority, but that is decidedly not so. I think preservation of well-built structures such as those which survived in our neighborhood is an excellent idea although I’m a little surprised at the way the honest use of modern materials is contemptuously dismissed as “motel architecture” and that the pretentious ornamentation which my parents rebelled against is suddenly becoming high fashion. But if the Historic District ordinance were nothing more than an innocent manifestation of the current nostalgia fad, I certainly would not squawk about it. In spite of assurance from the Historic District Committee that everyone connected with the proposed ordinance will be sweet and reasonable, I am convinced that someone is going to get hurt as a result of this legislation.
If the ordinance is all that painless why would you need it in the first place? Let me illustrate.
If the historic district goes through, then at some time a builder will have his project shot down by the city because his plans call for a “motel style” apartment building, and since that is all he can afford to build an empty lot will remain empty. Some time soon after the ordinance is passed a neighbor of ours. will be given a summons to straighten out the leaning columns on his wooden porch. When he looks over the repair job he has to do, he immediately realized that he can’t save the porch platform because the wood has rotted through and through. In the past he could have torn down the porch and replaced it with a relatively inexpensive set of stairs. Now he must shore up the portico, remove the columns, tear down the rotten porch platform, and replace the columns and portico only after having rebuilt the porch platform with new lumber on a sound foundation. Our unfortunate neighbor is looking at a $2,000 repair! The chances are he has already been tagged by the building inspector prior to the porch incident. Let’s say he needs tuckpointing and maybe a few plumbing and electrical code violations need to be straightened out for a total bill of $1,000. Our neighbor might have obtained the money for the previous repairs, but there is no chance at all for him to get $3,000. So he ignores the complaints or maybe he strings along the city officials by doing a few odds and ends just to show them he’s trying. After a year or so of no action, the city finally gets tough. Does our neighbor rebuild his porch now that he’s threatened with condemnation proceedings? Of course not! He can barely meet his mortgage payments. But there is a way out: he can sell the place. Since real estate values in this neighborhood have risen, he gets slightly more money than he paid for his house, enough to start home ownership somewhere else, where he won’t he hassled by city inspectors, let’s say in North St. Louis or Wellston, or maybe University City north of Olive. Of course it won’t be an integrated neighborhood like the one he just left, but then you have to break eggs to make an omelette, don’t you. That’s some omelette we’re preparing for this neighborhood! The Historic District ordinance would start a trend away from today’s friendly, open, integrated community so hospitable to all sorts of incomes and lifestyles and point us back toward the exclusiveness of the “fashionable West End” of World’s Fair days. Does anyone really want a return to yesterday’s snobbishness?
Originally published in The Paper, October 1976.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1976_10.pdf, printed page(s) 2; PDF page(s) 2.
