Mostly Semantics

So, I saw this tragic story in the Post about a beautiful elderly couple who are heartlessly denied the ramp they need to access their home due to ‘historic preservation’ and I thought I should comment because, well, I happen to live on their block. I thought maybe I would get to it before Rusty, but he is a man who covers his beat pretty thoroughly. Thanks for the link by the way, and welcome, traffic! Then I read his post and realized he did not actually have the exact same take as me, so I feel justified in using this to wake me up from my blogging dormancy.

Obviously the city is in the wrong here, but what I can add is that it’s patently ridiculous to deny them their necessary capital improvements (their access ramp, for chrissake) when a stroll down the street will make it painfully obvious that the city has no real interest in historic preservation. It’s a beautiful block, and it’s a great neighborhood overall, but there are blatantly crumbling facades - whole brick columns collapsed and the like. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll update with photos. The city isn’t exactly tripping over itself to fix this. It’s apparent that the city is just interested in doing as little as possible, not in historic preservation. Rusty does a pretty good job of continually demonstrating this, but to throw in with him, it’s pretty apparent that the city’s default position is one of obstruction and inaction. I’m not sure what, exactly, it costs the city to let them put in their ramp, but it’s the only reason I can think of that they would deny these people access to the outside world - it sure ain’t historic preservation.

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