Even though I grew up in the 70s, as I have gotten older I have found that the 60s and 70s were about the worst decades ever in terms of crappy development in urban areas. During that time period, tons of great old buildings were torn down to make room for surface parking lots and many empty lots in beautiful historic neighborhoods were used to build crappy 1970s-style duplexes that completely don't fit into the neighborhoods they're in.
I keep thinking we have learned something about urban development in that amount of time...but apparently not so much. Late last week someone started breaking ground on a new 1970s-style duplex that will sit on a previously vacant lot in the middle of an historic boulevard. So, in the middle of a whole bunch of 1920s beautiful art-deco buildings, a brand new, 1970s-style duplex is going to get plopped down in the middle of it.
I really had thought that we had learned enough about building new homes in old neighborhoods that there would be some type of requirement to at least attempt to make new construction fit in to old neighborhoods. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem the case. So while one block down, two apartment buildings are required to spend millions in refacing their buildings to be sure they maintain their historical facing on this historical boulevard, this new ugly duplex is going to go in.
It doesn't make sense...and once again the city has failed to maintain the integrity of its older neighborhoods. You'd have thought we'd learned....
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