'Architectural nervous breakdown'
The other day, an acquaintance stopped me as I was walking down the street, and he asked me how he could sign up to run for commissioner. It was interesting to see another person who is interested in the job, I don't remember this many people running for this one particular office before. I asked him why he wanted to run, his main reason was that we needed a change. "The Grove has been sold out and we need to stop it now," he said.
He then went on to list so many changes in the Grove. He asked me how we can stop one company from buying everything up in the village and how we can stop them from throwing all the businesses out. I told them we can't. He didn't like that answer.
Others have approached me about the changes. They have emailed me and stopped me in the street and asked me what we can do. We can't do anything. Hopefully the next commissioner will do something to take some sort of control over the village before it is too late. But I think it already is.
The Grove is having an "architectural nervous breakdown." I heard a lady on tv refer to Sunset Drive in Hollywood,CA like that. They are having the same challenges as we are, so is New York City and I think Philadelphia is really bad when it comes to new structures taking the place of historic structures; according to what I read you receive a 10 year tax credit or something for building new and up. And all these new pencil buildings planned for NYC are going to destroy that skyline, too.
Do people fear change? I don't think so, I think people move into an area or neighborhood and expect the neighborhood to remain and not be sold out to the highest bidder.
He then went on to list so many changes in the Grove. He asked me how we can stop one company from buying everything up in the village and how we can stop them from throwing all the businesses out. I told them we can't. He didn't like that answer.
Others have approached me about the changes. They have emailed me and stopped me in the street and asked me what we can do. We can't do anything. Hopefully the next commissioner will do something to take some sort of control over the village before it is too late. But I think it already is.
The Grove is having an "architectural nervous breakdown." I heard a lady on tv refer to Sunset Drive in Hollywood,CA like that. They are having the same challenges as we are, so is New York City and I think Philadelphia is really bad when it comes to new structures taking the place of historic structures; according to what I read you receive a 10 year tax credit or something for building new and up. And all these new pencil buildings planned for NYC are going to destroy that skyline, too.
Do people fear change? I don't think so, I think people move into an area or neighborhood and expect the neighborhood to remain and not be sold out to the highest bidder.
posted by Tom Falco at 5:00 AM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
2 Comments:
The answer has been out since last election, GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS & ELECTIONS. Now there is a movement lead by Wolf PAC with the mission to "ending corporate personhood and publicly financing all elections in our country." Reclaim democracy, it had been predicted a long time ago that after industrial revolution the middle class based democracy would be wiped out and replaced with classic oligarchy. GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS. It used to be called bribery, now it is perfectly legal.
Every generation has a right to express itself in the built environment. The problem is that we have no Architectural Review Board in the Grove: no visual standards, nothing. As long as it conforms to code, up it goes. It's a freewheeling Wild West show.
If we want to maintain an intimate, human scale, though, code compliance is not enough. With a good ARB, new construction could add the right flavor to our streetscapes. But would we tolerate authority and oversight?
Post a Comment
<< Home