tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post751224903445884550..comments2024-03-25T17:49:41.408-07:00Comments on Salem Breakfast on Bikes: Transition on Keizer's Pugh House Suggests Questions on State StreetSalem Breakfast on Bikeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15618055627843335993noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post-88931853490223281372018-07-24T18:37:11.028-07:002018-07-24T18:37:11.028-07:00And here's a more specific discussion of Liber...And here's <a href="http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/2018/07/from-carpenter-gothic-to-masonry-mixed-use-transition-on-liberty-street.html" rel="nofollow">a more specific discussion of Liberty between State and Court</a> to make some of those points in a more concrete way.Salem Breakfast on Bikeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15618055627843335993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post-26875681444342157022018-07-23T17:54:26.465-07:002018-07-23T17:54:26.465-07:00It's hard to find a nuanced position!
On the ...It's hard to find a nuanced position!<br /><br />On the one hand, historic preservation is important and we have lately done a lousy job with it. Most of the demolitions have resulted in empty fields, empty gravel lots, and craters. Going from a building, even an empty one, to an even emptier field or parking lot is a terrible transition in land use.<br /><br />On the other hand, take the 245 Court Street project, the mixed use apartments that replaced the old Safeway.<br /><br />That's an excellent transition!<br /><br />So there are important cases when "some modern building" is a definite improvement over an older building.<br /><br />This can be true even when it's an older home. Sometimes historic preservation is used too much for exclusionary ends. The older neighborhoods that are in the streetcar era grid are among the most walkable, and if we are serious about urban walkability, about reducing drive-alone car trips, and about reducing our carbon footprints, we will want to make it possible for larger numbers of people to live in these walkable neighborhoods.<br /><br />That almost certainly means some amount of replacement of older single-family housing and older buildings.<br /><br />Scale matters.<br /><br />A 1:1 tear-down demolition for a larger, fancier house is too often just a waste.<br /><br />A 1:4 or 1:8 demolition for missing middle kinds of housing is something we have to think about very seriously.<br /><br />On State Street and other corridors, a 1:20 demolition for an apartment block is potentially very valuable.<br /><br />The argument on aesthetics, that a new larger building might "stick out like a sore thumb," sometimes is swamped by a kind of moral argument, that we need to house people in places that don't enforce compulsory autoism. Remember the way <a href="http://breakfastonbikes.blogspot.com/2018/06/1920s-deed-restrictions-as-precursor-to-single-family-zoning.html" rel="nofollow">the early 20th century deed restrictions were often shaped on aesthetics</a>. Moreover, the argument on aesthetics is generally made invisible or moot over time. The jumble of building styles in our Downtown Historic District was at one time full of jarring contrasts, but now we have absorbed the stylistic differences into a general notion of vintageness. Moreover, we went through a wave of demolitions on Victorian houses because they were ugly and gaudy; now we wish we still had them. <br /><br />We should always subject this kind of aesthetic judgement about neighborhood character to higher standards of proof!Salem Breakfast on Bikeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15618055627843335993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5666195730630249633.post-72787346730785291452018-07-23T05:51:32.630-07:002018-07-23T05:51:32.630-07:00There are some nice older homes on State Street th...There are some nice older homes on State Street that may not be on the historic register, but they have been renovated and lovingly restored. I think some are still residences, but many are serving as businesses. It would be a shame to lose them. <br /><br />One of the smartest thing Salem did was to force the preservation of the homes on South Commercial between Mission and Rural. Every time we lose one of those houses, we lose a part of what makes Salem so interesting and livable.<br /><br />I hate to see when an older home is torn down and some 'modern' building is put in its place. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Example at the corner of State and 22nd where the house was replaced with that 'modern' glass store front of the 60s style. No charm and never felt to be part of the community. Even the modern HOPE Orthopedic Center is problematic to my vision of what we should aspire to in that area.Susann Kaltwassernoreply@blogger.com