The down side of historic preservation

I love “historic preservation.” After all, preservation, conservation and confirming what was good in the past is what conservative politics means. It represents what is often years of work and lobbying by local groups.

But there is a down side of unintended (or sometimes intended) consequences. There is no place for the poor or low income in historic, authentic neighborhoods, whether it’s Lakeside, Ohio, the German Village area of Columbus, Bay Point, Michigan, or Williamsburg, Virginia. Even if the government (assuming it is done with government grants) has set asides for low income, the requirements would mean a low income resident would lose his home if his income rises, and it won’t bring back the former residents now scattered through subsidized housing--it will only draw new “poor.” Nor is there any way you can require that your next door neighbor on government assistance or who is a plumber's assistant with a 25 year old truck, will necessarily have the values of the rest of the "preservationists."

A case in point is the restoration and renovation of The Abigail Tearoom (1933-2008). I used to suspect that the wallpaper (pieces of which are for sale at the Archives) and grape vines were holding it together. We had many wonderful meals there from 1974 until it was sold and then closed and auctioned, purchased by a young, talented architect. The meals were not gourmet, but ham loaf, stuffed green peppers and Swiss steak tasted pretty good there topped off with home made peach pie, or Mississippi Mud cake. The Abigail was two houses--one on Central built in the classic 19th c. style, and one on Third, a former boarding house with sleeping porches. The two houses were probably only about 2 feet apart, so a passage was built, and a kitchen tacked on to the rear.

The 20th c. house has been finished, staged, and is for sale--for $549,000. The other one which is still a work in progress will have 5 bedrooms, a family room, huge bathrooms, a lovely patio and landscaping, plus all the amenities today’s family thinks it needs, and will probably be around a million. Not even school teacher DINKS will be able to afford such a home--it will need to be lawyer, businessman, funds manager with a stay at home wife, and some money in the family tree that will fall when shaken.

These renovations are private money, but there are always tax credits for “green” and energy efficient appliances and building innovations, even insulation, which most cottages don’t have. Tax credits are also something only the well off can afford--like cash for clunkers and home insulation breaks. And what they truly cost after they pass from the tax payer in Ohio to the agency in Washington which will redistribute the money though dozens of agencies and the paychecks of bureaucrats, to the appliance dealer who has to fill out the paperwork and the owner’s accountant who has to figure it all out next April, with several forms, each costing you. Home mortgage “loopholes” are something we’ve all come to expect, but which the low income can’t really qualify for. At least I hope we've learned from the last housing bubble that tried that and crippled the nation economically.