Friday in Bluefield, WV, the front of an old downtown hotel collapsed. It was over 90 years old, but little used over the past 20 years. People were trying to save it since it was once part of the downtown district and held lots of good memories of busier days.
How many old buildings do we need to remember those days? Should you just focus on a few buildings of most import and allow the others to be torn down?
Driving through West Virginia, you can see lots of buildings that have fallen into disrepair since the last coal boom of the late 1970s. Is it in the greater good to leave them standing, or is it better to tear them down and leave a vacant lot behind? If the owners stuck with buildings that are nearly worthless, what should happen?
With money tight in the near future, nostalgia probably isn't the best way to go in making these decisions. Fiscal reality should focus our priorities, and government needs to listen to those priorities.
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