City Restoration

The downtown was, at one point, a site of commerace and architecture. If you look up at the tops of the older buildings you get to take a peak into what buildings were like when the city was built. Now days almost every store that is constructed is only one floor, making it easier for the owners to keep tabs on who is there and control the flow of people coming and going. The granite building front has been left behind for the rectangular Super Wal-Mart.

Now there is a movement by historians, architects and ecologists to restore the store fronts that are down town before they are lost. Contractors have been hired to turn the upstairs of the downtown stores into residential appartments.

Those who oppose this are the people who want to see the downtown revitalized, but modrenized at the same time. They want to cover up the old architecture of the store fronts and bring down some buildings to put new ones up.

The people who support restoration are Bain and Mattox, who have both definately said they want a more vibrant and restored downtown. Hentz and Scheurmann are both against the projects, citing more important concerns must be put forth and that we need to bring the city into the new. Jungsworth and Poeschl both seem to have no stand on the issue, and Poeschl actually seems to not have much of a platform at all. Jungsworth sees the downtown as being fine as is.

This is a key issue: should we repair the downtown and if so for what use? OR should we ignore the issue and put in new projects, concentrating on modern forum and such? There are competing views on the topic, so there is definately an issue here. Hopefully something will be broached at tonights debate.