tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post7575351446794124317..comments2024-03-28T17:55:31.180-04:00Comments on The Gossips of Rivertown: Another Perspective: Save Bliss TowerCarole Osterinkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16010623982526286408noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-45118229515617562572010-09-06T16:12:37.715-04:002010-09-06T16:12:37.715-04:00Sam-
Thanks for reading the post and proffering s...Sam-<br /><br />Thanks for reading the post and proffering some words, I appreciate your input. I certainly hope you'll join me in standing against the bulldozers. <br /><br />Although I wonder how some of my points became so lost in translation, and I feel compelled to correct the record. Firstly, the implication that you can derive an argument for preserving "all old buildings" in my point about Preservation & Bliss Tower is a willful obfuscation of the facts; there was no such inference made. The wal-mart/park example you offered is frankly wildly sensational & extraordinarily unnecessary. It helps cloud a very real Threat not only to the hi-rise but a large number of mid-19th century wood frames, a community garden, and countless infill opportunities. It aptly demonstrates a tactic used quite often against preservation. The future (and past) of the 2nd Ward should be given the opportunity to grow organically - not through the lens of another misguided "Urban Renewal" project. The plan as it stands is truly a nightmare scenario for Hudson. I certainly think we can both agree on that. I hope you, and other politically enlightened citizens of Hudson will stand with me and stop this from happening.David Marstonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17805425229362358449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-84175553191032643532010-09-03T19:16:32.673-04:002010-09-03T19:16:32.673-04:00That's exactly right, Jock. Those are the ques...That's exactly right, Jock. Those are the questions we need to have answered. The logistics baffle me.Carole Osterinkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16010623982526286408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-64097735556627397452010-09-03T19:00:31.743-04:002010-09-03T19:00:31.743-04:00The proposed plan sounds crazy Carole, I quite agr...The proposed plan sounds crazy Carole, I quite agree. <br /><br />What I was trying to say is that Pruitt Igoe was a terrible form of low-income housing, an utter failure. Bliss Tower strikes me as a small-scale version of Pruitt Igoe (high rise, etc.).<br /><br />A better form of housing is the "Oxford college" model. Maybe if Bliss Tower comes down, that form of housing could replace it, on the current Bliss Tower site.<br /><br />To build on 66 parcels in the meantime, throughout Hudson, seems insane (IMHO).<br /><br />And what happens to the 66 units after Bliss Tower is replaced by Bliss College or whatever? Do 132 new poor families get imported into Hudson to keep the buildings occupied?<br /><br />I guess these are the kind of questions you're trying to get answers to. I don't envy you.<br /><br />-- Jock SpivySamuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16548850334066788444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-56861553072281476632010-09-03T18:45:47.926-04:002010-09-03T18:45:47.926-04:00Just for the record, Jock, what's being propos...Just for the record, Jock, what's being proposed for Hudson is not five-story buildings built around courtyards but two-story, two-unit freestanding buildings--66 of them if they're to equal the number of units in Bliss Towers--built on various sites throughout the city. That's not density. <br /><br />In a city as small as Hudson, it's nuts to think of willingly surrendering that much land area to tax exempt housing. If each building sits on what is a traditional Hudson building lot--26 x 120 feet--that's five acres! Five acres in a city whose total area, if you don't count the prison, the Firemen's Home, and the North and South Bays, is not two square miles but something closer to one and a quarter square miles, if memory serves.Carole Osterinkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16010623982526286408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-45480536661746519042010-09-03T15:07:36.881-04:002010-09-03T15:07:36.881-04:00I don't understand the reference to Pruitt Igo...I don't understand the reference to Pruitt Igoe in Paragraph 1. I grew up in St. Louis and remember what a horror Pruitt Igoe was -- the perfect form of an "urban renewal" slum.<br /><br />Is he suggesting that Pruitt Igoe should have been preserved? Does he think Pruitt Igoe was a success? It caused decades of terrible problems for the City of St. Louis.<br /><br />I thought there was all kinds of data now to say that low-rise public housing (five stories tall, built around courtyards like Oxford or Yale colleges) provides the same housing density with much better social dynamics than high-rise buildings in the middle of a plaza, like Pruitt Igoe.<br /><br />-- Jock SpivySamuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16548850334066788444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723709701684173708.post-4905968996198873282010-09-03T07:24:23.425-04:002010-09-03T07:24:23.425-04:00The Historical Room at the Hudson library also use...The Historical Room at the Hudson library also used to have renderings of the City fathers' original planning goal from that era -- to put three towers on the Promenade.<br /><br />There are some solid points above (particularly about renovation being far greener than new construction). But I'm not sure the preservation movement has ever been about keeping *all* old buildings, regardless of merit. There may be an argument for such an ideology, but it's not one I've ever heard around here.<br /><br />For example, if the former Wal-Mart on Fairview Avenue remains empty for another 20 years, and then someone wants to demolish it to create a park, should it be preserved to remind us of the era in American commerce when cheaply-produced goods from China dominated the consumer landscape and big box stores decimated Main Streets?<br /><br />I'm all for extending the definition of preservation to sites like the Fugary Boat Club, which is a unique local landmark that may not fit the standard image of preservationists protecting handsome brick buildings, but is unique in the region.<br /><br />--Sam PrattAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com