Why doesn't BND support reuse?

I saw this editorial in the Belleville News Democrat yesterday: http://www.bnd.com/editorial/story/715304.html.

In the article, the paper advocates the demolition of the old Gateway Hospital building in East St. Louis. This building has been an eyesore for quite sometime, but it probably still could be saved. The building would require a massive rehabilitation and solid investment. The newer section could stand to be demolished, but the original structure should be saved. The newer section really doesn't do justice to the original building. The original has an Art Deco look to it that is really quite classic.

But the editorial also advocates the demolition of the Spivey Building and the Majestic Theater. This bother me. Although I have not personally investigated, I believe that its still possible to save these buildings and rehab them for reuse. It bothers me that the BND would take this position. Why would they not advocate investment in the buildings and the reuse of them? East St. Louis is in dire need of help, and a project like the rehabilitation of Collinsville Avenue would yield new jobs and spur economic growth in dying city. It may be a lofty goal, but rather than simply turning the buildings into vacant lots, why not try to make use of the space and bring some life back to this blighted city?

The paper is a servant to the community, and not getting behind reuse of historically important buildings in any of the towns that it serves is simply irresponsible in my opinion. But then again, I wouldn't really expect more from the BND. I've been pretty much opposed the majority of their editorial position over the last fifteen years or so. But then again I'm one of those lame ass bleeding heart lib-ruls.

Post-Dispatch finally takes an interest in preservation. Kind of...

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today has a series of articles posted on stltoday.com that deal with the architectural preservation of endangered buildings in the metro area.

The only beef I have with these aticles is that it seems like the editors of the P-D approached this in a way that made it seem like they were more interested in the story itself, rather than the subject of the story. I mean, this isn't exactly "news" in the strictest sense of the word... so some journalistic editorializing would've been acceptable in this case. I would have liked to see reporter Diane Toroian Keaggy inject just a wee bit o' personality into her articles in this set. The story she wrote about Thomas Crone and Michael Allen's recent trip to the Armour Meat Packing Plant in East STL was interesting, but her writing was very flat and uninspired. Writer David Bonetti got it a bit more right with his articles. His articles seem to have a little more meat, and therefore make the avereage reader really want to care about these endangered and crumbling buildings.

But really, the fact that the P-D is doing a story, let alone six plus a video, is pretty cool.

Here's a slideshow of some endangered and demolished buildings in the area.

Video of Thomas and Micheal's trip to the Armour Meat Packing facility.

The accompanying story by Diane Toroian Keaggy.

Keaggy's other story about brick thieves on the North Side.

David Bonetti's article about the quest for preservation.

Cheeky "interview" with The Moolah Theater. Not the manager or owner... the actual building.

Bonetti's other article on developer Craig Heller and his vision for downtown living.

What's also cool is that the P-D gives a shout out for Ecolgy of Absence and Built St. Louis, two of my favorite sites dedicated to documenting the city in which we live.

Hopefully more people will understand just what is at stake here, and demand more from our elected officials. Better still, let's hope that the residents of STL realize that a large part of the solution rests in their hands. The politicians can only do so much. We as a community need to attack the problem of decay and entropy together, in addition to fighting vociferously any plans to tear down historic buildings so that Walgreens can build yet another store. And above all else, let's hope that more and more people document- either by photo, video or the written word- this beautiful city and its beautiful landscape.

Now if you'll excuse me... I'm off to take some pictures.