Quote Originally Posted by mwilbert View Post
Sure, it could have worked out differently, if someone had shown up who wanted to renovate it. While I think that is a big if, one of my complaints about the DEGC is that they seem to have a serious aversion to mothballing anything, even when it seem like that might have be an economical choice and would preserve the option of redevelopment at some future time. For example, I thought they were in a rather big hurry to get rid of the Lafayette Building. On the other hand, the Statler was vacant for 30 years before it was demolished, so that may not be the best example of rushing to demolition.
Yeah, I tend to think you get the skillset you fund. Since public money is used to grow a bunch of demolition companies, that's what you get, and when demolition is the biggest tool in your box, it's going to seem to always be the appropriate tool.

What would happen if we used government money to seed repurposers, refixers, rehabbers, engineering evaluators ... who knows?

One thing is certain, and that's that we haven't tried that at all.