I am not going to argue that no buildings we've lost downtown were worthy of saving. But, when thinking of all that were torn down, I think downtown would be a lot less inviting if there were an additional 100+ downtown sitting decaying, graffiti covered. 10 or more years ago there was an eerie void of a city downtown, with ghost building after ghost building. More than a little daunting to businessmen, large and small. I think we are still managing to save & restore more buildings than most cities. I regret a number of losses, but not most of them. As I like to point out about the granddaddy of them all: In today's downtown market, the Hudson's building could have been restored and put to good use. But if it were still around, we wouldn't have today's downtown market.

Also worth noting: many [[maybe most?) downtown restorations have included substantial numbers of grants and tax credits to finance them. Such things are finite in number and size. A lot more buildings to renovate does not mean that there would be any more money to do the renovations.