Newburyport, Downtown and the LHD
January 3rd, 2012Ken Woods wrote an outstanding piece in yesterday’s Newburyport Daily News.
Mr. Woods began his piece by saying, “A wise friend told me no good deed goes unpunished. Well, here goes anyway.” And the comments slammed, very ungraciously, his most excellent piece. Mr. Woods, thank you, “You did good.”
One of the things that I get asked all the time is, “Show me examples of how the architectural fabric of Newburyport has been abused.”
Believe me, that is not a problem, but people live in these homes, and, at the very worst, I don’t want to be sued, and at the very least, I don’t want to get a whole bunch of very “upset” emails and/or phone calls. (If I had a legal team and got paid reams of money for writing the Newburyport Blog, that might be different, but it just being me-now for 6 years as of January 1st, going on 7, I might add, I still like the possibility of continuing being the editor of the Newburyport Blog.)
But Ken Woods points out something so important, and I think I’ll quote him, I hope he would not mind.
“For those who need a good reason for creating a Local Historic District in Newburyport, you need look no farther than the new penthouse atop the Bracket Heel Building at 7 Prince Place. Looking north down State Street from High Street, the new penthouse is more than visible and clearly has no place on our historic skyline. I personally have the added displeasure of seeing this penthouse every single time I head west down my own street. There is good reason to believe this penthouse would not have been built had an LHD been in place.
No words are needed to justify adopting the Local Historic District as proposed for our beautiful city. The reason is right in front of you — just look up.” (Ken Woods, Letter to the Editor, January 2, 2012, Newburyport Daily News, to read the whole letter, please press here.)
People tell me that nobody would hurt downtown Newburyport. Well they have, and they will, and Mr. Woods has pointed out one very recent example, and if there is not Local Historic District for Newburyport, you bet there will be more. (And this is a developer, not a homeowner, and if anyone thinks that developers have Newburyport’s best interest at heart, they are wrong. Developers need to make money, and money is the bottom line, not historic preservation.)
A list of all the Letters to the Editor in the Newburyport Daily News concerning Newburyport’s Local Historic District can be seen here.