The city of Mitchell, South Dakota. is hell-bent on destroying one of the oldest homes in the city. The couple living there has been slow to repair fire damage and is apparently elderly. The Mitchell Daily Republic has the sad story.
This kind of trashing of landmarks and historical structures shows a tremendous lack of foresight and respect for the past. I found it interesting that homes lived in by William Shakespere or his wife still existed in Britain. Not only that, but taxes paid by his father were recorded on hides if my recollection is correct and those "files" were still readable and findable.
It seems to me from a distance of a hundred miles or so that the wizards in Mitchell City government could find a way to get a grant or way to fund repair of the house to meet modern standards and also work out a way for the couple to live there until they died. Perhaps the home could then become part of a local historic trust.
The smashing and trashing of homes with good lumber or historical significance in South Dakota towns and cities seems to be an incredible waste of lumber and also needless waste of landfill space. City condemnation processes seem short-sighted and also short of the right kind of imagination.
The justification here in Winner is to control rodents among other things. Past incompetent zoning has a lot of small homes on lots too small now to allow building. The primary beneficiaries of such condemnation and destruction are those influentials with rental apartments and houses. The local ordinance requiring cats to not be loose is probably the actual cause of an increase in rodents. Unintended consequences of ideas that might be good leading into ideas and heavy-handed enforcement which is wasteful and a trashing of property rights.
***Stay tuned even if the world won't end if a few thousand homes in South Dakota are condemed and trashed--- Doug Wiken
Comments