It’s yuppie landowners against yuppie
It’s yuppie landowners against yuppie “house lovers” in a battle to the death!
The “house lovers” want to preserve the “character” of Ann Arbor, which to them lies in expensive houses whose meticulous maintenance is enforced by historic district fascists. That we can’t dispute. But, as a weblog devoted to destroying the character of Ann Arbor wherever it rears its Bobo head, we’ve got to side with the landowners.
“Is that magnificent or is it magnificent? Look at it!” gushes a preservationist quoted in the article as she drives through A2. “We should have a show…We would call it, ‘The Old War Horses of Ann Arbor.’ Join us as we tour our city and show you why we love it.” One preservationist even keeps an “inch-thick file” on a house that was demolished 17 years ago.
The historic character of the city is under siege by property owners and student renters. Students, the reporter editorializes, come with the “typical student issues of noise and mess.” But there are even more appalling indignities. Among them: a house rented by students to which an unsightly fire escape had been added, “obscur[ing] much of the second-floor architecture.” Icky! Next they’ll be blighting our fair city with wheelchair ramps. (Collapsing porches are probably okay, as long as you can’t see the rubble from the street.)
Still, we can’t help but not feel sorry for the opposing Citizens For Sensible Preservation. Group member Jeff DeBoer points out that these rules would only disallow changes to the outside of a house - read “gargantuan McMansion additions.” He asks, “As a homeowner, how’d you feel if you spent $800,000 for your home and a small group of people you don’t even know decide your neighborhood is in crisis and impose a historic district on you without any vote?” That was probably rhetorical, but we would feel wealthy.
Essentially, this is a win-win.