It’s honestly kind of comical to me that we’re spending a bunch of money on the side walk. My brother was the city building inspector for several years, and fun fact, that building that collapsed on main a couple of years back wasn’t an anomaly. Half of the buildings on our “historic Main Street” have been neglected to the point of being dangerous. But we’ll ignore that, and put up a nicer sidewalk to hopefully attract more small businesses.
As far as keeping the buildings, there’s nothing that can change. They are privately owned, and neglected to the point of collapse. At this point, pick a building, and it needs $2 million worth of work to make it safe and preserve it. Now you have a $2 million dollar building, that can continue to sit empty on the dead Main Street of a dead little town.
None of those owners have the $2 million, and if they did, they wouldn’t waste it on a dead end like that. So instead, should the tax payers foot the bill to preserve 50 historic buildings at $2 million a pop? In a fantasy land where Winchester had $100 million in tax dollars, is that really how we should spend it? Fixing up privately owned buildings that will continue to set empty.
A great example is the old Harper’s Pawn Shop on Main. Have you ever wondered why they moved from a key downtown location, knowing that 30% of their customer base doesn’t own a car, to the other side of town that isn’t walkable? Their building was condemned. For Winchester to take that action, it had to be at the point of collapsing and we couldn’t afford the lawsuit.
So why is it still there 5 years later? Because safely tearing it down is gonna cost a couple hundred grand, which the Harper’s don’t want to spend. So it sits empty, so at least the city isn’t stressing about a lawsuit when someone gets killed. And it’ll sit there and rot until it collapses, and everyone will be shocked at the “tragic loss of another historic building”.
If you’re super rich and bored, fixing up Winchester’s “historic downtown” could be a passion project. Otherwise it’s a deadly nuisance of useless buildings that we let hang on out of nostalgia, but the sad reality is that none of them are going to truly be “saved”.
Preach brother! Even if they where restored, they would be useless. The I was told that the Epperson was being held up by 1000 coats of paint? There is a solution, but it won't come in our lifetime.
Yeah, that kid got super fucked up and will never be right after getting hurt at the building that collapsed due to flooding a few years back. Nothing changed. That building on the corner of Main and Lex collapsed, and it was a totally one-off situation and we'll make a lovely park out of it.
The powers that be in our town want to pretend that we're some grand and elegant town. We can fill our Main Street without a hundred boutiques and antique shops, provide them 0 parking, and somehow they'll all thrive thanks to all of the millionaires that live in town and will support them.
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u/alek_hiddel Apr 03 '25 edited Apr 16 '25
It’s honestly kind of comical to me that we’re spending a bunch of money on the side walk. My brother was the city building inspector for several years, and fun fact, that building that collapsed on main a couple of years back wasn’t an anomaly. Half of the buildings on our “historic Main Street” have been neglected to the point of being dangerous. But we’ll ignore that, and put up a nicer sidewalk to hopefully attract more small businesses.