I hope that I have not violated Fair Use standards, but I believe that the
topic is of utmost importance to Preservationists. I don’t know if my
attempt to e-mail the article from the NYT website to the list worked.
nburlakoff
New York Times November 12, 2003
The Road to Preserving History
Tucked inside federal transportation law is a small phrase that has done a
fairly heroic job of protecting some of the nation's most important historic
areas for almost 40 years. These few words in the 1966 Department of
Transportation Act say that a federal highway project cannot destroy any
historic area if there is a "prudent and feasible alternative." These words
have blocked, for example, highways from paving parts of the French Quarter
in New Orleans and Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
But as Congress begins negotiating a new transportation bill, the Bush
administration and the highway lobby are trying to weaken those protections
in the name of "streamlining" the process of building the nation's roads.
Instead of acting as a powerful deterrent against building roads through
national treasures, the administration's proposal would rely on
transportation agencies to decide what is historic. The agencies would then
consult with communities over a site's importance. That sounds a lot like
the old-fashioned way of building an interstate highway — the "decide,
announce and defend method." Consultation with property owners or
communities would end up being a weak defense against the big bulldozers run
by the highway crowd.
Beyond the obvious need to preserve historic sites for local communities,
saving historic treasures can also help economic rebirth. Retaining a
community's local color keeps one shopping mall from looking the same as the
next. In central Georgia, for example, residents of Macon have been fighting
a plan to put a road through the ancient Indian mounds called the Ocmulgee
Old Fields. The fields, part of the Muscogee, or Creek, heritage, deserve to
be part of the Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon. If the law is changed,
it is not clear that those who want preservation will have an important
voice in the decision.
Irritated motorists caught in traffic jams may think the answer is more
roads, and they certainly have friends in Congress. But those same
motorists, if asked, could hardly want the roads of the future to destroy
what is left of their nation's past.
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