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
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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