Originally Posted by
Mackinaw
Bailey, I understand that, but my point is: regardless of what happened in the past, we still have a resource sitting there. It is not unusable; it's an outright waste to not attempt to re-use the structure, as the owner's quote clearly indicate. But in the end I am with Ndavies on one small matter: I don't own it and am in no position to own it, and I thus have no authority. The best we can do is peer pressure the owner to act in a way that respects history and would benefit the city immensely...and [[though Ndavies might not agree here) we can use land use law to the greatest possible legal extent to protect something for its historical and architectural merits.
Indeed, the YWCA should stand to be blamed for cursing the building's future viability. Whether we should expend effort to preserve something which is still treasured, useful, and potentially valuable again over the long run is a different question.