Editor, The News:
A Jan. 23 front-page story on a house demolition and Audrey Przybylski’s comments are proof that the bus still runs to Oz.
This would have been a headline story if Paul Lynch had been fined and every city employee connected to this event had been fired.
Pryzbylski’s comment, “I am sure it was worth restoring” is totally correct, but restored by whom, for what purpose and at what cost?
Not many people can afford to sink hundreds of thousands of dollars into a building from which they get less return.
Many years ago, I was in Lexington, Ky., and toured a neighborhood that was undergoing restoration. There, I met a couple restoring a large house.
They admitted they could have built 10 new houses for the cost of their restoration. They were willing and able to do whatever was necessary. All the restorers in the area were suing the city to return the streets to brick and install street lights with a vintage look.
These are the efforts it takes to have successful preservation. It is childlike to think that could happen here.
What about property rights? Do we want some commission telling us what color we can paint our houses? Who will make the decisions?
The city government already has more than it can handle. The houses that everyone calls Dutch Colonials are neither Dutch nor Colonial. If you cannot identify it, how will you know whether to save it?
I have been playing devil’s advocate. I truly enjoy antiques and restoration.
But I am a realist. Restoration costs big bucks and those who have money want away from the city and the New Castle school district.
Allowing single-family homes to be subdivided and the city being in bed with HUD have irreversibly ruined our neighborhoods.
Donald Bumgardner
New Castle
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LETTER: New Castle is no place for preservation
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Wealthy in America already pay most of the income taxes
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