FUCK YOU, “progress” and your stupid shit sucking recent demolition of several architecturally magnificent historical buildings in my town! You fuckwads, don’t you realize that whatever the FUCK you build in its place. which you will have such FUCKING pride in, will probably torn down some FUCKING day too? Why can’t you leave shit alone!!! I hope you guilty demolition/construction fucks are old farts and still alive when whatever you build in the historic buildings’ place gets razed, and I can stand there and laugh at you motherfuckers! FUCK YOU progress! Knowing the way your stinking shit operates in this town, you probably wasted a magnifcent structure to put a fucking parking lot in it’s place. ASSHOLES!
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We’ve replaced MSK’s Folgers Instant Decaffeinated Crystals with pure methamphetamine. Let’s see if he notices!
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So, you’re one of those people who just can’t stand to throw away some piece of worthless junk, right? My dad’s like that. He has old articles from, like, 1970 with headlines like “Oranges Found To Taste Good” and such.
So what’s the priceless and irreplaceable building in Mishawaka, Indiana that was destroyed?
Mr.Cynical, fucking with a man’s coffee makes the Baby Jesus cry.
But holy Buddha that was funny!
As for the OP, I had to read it a few times to realize he wasn’t talking about the WTC. Was he?
Native American stands, single tear drops.
Rasa, I took a look at MagicalSilverKey’s profile, and found that he lives in Mishawaka, Indiana. In his OP, he clearly refers to the demolition of buildings in his town, done apparently in the name of constructing a newer building in its place.
Since I’ve never heard of the city Mishawaka, I looked it up on Mapquest and found it is not that far away from South Bend.
I didn’t realize that there were that many priceless architectural masterpieces in a suburb of South Bend. 
Manservant Hecubus…
I worship you. 
throws rose petals and dances around him
Damn, Manservant, that’s some funny shit. I’m having a bitch of a time trying to write this because I keep doubling over in fits of laughter!
That being said, MSK, I feel your pain. My hometown was bought up by a major corporation who promptly began bulldozing anything and everything they could find. They took a little farming community of 5,000 people and replaced it with multi-million dollar mansions and 27 hole Jack Nicolas Signature Golf Courses. They even torched the house I was born and raised in 
. Yeah, okay, so maybe there weren’t any historical buildings (well, one, the Middle School and it got saved, thank God) in the town, but the place had character, a sense of community. Now it just looks like any other wealthy area. Bastards!
You want the pretty, rat-infested tenements saved so you can marvel at the delicate lines of the building, as your manservant (not Hecubus!) drives you by, as you relax in the back of your limo, sipping white wine and eating brie?
Simple solution: Buy 'em.
Seriously: You want the building saved? Buy th’ damned thing. Otherwise, it’s the owner’s property, he/she can do what he/she wants with it (within the law). Can’t afford it? Then what the hell are you doing in a limo? But aside from that, get a like-minded group of people who also share your love of rat-infested tenements and buy the hallowed hall.
What? That’s too much work? It can’t have been all that important to you then.
Thus I have resolved your problem.
Fenris
I love this, from Fran Lebowitz about NYC:
If you live here for more than five years, they’re going to tear down something you like. The invariable rule of thumb is that what they will put up is worse than what they tore down, even if what they tore down is terrible. I mean, I was once with a man who was asked – during the course of the time I was with him – to sign a petition to keep them from tearing down Lever House and he signed it. He’s a much older man and he turned to me and said, “You know, I remember signing a petition to keep them from putting up Lever House.” And that is the story of anyone who has lived in New York long enough.
Well, I do feel MSK’s pain, at least a little.
All through the 60’s and 70’s, all the old buildings in my hometown were razed and replaced to make the town looked mordern and futuristic, which in the 60’s meant cookie-cutter blocks of bare cement. Around the mid-90’s people starting looking around and realized, “Holy shit, this place is ugly!” and started a massive renovation project. Now we have modern facilities with old-fashioned facades surrounded by lots of greenery. All in all, I’d say it’s a big improvement.
No limos in our town, Fenris, but we still thought it was important enough to shell out some cash and do some work.
Note that the OP was addressed to Progress, not to the government or the property owner. When properly restored, historic buildings can be an irreplacable resource for a community. Although I have only anecdotal evidence, I strongly suspect that most people prefer interesting old buildings to the dull strip malls that usually replace them.
That having been said, the problem of historic building loss cannot be blamed on any single group. I hope that people will begin to recognize the tremendous resouces they are losing and start to form coalitions to raise the funds needed to buy and renovate these great old buildings. Many owners of such properties, especially in smaller cities, are happy to sell the buildings at a resonable price as long as the buildings will be renovated. Remember that these people bought the old buildings, and most of them intended to renovate the buildings, but the costs spiraled out of control. Heck, a lot of these owners will let the buildings go for back taxes.
I do object to the implication that smaller towns cannot have truly historic buildings. Until reletively recently, most Americans lived in small towns; ignoring their history in favor of urban areas distorts our view of history.
Well, we know that’s not absolutely true. Most towns have landmark commissions, most towns won’t just let you put up anything on your property (you’ll have a hard time putting up a dome in most places), nost towns have limits as to how close you can build to the property line, how tall the building can be, etc. If you talk to property owners, they would probably say that they have a lot less control over what they do with their property than they would like.
The best way to stop a teardown is to get a petition going. If enough people don’t want a building torn down, the politicians will cave.
On the plus side, MSK, you’ve bitched for some time now about what an uncultured, backward, assfuck town you’re trapped in. In that context isn’t progress a good thing?
I lived in Mishawaka Indiana for three years. In such time I have seen many a building destroyed:
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The Old Uniroyal Plant – After Uniroyal left its factory to rot, no one was interested in rebuilding it into anything. The main reason was it was an environmental nightmare. God knows what toxins were buried underneath the factory. Finally it was torn down, and although it is missed from the Mishawaka landscape, now the land is clear for developers to put something in its place.
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Several Buildings Around Madison Center and Hospital – A developer donated several old factory buildings to Madison Center. He had tried to develop them into housing, but it wasn’t working out (too cost prohibitive). Donating the buildings to Madison Center, they were able to clear the way to make a really nice front lawn. Yes, I said front lawn. Basically they haven’t done anything but tear down the buildings and lay grass in its place. There may be plans to develop the land in the future.
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I Am Willing to Bet that next on the Demolition List will be the Old Kamms Brewery in the Historic 100 Center – Apparently there are severe electrical problems with the wiring and it needs to be totally redone to bring up to code. I hear tell that Truman’s, the local gay bar in the 100 Center, got investors together to buy the entire complex. The Bank, fearing that it would turn Mishawaka into a gay Disney World refused the investors and took a LOWER BID. Truman’s though is in no danger of closing, because they own their own building (The Brewery Stables). The Bank that refused the investors soon went out of business. The only question is because it is the “Historic” 100 Center, if that will be enough to save it from the wrecking ball.
Turning an old building into a workable structure takes a lot of money. It is a lot easier to just demolish the old building and start over again. The only way things are going to change is if the State and Local governments can give developers an incentive towards making an old structure viable again. I doubt that the State of Indiana or the City of Mishawaka truly care.