News of the Arroyo
Title: | Register didn't register the first time around |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2008-02-29 |
Summary: | February 29, 2008 - Editor Larry Wilson recants. He now supports the listing of the Central Arroyo on the National Register of Historic Places. |
Author: | Larry Wilson |
Publication: | Pasadena Star-News |
Content: | Larry Wilson: Article Launched: 02/28/2008 11:00:00 PM PST I\'ve been wrong before, and will be again, but I can\'t explain exactly why a couple of weeks ago I fired off a half-baked, cynical comment about the idea of listing the Arroyo Seco on the National Register of Historic Places. I think I had just bought in to the view of the uninformed booboise that places so listed all of a sudden become impossible to dig a hole in (or rake a trap or paint a football stadium) without the preservation police throwing a hissy fit backed by the force of law. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I saw the light when I read a National Register fact sheet from the state\'s Office of Historic Preservation. The register is nothing more or less than the nation\'s official list of buildings, sites and districts officially deemed worthy of preservation. Once a place - a Gamble House for its architectural beauty; a Pasadena Playhouse maybe more for the stuff that has happened there, not that it ain\'t a beaut - is nominated and accepted, it changes nothing for the worse and lots for the better. If it\'s a private property, there are tax breaks, credits and incentives, not to mention prestige. If it\'s a public place, it\'s basically the honor part. Nothing in that honor can stop an owner or public entity from eventually tearing down the joint or building a skyscraper on it. So if a future City Council - the present one got a case of the cold feet last month when first considering a perhaps hasty suggestion from Pasadena Heritage and others to back the listing of the arroyo - gets some funky notion to build a spaceport on top of the Rose Bowl and turn Brookside Golf Course into a ray-gun shooting gallery, it can just do it. All that the National Register listing will do is give future cranky citizens the right to come to the City Hall podium and say, \"You\'re crazy to do that! The arroyo\'s a National Register site!\" And then Mayor William Bogaard XLV will just shoot the crank with his ray gun and that will be that. So, no, improvements to the Rose Bowl would not be blocked under the listing - though it will be deemed nice if the improvements actually are that, plus look nice. And, no, removing or adding a Brookside water hazard will not be verboten - current projects such as returning the bunkers to William Bell\'s signature linksland style would rather be encouraged, I would think. It would be an honor for the Arroyo Seco to be on the National Register, and we should all support the coming nomination. larry.wilson@sgvn.com http:///www.insidesocal.com/publiceye |
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