The 'Historical monument' idea is clearly one of those Berkeley-specific things where a innocous law with remarkably far-reaching powers wreaks havoc on the City. The commission-- unelected commission, I think-- that controls who becomes a historical monument becomes a political football for people with wacky ideas and vested interests in no development.

This concept to create a block of low-income houses as Historical marks a new low. The neighborhood that has these houses will never develop, period. It's stuck as a bunch of low-income houses forever. Maybe that's not a horrible thing, but you'd believe the residents would want the option of selling their houses to developers or hoping for higher property values someday.

Why memoralize a starting place for a group of now-higher income people, anyway? Did we dedicate the Chicago slums? The New York tenements? These are status levels people want to get away from.Email This Post!