Surplus Surplus Sign

This surplus store, C&H Sales Company, on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, CA went out of business. I'm glad they left the sign when they sold off the surplus inventory, but fear that the next tenent may scrap the sign. Before they closed I had the opportunity to browse the shop one last time and dig through boxes of cast-off electronic and mechanical parts for 'who-knows-what?'.

Hollywood Park

I heard recently that the Inglewood City Council is likely to vote to close Hollywood Park, and replace the racetrack with a 'Multi-use, residential, retail complex'.

My advise is don't do it. Once you do this, you'll never get it back. This is the type of short-sighted, misinformed thinking that got this country into the economic mess it's in right now.

My prediction is that this city council will commission some big study at great expense that will undoubtedly come to the conclusion that if they do all this fancy re-building like other cities have done over the past decade, that they will see this giant gain in tax revenue, and earn the eternal gratitude (and votes) of the people.

Except... that won't happen. Instead, we'll look back on this in twenty years and say, "Gee. How sad it is that the city of Inglewood decided to destroy the things that were unique, and gave it an identity. Didn't they see that at the end of the day they were trading that uniqueness for a sameness that could not compete?" Trying to be more like Santa Monica, Westminster, or El Segundo is a losing game for Inglewood. The forum will be gone, Hollywood Park will be gone, and with them any opportunity to preserve the thing that makes towns and cities great: uniqueness.

Tomorrow's Past

Quantum physics aside, experience tells us that today's present is always tomorrow's past. It's simple to look around at things that aren't here anymore, shake your head, and say, 'How could they abandon that?' or 'How could they just let that deteriorate?'. The history is more complex than that which makes the value of preservation of historic buildings and artifacts more subtle than many preservationists would like to admit.

It seems that many things go through a period of 'old junk' status before they become collectible. Let's use my definition of collectible, where something becoumes collectible the moment that it's value exceeds that of it's newer, better, replacement. Think iPod. When the first Generation of iPod sells for more on eBay than the 2nd or 3rd generation, voila. My parents bought a 78 Pontiac station wagon to replace the beat up 68 Plymouth station wagon that had become the family 'beater'. By the mid 80's the Pontiac was the beater in my mind, and I was starting to think 'I wish we'd hung on to that Plymouth'.

It's the beater period where history is at risk. That's the point at which preservation can interfere and bring something back from the brink. But not everything. There's good in progress and looking forward. We can't save every beater, we wouldn't appreciate history like we do if we did.