The August 3rd News & Observer is to be applauded for its article on the Glen Lennox controversy. Mayor Kevin Foy is right when he says "Not everything is open for redevelopment." The article ends with Chapel Hill's Roger Perry whose reputation is fast knighting him the "Dean of Destruction." When the Save West House Coalition battled Mr. Perry, he obviously thought anyone that disagreed with his development ideas was irrational. Look at the amount of development that has happened in Chapel Hill, Orange County, and the Triangle. You'll find very little of it has been protested by "irrationals". There is a point where one's rationales differ. I refer
readers to my June 2004 Chapel Hill News column, "We can live and work within the beauty of the past," describing the 13th century town Erice, Sicily, it's facades and streets intact, housing a state-of-the-art international scientific think tank. (orangeculturalarts web site)
During the West House fight I sounded the warning that West House was the canary in the mine--any quaint, human-scale architecture would soon be up for demolition rationally argued as having no purpose, impossible to retrofit. Those of us in Chapel Hill, including noted architects, who have visited areas like Austin, Texas, can attest to the possibilities abounding in recycling the past. But, oh, profits are not as great. The greed of our contemporary "robber-barons" is THE great irrational force at work in our culture. To ignore the need to slow development because of global climate change, and the transfer of economic power to Asia, is to ignore our descendants' future. Mr. Perry, of course, would love to see the Grubb development. It's right across and down the road from Meadowmont, and his new development on the charming old green swale of the University Motor Inn. It would assure more development along the Highway 54 corridor and thus, supposedly, deepen his pockets.
The Glen Lennox fight is only in its infancy. Surely you know that these "Rationals", from Perry to Grubb, intend to achieve as much as they desire with as little compromise, and as much profit, as possible? They are expert at retro-fitting terminology such as green space, mixed-use, village, green building, and affordable housing to their ends. Lovely crepe myrtles do not a massive oak make.
I've been astonished at some individuals, otherwise rational, who have bought in to Grubb's slum-like descriptions of Glen Lennox which contradicts, I'm sure, their current rental office spiel, and what I know from folks who live at Glen Lennox. I could give the community a pound or two of Boric acid and if there are roaches there, they'd be gone in a matter of days. Don't you think neglecting Glen Lennox, if it were the case, benefits their argument to demolish?
If only the creativity used to fight irrational preservationists was used to adapt our past we would be a much better society for it. It's time we began thinking of the planet and the not-so-rich instead of the dollar.
Jeffery Beam
3212 Arthur Minnis Road
Hillsborough, NC 27278
jeffbeam@email.unc.edu
991-962-2264 weekdays
919-967-2470 evenings and weekends
