HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/01/2018 cc - Pinard (Historic Neighborhoods)
Purrington, Teresa
From:Peg <pinardmat@aol.com>
Sent:Thursday, 3:16 PM
To:Leveille, Brian
Cc:Sandy Baer; E-mail Council Website
Subject:Can't ask residents to do more than the city is willing to do for itself.
Brian,
Could you please make sure that CHC members get a copy of my email including the pictures?
Thank you.
Peg
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Dear Cultural Heritage Committee Members,
As a founder of the city’s first Historical District, San Luis Obispo’s "Old Town”, and one who helped establish the
Cultural Heritage Committee for the City, I take great pride in what we’ve accomplished. For those of you who may
remember, it was actually a long, hard-fought battle with those who didn’t care about the city’s historical
neighborhoods and who thought that tearing down these “old buildings” was a good thing and denoted ‘progress’. Well,
enough time has passed and people have come to realize the value of having such historic treasures, and thanks to the
vigilance of the CHC, saying those kinds of things now would sound like heresy.
So imagine my surprise when I heard that exact phrase uttered by a high ranking city employee about the city’s first (and
one of only two) home in SLO on the "National Register of Historic Places”. This past year, our sidewalk needed repair
and we, along with our neighbors, took on the extra expense of doing it in a way so that it was a close match to the old
sidewalk and the historical character of our homes. At the very same time we did our sidewalk, the city needed to redo
some of their part of the sidewalk. The city refused to match the work. It would have been only a couple of hundred
dollars extra to make it match. Let me repeat, this work was done at the exact same time and by the same
contractor! Private residents, at our own expense, paid for the finish upgrade but the city refused.
Instead, we were told that we were “just another old house.”
As members of the Cultural Heritage Committee I hope that you can follow-up with this attitude from the city because it
is not right to ask residents to do more and to bear additional expenses than the city is willing to do for itself. That
change in concrete finish to a modern texture looks totally out of character and it was done right in the middle of the
home’s frontage. . Next time someone comes before you and you want them to be sensitive to the context and
character of a historical setting, maybe it would be helpful to see if the city even values this kind of effort anymore. This
was clearly an example that they do not. The sidewalk looks terrible.
Now, we are asking ourselves “Why did we bother?”
Sincerely,
Peg Pinard
Founder, Old Town Neighborhood Association
Restorer of the “Myron Angel” home which we
placed in on the State's Historic Register
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and the Nation Register of Historic Places.
This enabled us to form the City’s first Historic District.
This is in front of 714 Buchon St. - supposedly a city Nationally Registered “treasure”
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