🚀 go-pugleaf

   Are you talking about the fallen mechanic's station at the
   corner of Wightman and Beeler?

   If so, I'd venture a guess any complaints weren't necessarily
   from people who preferred the tumbling building; rather, I'd
   guess that complainers simply didn't like the idea of a
   jumbo-sized Revco moving into the area.  

   In my mind, there's a night-and-day difference about having
   to look at a home-town sort of repair shop versus a large
   franchise-y looking place like a Revco.

Your presentation has a positive slant to it (to the extent that maintaining
the historical or local color of a neighborhood is positive) , but someone
who lived in that area and went to one of the meetings over the lot painted
a different picture for me.  His perception of the main objections to the
Revco (or whatever chain drug store/convenience store was actually applying
for the location) was that the residents didn't want a store that might
attract neighborhood kids to it as a hang out location.  As you know,
anywhere kids gather, something wrong must be going on, and soon they'll be
walking across the street and breaking into your home :-).

[So, Stork, is all this discussion of abandoned lots answering your question
of the Sq. Hill Privacy Invaders Coalition? :-)]

Bill