Post #76849 by tikijackalope on Thu, Feb 19, 2004 4:27 AM

I can't imagine the heartbreak of watching the Anaheim purge occur. How glad I am that most of the zillions of little between-the-coasts towns I visit have few zoning laws, low property values, no homoginizing economic behemoth and are unattractive to developers. It's quite a selfish attitude on my part, considering the economy in such towns sucks for residents hoping for a job from Walgreens or Red Lobster, but its great for architectural tourism.
Btw, the New Mexico Route 66 Association has obtained a grant from the National Park Service the last two or three years to actually restore and repair old neon along Rt66. I drove the length of Rt66 in NM this past summer just to see so much revitalized period beauty...and I wasn't alone. In every city I stopped in, there were others shooting buildings and signs...and spending money.
In a different part of the country, here is a "rotosphere" (sputnik ball) I'm told the City of Memphis not only tolerated but helped restore. I dropped some money in Memphis too, largely because I knew googie was there.

I truly believe that mid-20th century architectural tourism, be it for googie or tiki, could represent a small but significant cash flow for cities if they'd only have the vision to hang onto the things they have. I sure would love to have left some of that money in Anaheim.