Just please, try and explain to me how this will help this city in any way, shape or form.
There are many things that were once very ugly, old and rotting in buffalo that are now beautiful.
There is not manhattan, we have plenty of vacant land. There is no need to knock these down. Even if we paint them and seal them up for the time being, add some lighting to them, make them presentable until the time comes when someone can do something with them.
Think of them this way…
A Civic hatch sitting in a junkyard… no rot on the chassis, but the paint needs some work, and the car overall needs TLC, just waiting for someone with a little passion to turn that POS Honda into a beautiful machine. (ie: Mr. Smith)
In its current form, its junk, we might as well crush it… but take someone with a vision, some passion and some cash, and it can be saved.
Now pretend that this type of chassis is pretty rare, and holds great significance to the evolution of automotive performance, regardless if it was pretty or not… and you sort of have a similar situation.
(*that was my lame attempt at comparing this to cars, please disregard).
Have you never been to a city that has turned and old industial section of the city into a thriving reuse?
Maybe its because I am a creative, maybe it is because I am a designer… visual thinker… who knows. I can see the future of it, and it will be much greater if we take what we have and reuse it.
Its the same reason I would rather live in an old house in the city rather than a new build in the burbs… There is just something about the stories buried in the walls, the fact that there is history behind it that enriches it.