City Council strengthens Preservation Ordinance

[krix]

This whole discusson reminds me of something, of the Hamburg Cathedral.

(the picture shows St. Mary's Cathedral with St. Peter's just behind)

Built first in 843, destroyed and reconstructed several times, the church in the form shown was probably built in 1329. Because the Cathedral was subject to the Archbishop residing in far away Bremen, and the city always trying to exert its independence, St. Peter's that was erected in the 12th century became more influential over time, but still the Cathedral's location remained central to the city. After the Reformation the Cathedral finally became Lutheran too, but still subject to foreign powers. Napoleon's secularization of church property across Germany in 1806 put an end to this, so finally it became subject to the Hamburg Senate. However, the building was in disrepair, the Senate was loathe to maintain the building, and so despite all its history, its artistic value, the Senate decided to have it demolished. So it wasn't the Great Fire of 1842 that destroyed most of the medieval buildings in Hamburg, nor the destruction of WWII, the people of Hamburg themselves decided to get rid of their oldest church! A school was built in its stead in 1840, but after it burnt down in WWII, now it is a parking lot. The original center of the city of Hamburg is a parking lot, that is truly ironic....

Why am I telling you all this? Just to tell you that this did also happen in Old Europe, and people have come to regret it....

[H-Town Man]

You'll note that I was referring not only to international immigration, but to domestic. In fact, I gave domestic first billing.

When I was at UH, one of my professors that was old Houston asked several questions of a class-full of people: "Who was from here? Who had parents that were from here? Who had grandparents from here?" I was the only one with the hand raised by the third question (and even I am not personally "from here"). Granted, those being sampled were UH students, not the general population, but if you look at how Houston has grown over the past century, most folks had to come from somewhere else. And I'd argue that they have most certainly diluted the culture.

I've seen consumer surveys of inner city areas that indicate that a disproportionate number of new residents are coming in from the coasts, and that the old Houston residents are tending to relocate outside of the city. And so I'd argue that the culture of the municipality is changing extremely rapidly within a metropolitan area that is also gradually changing.

...but I like the voting patterns of the culture that we have (or had). And I'd be less concerned if Houston was just like most other central cities and didn't have such a large land area, but since they do have such a regional impact, it has become a matter that concerns me greatly.

Stephen Klineberg said recently that migration to Houston from other parts of the country had virtually ceased, and that it is immigration and births that are driving our population increases.