By Bob Walsh
The four alarm fire in
downtown Stockton yesterday
There was a four alarm fire in
downtown Stockton yesterday. One of the MANY older, empty commercial
buildings in downtown was pretty much destroyed. This particular
building was a three story brick building about six blocks from city
hall. I could see, and smell, the smoke from my house. It was pretty
impressive. According to the new mayor there are about 250 empty
commercial buildings in the city that are not being maintained and
therefore turning into homeless occupied firetraps.
The
mayor's idea is to compel the owners of the property to maintain them
even if they are unoccupied. That might actually work. IF the owners
are not a bankrupt small company or a died-out family or an absent
landlord in Costa Rica who doesn't give a flying fuck.
I
remember an old buddy of mine from work had an interesting retirement
job. He set up a security company and had one client, a very large
empty cannery building at the edge of Tracy. He kept busy pretty much
full time doing nothing but rousting, and occasionally arresting,
trespassers. He had to hang it up due to health issues but he did OK
with it for several years. Of course the building and property was
owned by a major corporation who had an interest in not attracting bad
press. Whoever now owns the old Woolworth building downtown may not
give diddly damn.
1 comment:
Those older buildings usually have an interesting history. The only people who really care about preserving them are the people who have the memories associated with them. As they die the memories die with them.
Post a Comment