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Preserving history is good. Trapping a city in amber and converting a thriving, evolving, innovative and dynamic place for millions of people to live into a museum for the rich is bad. It is an economic, cultural and social justice nightmare. (Hope you're taking notes, Rhode Island)

Why is Newport stuck in the Gilded Age? They had 400 years of pirates, smugglers, planters, free Black folks, Native Americans, whalers, Quakers, gay sailors... Newport has been all of those things! Its past and image were intentionally flattened to flatter mostly one type of history.

Italo Calvino wrote "The Infinite Cities" to argue that each city contains infinite perspectives. My Pawtucket is different than yours and my Pawtucket next year will be different still. We should preserve not for the sake of a single aesthetic but as a reminder of all the things we have been.

Keep the ‘oldest synagogue in North America’, but also housing would be nice? We can have both. I promise, even in a very crowded tourist area. They did a decent job when they allowed a McDonald’s in back in … the 80s? I think. Anyway they had to match the architectural style. It was three stories!