Landmark status sought for 1000+ Ditmas Park homes

You might live in a landmark. via Flickr user Anastasia Ugorskaya

New York City is a land of constant change, but that doesn’t mean people are always happy with it. After all, you don’t want your unique and historical architecture replaced by a bunch of frozen yogurt shops, do you? Hell no you don’t. Which is why City Council member Jumaane Williams is pushing a plan to landmark over one thousand Victorian-style homes in Ditmas Park.

The Daily News notes that preservationists have been working to landmark houses in the neighborhood in a more piecemeal fashion, but Williams is attempting to finish things off in one fell swoop. In doing so, it will make sure people don’t do tacky, horrible things to the homes, like put brick facades on them, that are over 100 years old, at least without bribing their way through a permit process.

It’s hard not to support the idea, since it’d be a shame for the houses to get mangled by people who think they know better than the original architects. Or even worse, see them knocked down to put up a bunch of ugly condo designs that belong in Miami. Sure it might make the houses even more unaffordable for us, but hell, we’re the cheapest generation. If we really want houses, someone will just make an app that lets us share them for a week at a time or something,