"Trolleys, Tales & Talk" Sept. 15, 2009

Dan Clark's topic is "Who's Afraid of the Paint Police?" Dan compares Muscatine's Historic Preservation Commission (educational and advisory only), which he chairs, with other communities' more robust protections for historic properties. And he confesses envy of Dubuque which last month celebrated a huge economic development success based on historic preservation. He reads from Dubuque's ordinance prohibiting "Demolition By Neglect" and imagines something of the sort for Muscatine. Meanwhile, our city struggles to cover the costs of recent landfill expansion, and Dan jests that maybe it's time to help out by demolishing a whole bunch of old stuff. Later this week Muscatine hosts a two-day historic-preservation workshop conducted by state experts http://www.iowahistory.org/about/news/2009/08-26_historic-preservation-workshops-muscatine.html.