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Councilmember urges treating historic downtown buildings as infrastructure
Summary
Alderman Bonnie urged the City Council to preserve downtown historic properties — including the News Tower and Watch Factory — and said preservation should be treated like infrastructure when council considers funding agreements.
During officers' reports and committee follow-up on Jan. 5, Alderman Bonnie urged council to prioritize preservation of historic properties slated for redevelopment funding. Bonnie said the News Tower and the Watch Factory are culturally and architecturally significant and argued they should be treated as infrastructure because "they can't be replaced."
Bonnie said previous preservation wins show redevelopment can succeed and urged that the layovers of the funding agreements not signal abandonment of those preservation efforts. She asked that when the items return to council they be met with passage, and framed preservation as important to downtown identity and long-term redevelopment momentum.
Council laid over the funding items for the Watch Factory and the News Tower earlier in the meeting; Bonnie's remarks asked colleagues to consider the cultural and economic value of preserving those structures when the items return for final action.
