Preservation

One of the problems with the preservationist movement is that it can sometimes threaten the economic health of the area.

Tyler Cowen quotes Ed Glaeser on New York's historic districts:

It’s hard to fault the Landmarks Preservation Commission for stopping development in historic districts. That’s its job: to “safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic and cultural heritage,” as the city’s administrative code puts it. The real question is whether these vast districts should ever have been created and whether they should remain protected ground in the years ahead. No living city’s future should become a prisoner to its past.

You don't want your city preserved in formaldehyde,
like something that died.