I think that's a good suggestion, Bruce, although downtown is littered with basements belonging to players past and present. I think it makes great sense for the 2.0 jump, though.
Also, Brad, I hope you don't think I was suggesting that we "give up on downtown". My purpose for this thread has less to do with the current map as it has to do with whatever comes after this. It seems increasingly obvious that 2.0 will require us to start from scratch, and that's where my focus is as far as "cleaning up" for the sake of performance.
However, if doing some maintenance downtown will help things, I say let's do it.