[billybobsky]

I grew up in the city with the oldest historic district in the US. It keeps the environment of the city relatively constant, but the houses aren't homes. They are owned by wealthy people who only live there one or two weeks a year; otherwise they are unoccupied. The houses slowly become modernized anyway as their ediface's collapse, or their roofs rot... There is value in maintaining superb examples of architecture, the rest is a way for the rich to both establish in roads in otherwise undesirable areas and maintain the areas they already live, since property tax is determined block by block and historic districts almost always establish an upward trend in 'property values'...