Latest Bobcast is on a relic of Anniston's industrial past. Listen here or read below.
Anniston City Hall politicians are debating whether a 129-year-old smokestack that recalls the city industrial roots should stay or go.
Last week, following a vote of the City Council, the smokestack, Anniston’s first, looked like a goner.
This week, not so much. The mayor told The Star he was reconsidering his vote to demolish the smokestack.
This is good. As one local preservationist remarked, anything that can stand for more than 100 years deserves a chance to remain standing.
So much for structures that have lasted 13 decades.
The crumbling, run-down and mostly empty storefronts that dot Anniston’s retail corridor are another story. Those buildings are one, two, three and four decades old. They stand as monuments to nothing but poor city planning, ugly design and the declining economic prospects of a city. They demand the city’s highest attention, energy and innovation.
Building something up is tougher that tearing something down, yet this is precisely where Anniston’s emphasis belongs.
