National Trust Opposes SLAPP Suit Against Two St. Louis Residents
A lawsuit against two downtown St. Louis residents has been ongoing now in excess of four years. Recently (8/11/09) another St. Louis resident posted a question on the Facebook page of The National Trust for Historic Preservation:
Could you please ask your redevelopment corporation to drop the lawsuit against the two St. Louis citizens who filed suit to save the 1896 Century Building?
Nine days later (8/20/09) the National Trust for Historic Preservation posted the following response:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is not a party to this litigation and has no control over it. Our subsidiary investment arm holds only a .01% stake in the project, and all authority to pursue litigation of this type lies in the limited partnership’s general partner alone. We have urged that party to reconsider their actions, but to date they have not heeded our request. We believe there are ways to learn from the Century Building controversy and advance the cause of historic preservation and community revitalization. This lawsuit is not the way to achieve those goals.
Agreed, this lawsuit is not about advancing anything other than instilling fear in the public so they won’t challenge the status quo, such as awarding a historic building to a connected developer without putting the building out for proposals.
The trial date is currently set for September 14, 2009. The plaintiffs have asked for yet another delay. Sorry good ole boys, no matter how long you delay your case won’t get any better.
– Steve Patterson
I guess the only control the national trust ever had was deciding to back a plan that included demolition of a building on the national register, and make money selling tax credits while they were at it.
I am not sympathetic to their current position at all. How can they call themselves preservationists when they can make money on demolition?
I guess even the national trust has a sell-out point.
The National Trust has blood on its hands. It — or rather they, especially Dick Moe and Royce Yeater, sold out the Trust’s core principles on the Century demo. Demolition does not equal preservation, no matter how much twisted logic you pile on. Now, they pretend to lament that private citizens are being sued for their efforts to do the job the Trust forsook? Sickening. Just sickening.