Thoughtful response as usual, Mark. And really, neither I, nor I think anyone, would want you to either stop posting here, nor even change how you post (from the heart). You're one of my favorite posters on here, so please do stick around, and please don't change anything (not that my opinion matters all that much-- I don't presume self-importance here-- but I do enjoy this community
).
You're probably more right than me about the Schmidtville group; my generalization about the lack of sincerity is probably too much of precisely that-- a generalization.
Hali has a nice breakdown of the different elements/factions in the group. I think he's optimistic about the breakdown, but it's fair to say there are likely a good deal of members of the group who are sincere in their conservation aims.
I think there are absolutely legitimate issues to raise here about the loss of Victorian structures involved in this development; I guess where my frustration comes in this case, is that where I think there are truly more substantial architectural heritage issues (Doyle block) there amount of media attention was nihil. But here, for some reason there was nearly a full page section in Herald to the concerns of this group-- and this perplexes me. I just see unfairness is the treatment, and think it's likely because you have wealthy south end property owners among the voices opposing Brenton Place, while nothing of the sort concerning Doyle. So, we hear about Brenton in the news, but Doyle flies under the radar.
In fairness to the Herald, they *did* publish Dry's very good op-ed.
Overall, I do wish we were overall much, much, better at preserving/maintaining our heritage architecture while allowing for nice developments/changes.... and there are often so many opportunities-- like Doyle-- but yeah, instead the issue ends up being an all-or-nothing discussion. Either we oppose Brentwood and stop the development, or not. Either Doyle is leveled and rebuilt 100%, or the development doesn't happen.
Again, I blame HT for this problem, but it's also a wider attitudinal issue as you point out.