I've been rung up repeatedly, even visited (unannounced), in the past two weeks by displaced residents wanting to move back to EBDI-land. Most were homeowners and purchased houses elsewhere with their relocation benefits - in some cases, much closer to their places of employment. It's not stunning to me that they want to "come home," as so many of them put it. I'm a typical Cancerian - home is and has been everything to me, even in pre-Bolton Hill days, when issues beyond my building envelope challenged my patience, safety, and investment.
Each call, each visit, is yet another affirmation that burning down the forest was the only solution to saving the trees. Yes, as a preservationist, I occasionally speak euphemistically about demolition on a scale still a bit unfathomable - for reasons obvious, and also because I did not watch it - but each caller and visitor has given me the same subset of answers when asked how he or she feels when passing by the site of his or her former domicile - that it was sacrificed in the name of progress.
Many relocatees moved on to houses far more comfortable, and I can say this in the context of living within construction sites for the past twenty-five years (what can I say? - I take my time when hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of rehabilitation dollars), of having too many moments when a brand new house - or any house other than mine - seemed the only verifiable route to sanity and a room finished enough to buy a couch or hang a picture or cease apologizing. So it is truly humbling and gratifying to hear from folks who believe, thanks in part to EBDI, that you can come home again.
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