Even people who don't care about history should care about that, said Constance Beaumont, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's director for state and local policy. You end up with abandoned buildings and a loss of business. If you don't have economically viable uses, then you start to lose historic buildings. We're throwing away entire cities and downtowns and rebuilding at great public expense what we just threw away. When old buildings fall, there are intangible losses, too, she said.
Historic preservation is to preserve the sense of community.
It is to preserve the humanness of the built environment. Malls surrounded by acres and acres of asphalt are not a comfortable environment.