Plans to knock down the Ritz Cafe haven’t properly considered alternative uses or conservation.

With gas prices up, lots of folks are finding that driving their car is getting too expensive. To make matters worse, it seems that parking your car is getting more expensive too, at least if you’re the city of Lewiston.

In June, the city purchased the Ritz Caf at 39 Maple St. for $275,000. Now they want to spend another $80,000 to tear the building down. The total price for the 5,000-square-foot lot: $355,000. That translates to about $3 million per acre.

At that price, you might think, the city must have a good plan. According to city staff, there is no plan, at least not one that’s being publicly disclosed. In the short term, the lot will be used as either green space or a parking lot. With Maple Street Park, a well-maintained pocket park right next door, additional green space at the site does not make sense.

What about parking? On a 50-foot-by-100-foot lot, the city can park fewer than 10 cars. That’s more than $35,000 per parking space, before paving, striping or landscaping. That’s not cheap parking.

To members of the Visible Community and others, this is quite disappointing. If the city gets its way, the downtown neighborhood will lose a historic building, including two storefronts, 10 apartments and a lot of options. After convincing the city to scrap plans for a boulevard that would have bisected the downtown neighborhood, this feels like a big step backward. Is this deal a remnant of that ill-advised initiative?

Considering the city has no real plans for the lot, it’s hard to understand why they’re in such a hurry to tear down a historic building, even asking the Historic Preservation Review Board to waive their demolition delay provisions, which the board soundly rejected. Considering the economics of the deal, it would make a lot of sense to keep the building standing until there is a solid plan in place.

Furthermore, the city’s preservation ordinance requires that the city work with others to attempt to save the building and put it to other uses, perhaps even back on the tax roles. There are numerous parties interested in participating in such an effort. The residents of downtown, the folks who built the city and the taxpayers deserve at least that effort.

With the Ritz Caf having joined St. Dominic’s School as one of Lewiston’s historic buildings perhaps not long for this world, and the centerpiece of the city’s redevelopment plan for the downtown neighborhood having been abandoned, it seems an appropriate time to ask: Does city hall have a comprehensive vision for the neighborhood?

Residents and concerned citizens have articulated their vision. It is one that builds on the neighborhood’s assets and includes affordable housing, local- and family-owned businesses, livable-wage employment, community and social services, and community gardens. It does not include the haphazard demolition of historic buildings. Residents also desire a planning process that is open and participatory; residents need a role in determining the fate of their neighborhood.

It is often said when talking about conservation, “You can’t save every building.” While that may be true, this is not a good argument for tearing down any particular building. All buildings being considered for demolition should be evaluated on their merits, economic and otherwise, in the light of day and no building should be taken down without a clear plan for redevelopment. Historic preservation is good for the city of Lewiston. Indeed, the city’s buildings are its most tangible and enduring heritage and, as city officials have suggested, it is time for a heritage initiative.

Brian Banton is a resident of Lewiston.