Is it just me? Or is it the height of decadence and conspicuous consumption to knock down a perfectly livable (albeit an architectural dud) 163 unit hotel and build a new one in its place? I'm sure that Mark Primack's architectural friends and their developer buddies will all get nice, fat destruction/construction contracts for a brand new swanky yet hopefully not as architecturally duddy, bigger, better hotel in its place---and its only going to cost us (the public) a mere $17 million dollar subsidy to do this? Budget crisis? What budget crisis!

But just think of all the money the new hotel will bring in they say. Hey, we're all too busy spending our wads from the Gateway Shopping Center bonanza to care!