This is so sad, I've long studied New York City urbanism and there is already so much of NYC's history that has been erased...

It's also striking that the exact same M.O. is followed by developers in Beirut for landmarked buildings. They cannot take them down so they fragilize them or leave them to rot. Or sometimes they send teams at night to destroy them quickly.

I understand that such tactics work in Beirut; the Lebanese state is weak and corrupt, and it's only in the past decade that preservationists have become mainstream. But how can this shit fly in NYC?