One of the changes that comes with the Mercury News' affiliation with the SM County Times appears to be a bit more editorial support for historic preservation as seen in today's editorial.  Here's hoping the Mercury Times editors and reporters take a bit of the News' point of view in the new year.  They write:

So this year, following our annual holiday tradition of declaring the best civic gift of the past 12 months, we'd like to note two major anniversaries celebrated in 2010 by organizations that have been invaluable to us all over time, although in different ways.

One is PAC-SJ, the Preservation Action Council of San Jose, which 20 years ago began fighting to preserve historic buildings and neighborhoods at a time when architectural transience was in danger of becoming the norm in San Jose.

I like that term "architectural transience" because it has a certain foreboding sound that matches reality.  They go on to note:

But PAC's mission is not just about architecture. Old buildings give us a sense of history and of place. They remind us who we are, where we came from and how our best work can outlive us. A sense of history makes us better at navigating the present and building a future; PAC's work helps us understand that.

Here's the PAC-SJ website and a description of its 20th anniversary celebration.  Clearly B'game is a few years behind San Jose, but perhaps we are catching up as people wake up to the sterile reality of a tear-down, throw-away, McMansion world?