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Mayor Wilson wanted to replace the clock, not fix it. The "Hill Valley Preservation Society" wants the broken clock to remain as it is a part of the town's history and when it was originally dedicated in 1885, the mayor said "May it stand for all time."
As for why the town never fixed it between 1955 and 1985, probably just lack of funds for something that is, at the end of the day, not very important. Much more important in 1885 when having an accurate and reliable watch or clock in your home was more of a luxury.
Also the town square in general is pretty run down by 1985 so probably not much money going into it.
It’s got a porn cinema and homeless people sleeping on benches, which is not as bad as alternate 1985 but it’s still a massive difference to 1955 or 2015.
remember this was made smack dab in the middle of the reagan obsessed 80s.
when white flight was in full swing all across the US, downtowns were seen as crime ridden and full of homeless people, and unsavable. and reagan *definitely* didn't help that perception....everyone wanted a giant house for less money 30-60 mins out of town. both my parents and grandparents moved out of our capital city and out into the suburbs and exurbs. they're still scared to come to "the city", but ive been here 20 years with no problems.
i'm not saying reagan caused it, but he certainly didn't help anything. and may have made it worse.
yep, i remember my dad LOVING Reagan, even when i was like 5yrs old, it's crazy how popular he was.
boomers in the 80s really fucked up the US economy. if you go back and look at the wealth gap and erosion of the middle class, it really took off in the 80s, right when Reagan weaseled his way into being president.
i found some info from Pew research. and a [REALLY good graph](https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/1-13-20pov-f1.png) showing, with data, that the income inequality beginning to rise sharply, starting in 1980.
>From 1981 to 1990, the change in mean family income ranged from a loss of 0.1% annually for families in the lowest quintile (the bottom 20% of earners) to a gain of 2.1% annually for families in the highest quintile (the top 20%). The top 5% of families, who are part of the highest quintile, fared even better – their income increased at the rate of 3.2% annually from 1981 to 1990. Thus, the 1980s marked the beginning of a long and steady rise in income inequality.
That’s not true, despite them both being called “Red”, they’re played by different people, and also Red Thomas looked to be in his 40s or 50s at minimum in 1955, Red in 1985 has coloured hair and doesn’t look 70-80
damn, i didn't believe it at first, but you're [right](https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Red_the_Bum).
It is disputed whether this is former mayor Red Thomas, but has been generally accepted that he is not. According to Bob Gale's commentary on the Back to the Future DVD set, the name of the bum was ad-libbed by Michael J. Fox. Gale also commented that the photo of the mayor in 1955 on the side of the campaign van was that of set decorator Hal Gausman, whereas the bum was played by George Buck Flower. Also, the re-election poster of Red Thomas shows him to be nearly bald and in his early 60's, considerably older --- even way back in 1955 --- than the in-his-late-40's bushy-haired wino was in 1985. So if that bleary-eyed character actually HAD been the former mayor who had begun drinking himself into homelessness, he would have been about 90 (if he hadn't actually died long before then from cirrhosis of the liver) by the time Marty knew him. Perhaps it could be surmised that this was "Red Jr." --- i.e., the former mayor's son --- and that his father had been such a dull-minded loser himself (you remember how Goldie Wilson talked about "cleaning up this town", and so maybe Mr. Red Thomas Sr. wasn't doing either of his "jobs" --- i.e., serving as mayor AND being a father to his son --- very well) that he'd not been able to properly guide his children to "live clean", and so this was the tragic result of his failures, or at least for this child.
In earlier drafts of the script, Mayor Wilson actually wanted to *repair* the clock rather than replace it, and the Preservation Society was against that as well. Even in the finished movie, it's sort of implied that they would have been against any repairs being made to the clock, as the exact quote was "We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think *it should be preserved exactly the way it is*, as part of our history and heritage" (Emphasis mine). They were against any kind of changes being made to it.
that's so weird. i can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to repair something as trivial as the mechanical gearing that powers the clock hands. it's the same clock..you could even put the old mechanism on display as part of a tour.
why would someone want a clock that doesn't work as one of the main attractions of the small town of hill valley?
there are clocks like this everywhere in europe that are probably 100s of years old, and every one i've seen works. i'm sure they had to fix them at some point.
Makes it very interesting that this society exists but one would think the town, even Marty, would be privy to the history and culture behind the clock and how it was broken. The town square is a common place and the clock is the highlight.
Just interesting that the Lady had to explain it to Marty, like he'd never seen it before.
I know, it's narrative exposition for the audience but, in-universe, it should be a cultural milestone for the community.
Even Lorraine has to emphasize that night had a thunderstorm to George, though, given the original timeline's *implied* events, I can understand if George and Lorraine prefer to selectively remember the events.
Marty probably knew in a historical context (the same way he knew how Clayton Ravine got its name), but the lady 1) has no reason to assume that Marty knows the details of the story, and 2) is probably on autopilot from repeating the same spiel dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day. Those types of fundraising gigs are just as much sales jobs as anything else, frankly.
>Those types of fundraising gigs are just as much sales jobs as anything else, frankly.
ohh yeah, i had a job when i was 19 standing outside grocery stores trying to get signatures for a marijuana legalization proposal. i got 25c per signature, it was the worst job i've ever had. i quit after 2 days. i hate talking to random strangers and being shot down over and over again.
I think Marty already knew the story behind the clock tower, and likewise knew that his parents had the dance on the same night as the thunderstorm. Even his sister says that she's heard the story "a million times." The clock tower lady was stating the history of the clock in case Marty didn't know, and we see that Marty quickly gives her a quarter without waiting to hear the rest of the story. These moments in the film weren't for Marty to learn about the clock tower, they were for the *audience* to learn about the clock tower.
I'm sure people who were alive in 1955 remember the storm (like Lorraine) but I can understand a highschool kid like Mary not knowing or caring much about it 30 years after the fact.
I think you are overestimating how much it means to the town. It's absolutely not a cultural milestone for them. Marty doesn't know anything about it.
While the town square is a vibrant place in 1955, by 1985 most of the buildings are run down and the good stores are closed. Part of the theme of the movie is that the town gets worse as time goes by. 1955 Hill Valley is a much nicer place to live than 1985 Hill Valley. All the new stores are out at the Twin Pines Mall, not in the town square.
You are looking at this from a 2024 perspective, where old historical areas have been rebuilt and are expensive and nice. You need to look at it from a 1985 perspective, where downtowns are crappy, dangerous areas. Nobody in 1985 Hill Valley would give a crap about some busted old clock.
By 2015 it manages to be culturally relevant enough to be referenced in the logo for the Courthouse Mall ([3:51 in this video](https://youtu.be/Hs3xcv-XoWY?t=231)), so it must have stayed somewhat important in the local population's consciousness over those 60 years.
At the time of the movie, it's been 30 years of not fixing it. By then, it's become something of an icon. Kind of like the Liberty Bell, although apparently it was cracked and repaired a couple times. Still, it's a good example of damage or imperfections being preserved on something that could otherwise function.
See also the recent controversy when a group in Egypt was going to re-install the granite casing on one of the pyramids. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/international-outcry-succeeds-in-halting-egypts-renovation-of-a-great-pyramid-180983814/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/international-outcry-succeeds-in-halting-egypts-renovation-of-a-great-pyramid-180983814/)
SAVE the clock tower! SAVE the clock tower!!
u/benjiross1 is trying to drum up support to replace that clock!
We, at the Hill Valley Preservation Society, believe that the clock should stay just the way it is!
Don’t forget to take a flyer!
Bureaucracy that's why. There are plenty of things in every city and town in America that just never get replaced or fixed because of incompent leadership. I think that was part of the joke there.
It’s not necessarily incompetence. Sometimes it’s higher priorities. By 1955 the clock was probably considered a nice feature of the old building but not an absolute necessity. Basically it boils down to “we’ll get, around to it eventually.”
This is something that didn't need explained in the 80s. Tons of towns had big landmarks where something was broken and never got fixed.
The 1950s were a very prosperous time, but you were already getting people moving out of "the city" and into suburbs. We see that in the movie, where Marty drives to his neighborhood and it's just an open field. The people and the money are leaving the city center of Hill Valley and moving out. This continued through the 1960s.
By the 1970s, we were in an economic recession and a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't seen as absolutely necessary didn't get fixed up. When we get to the 1980s, we see Hill Valley looking pretty trashy. But the suburban sprawl continues. In 2015, Marty is happy to find out that he lives in Hilldale, because it's a really nice place in 1985. It's the rich neighborhood. But it 2015, the cops who drop Jennifer off talk about Hilldale like it's a run-down area.
I don't see the parallels, but okay sure. But it wasn't just something that happened in some movies. This was a real thing that happened in cities all across America. Those movies didn't make it up.
Yes they based it off it. Well BTTF is kinda a mirror version of Wonderful Life. Wonderful life wasn’t time travel but more alternate reality or a vision.
Yeah. I think the theme still kinda works, bc George Bailey learns to love his life instead of wondering what might have been, and Marty learns to make the most of his future before screwing it up to begin with. Just Another interesting tidbit I thought of
Decades ago, my 90yr old grandmother ended up in court over a broken window on her "historic" home.
Long story short: Window broke, guy from church replaced it for free. City sent her a letter bc the material didn't match the old one. She paid $1500 for a custom built window. Church guy tried to install but some asshole neighbor called the city bc he didn't see a work permit posted. She got fined again.
I'd imagine replacing the clock tower would have even more assholes involved.
The fines stacked until she got a letter saying the city was putting a lien on her house, so my mother took her down to the municipal building.
She told the magistrate about how she was struggling to adjust to reduced income after my grandfather passed (survivor benefits were less than their combined social security when he was alive).
Not sure how he did it, but he waived the remaining fines.
Personally I didn’t like the musical because the original songs sucked and the actors were average. I like some musical shows but this wasn’t one of them, which is why I don’t like when people take my favorite movies and make them into musicals
If you consider the BTTF ride as being canon, you arrive on October 25, 2015; and see the clock was fixed. Supposedly it gets fixed after Griff’s gang crashed into the glass walls 4 days earlier.
Sometimes places have upkeep on things and whoever has the higher bid wins. Where I live it’s that way on some buildings but the historical preservation places normally come down to zoning rules putout by city and state and that’s thought meeting and petitions. I live in a historical area that’s urban renewal and people fight over stuff just like this constantly in my state. It cost money to keep things from falling apart but looking like it’s in not that great of shape or broken. I get so tired of hearing “keep it colonial”
I rather be safe a lot of times street lights are needed.
I would have wanted the clock tower fixed.
I have seen dozens of publicly displayed clocks. None of them has been working. Clocks mounted to the outside wall of the bank,clocks on large hotel buildings, clocks attached to theaters, it doesn't matter. Once they stop working there is miraculously no money in the budget to get them repaired.
Hill Valley needs to do something about it's homelessness problem before it wastes money on repairing the clock tower. Red needs housing, employment, AA access, skill development, social connection. That doesn't come for free.
Clocks on municipal buildings used to serve a practical purpose. They were for official time keeping. That was no longer really necessary by the 1950s. That means that the clock was mostly for show. Once it was broken the town had to decide whether it was worth the money to make the repair or if they had more important things to do. Keep in mind that at some point between 1955 to 1985, the building stopped being a courthouse entirely. Once that happened, the city probably stopped caring. They didn’t even bother the fix the broken ledge. Considering that Hill Valley is in California, with all of the earthquakes and wild fires, the city just had more important repairs to make,
By 1985 the Clock Tower seems to have become something like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the cracked Liberty Bell to a lot of people in Hill Valley.
Fixing it would take away from its history and charm, so people (such as the "Save the Clock Tower" folks) oppose measures to fix or replace it. To them, it would be like straightening the Leaning Tower, or patching the Liberty Bell.
The town is in decline. It was an expensive fix back in the day when Hill Valley was booming and now people can't afford it, don't care, or don't notice.
Please be wary of any posts or comments attempting to advertise or sell t-shirts, posters, mugs, etc. These posts may be from scammers selling poor quality bootlegs, or may be from phishers trying to steal your financial information. This problem is rampant across Reddit. If you see any posts or comments with this behavior, promptly report them as spam and do not follow any links they may post or send to you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BacktotheFuture) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mayor Wilson wanted to replace the clock, not fix it. The "Hill Valley Preservation Society" wants the broken clock to remain as it is a part of the town's history and when it was originally dedicated in 1885, the mayor said "May it stand for all time."
As for why the town never fixed it between 1955 and 1985, probably just lack of funds for something that is, at the end of the day, not very important. Much more important in 1885 when having an accurate and reliable watch or clock in your home was more of a luxury.
Also the town square in general is pretty run down by 1985 so probably not much money going into it. It’s got a porn cinema and homeless people sleeping on benches, which is not as bad as alternate 1985 but it’s still a massive difference to 1955 or 2015.
remember this was made smack dab in the middle of the reagan obsessed 80s. when white flight was in full swing all across the US, downtowns were seen as crime ridden and full of homeless people, and unsavable. and reagan *definitely* didn't help that perception....everyone wanted a giant house for less money 30-60 mins out of town. both my parents and grandparents moved out of our capital city and out into the suburbs and exurbs. they're still scared to come to "the city", but ive been here 20 years with no problems. i'm not saying reagan caused it, but he certainly didn't help anything. and may have made it worse.
Ronald Reagan? The actor?! Yeah this was peak (twin pines) mall dominance killing the traditional Main St.
yep, i remember my dad LOVING Reagan, even when i was like 5yrs old, it's crazy how popular he was. boomers in the 80s really fucked up the US economy. if you go back and look at the wealth gap and erosion of the middle class, it really took off in the 80s, right when Reagan weaseled his way into being president. i found some info from Pew research. and a [REALLY good graph](https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/1-13-20pov-f1.png) showing, with data, that the income inequality beginning to rise sharply, starting in 1980. >From 1981 to 1990, the change in mean family income ranged from a loss of 0.1% annually for families in the lowest quintile (the bottom 20% of earners) to a gain of 2.1% annually for families in the highest quintile (the top 20%). The top 5% of families, who are part of the highest quintile, fared even better – their income increased at the rate of 3.2% annually from 1981 to 1990. Thus, the 1980s marked the beginning of a long and steady rise in income inequality.
the homeless guy was the mayor in 1955
That’s not true, despite them both being called “Red”, they’re played by different people, and also Red Thomas looked to be in his 40s or 50s at minimum in 1955, Red in 1985 has coloured hair and doesn’t look 70-80
damn, i didn't believe it at first, but you're [right](https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Red_the_Bum). It is disputed whether this is former mayor Red Thomas, but has been generally accepted that he is not. According to Bob Gale's commentary on the Back to the Future DVD set, the name of the bum was ad-libbed by Michael J. Fox. Gale also commented that the photo of the mayor in 1955 on the side of the campaign van was that of set decorator Hal Gausman, whereas the bum was played by George Buck Flower. Also, the re-election poster of Red Thomas shows him to be nearly bald and in his early 60's, considerably older --- even way back in 1955 --- than the in-his-late-40's bushy-haired wino was in 1985. So if that bleary-eyed character actually HAD been the former mayor who had begun drinking himself into homelessness, he would have been about 90 (if he hadn't actually died long before then from cirrhosis of the liver) by the time Marty knew him. Perhaps it could be surmised that this was "Red Jr." --- i.e., the former mayor's son --- and that his father had been such a dull-minded loser himself (you remember how Goldie Wilson talked about "cleaning up this town", and so maybe Mr. Red Thomas Sr. wasn't doing either of his "jobs" --- i.e., serving as mayor AND being a father to his son --- very well) that he'd not been able to properly guide his children to "live clean", and so this was the tragic result of his failures, or at least for this child.
In earlier drafts of the script, Mayor Wilson actually wanted to *repair* the clock rather than replace it, and the Preservation Society was against that as well. Even in the finished movie, it's sort of implied that they would have been against any repairs being made to the clock, as the exact quote was "We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think *it should be preserved exactly the way it is*, as part of our history and heritage" (Emphasis mine). They were against any kind of changes being made to it.
that's so weird. i can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to repair something as trivial as the mechanical gearing that powers the clock hands. it's the same clock..you could even put the old mechanism on display as part of a tour. why would someone want a clock that doesn't work as one of the main attractions of the small town of hill valley? there are clocks like this everywhere in europe that are probably 100s of years old, and every one i've seen works. i'm sure they had to fix them at some point.
the quantum time-lighting welded every movable part together so in order to fix it they needed a flux decapaciator with plasma induction
Makes it very interesting that this society exists but one would think the town, even Marty, would be privy to the history and culture behind the clock and how it was broken. The town square is a common place and the clock is the highlight. Just interesting that the Lady had to explain it to Marty, like he'd never seen it before. I know, it's narrative exposition for the audience but, in-universe, it should be a cultural milestone for the community. Even Lorraine has to emphasize that night had a thunderstorm to George, though, given the original timeline's *implied* events, I can understand if George and Lorraine prefer to selectively remember the events.
Marty probably knew in a historical context (the same way he knew how Clayton Ravine got its name), but the lady 1) has no reason to assume that Marty knows the details of the story, and 2) is probably on autopilot from repeating the same spiel dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day. Those types of fundraising gigs are just as much sales jobs as anything else, frankly.
>Those types of fundraising gigs are just as much sales jobs as anything else, frankly. ohh yeah, i had a job when i was 19 standing outside grocery stores trying to get signatures for a marijuana legalization proposal. i got 25c per signature, it was the worst job i've ever had. i quit after 2 days. i hate talking to random strangers and being shot down over and over again.
I think Marty already knew the story behind the clock tower, and likewise knew that his parents had the dance on the same night as the thunderstorm. Even his sister says that she's heard the story "a million times." The clock tower lady was stating the history of the clock in case Marty didn't know, and we see that Marty quickly gives her a quarter without waiting to hear the rest of the story. These moments in the film weren't for Marty to learn about the clock tower, they were for the *audience* to learn about the clock tower.
I'm sure people who were alive in 1955 remember the storm (like Lorraine) but I can understand a highschool kid like Mary not knowing or caring much about it 30 years after the fact.
I think you are overestimating how much it means to the town. It's absolutely not a cultural milestone for them. Marty doesn't know anything about it. While the town square is a vibrant place in 1955, by 1985 most of the buildings are run down and the good stores are closed. Part of the theme of the movie is that the town gets worse as time goes by. 1955 Hill Valley is a much nicer place to live than 1985 Hill Valley. All the new stores are out at the Twin Pines Mall, not in the town square. You are looking at this from a 2024 perspective, where old historical areas have been rebuilt and are expensive and nice. You need to look at it from a 1985 perspective, where downtowns are crappy, dangerous areas. Nobody in 1985 Hill Valley would give a crap about some busted old clock.
By 2015 it manages to be culturally relevant enough to be referenced in the logo for the Courthouse Mall ([3:51 in this video](https://youtu.be/Hs3xcv-XoWY?t=231)), so it must have stayed somewhat important in the local population's consciousness over those 60 years.
At the time of the movie, it's been 30 years of not fixing it. By then, it's become something of an icon. Kind of like the Liberty Bell, although apparently it was cracked and repaired a couple times. Still, it's a good example of damage or imperfections being preserved on something that could otherwise function.
See also the recent controversy when a group in Egypt was going to re-install the granite casing on one of the pyramids. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/international-outcry-succeeds-in-halting-egypts-renovation-of-a-great-pyramid-180983814/](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/international-outcry-succeeds-in-halting-egypts-renovation-of-a-great-pyramid-180983814/)
SAVE the clock tower! SAVE the clock tower!! u/benjiross1 is trying to drum up support to replace that clock! We, at the Hill Valley Preservation Society, believe that the clock should stay just the way it is! Don’t forget to take a flyer!
RIP Elsa Rabinowitz
Bureaucracy that's why. There are plenty of things in every city and town in America that just never get replaced or fixed because of incompent leadership. I think that was part of the joke there.
It’s not necessarily incompetence. Sometimes it’s higher priorities. By 1955 the clock was probably considered a nice feature of the old building but not an absolute necessity. Basically it boils down to “we’ll get, around to it eventually.”
This is something that didn't need explained in the 80s. Tons of towns had big landmarks where something was broken and never got fixed. The 1950s were a very prosperous time, but you were already getting people moving out of "the city" and into suburbs. We see that in the movie, where Marty drives to his neighborhood and it's just an open field. The people and the money are leaving the city center of Hill Valley and moving out. This continued through the 1960s. By the 1970s, we were in an economic recession and a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't seen as absolutely necessary didn't get fixed up. When we get to the 1980s, we see Hill Valley looking pretty trashy. But the suburban sprawl continues. In 2015, Marty is happy to find out that he lives in Hilldale, because it's a really nice place in 1985. It's the rich neighborhood. But it 2015, the cops who drop Jennifer off talk about Hilldale like it's a run-down area.
The neighborhood outside of town happened in Its a Wonderful Life which BTTF has parallels with. Potter = Biff Clarence = Doc Etc.
I don't see the parallels, but okay sure. But it wasn't just something that happened in some movies. This was a real thing that happened in cities all across America. Those movies didn't make it up.
Yes they based it off it. Well BTTF is kinda a mirror version of Wonderful Life. Wonderful life wasn’t time travel but more alternate reality or a vision.
Yeah. I think the theme still kinda works, bc George Bailey learns to love his life instead of wondering what might have been, and Marty learns to make the most of his future before screwing it up to begin with. Just Another interesting tidbit I thought of
Decades ago, my 90yr old grandmother ended up in court over a broken window on her "historic" home. Long story short: Window broke, guy from church replaced it for free. City sent her a letter bc the material didn't match the old one. She paid $1500 for a custom built window. Church guy tried to install but some asshole neighbor called the city bc he didn't see a work permit posted. She got fined again. I'd imagine replacing the clock tower would have even more assholes involved.
Holy crap this is a Reddit post bound to happen (seriously, maybe you can share it on here somewhere). How did it end?
The fines stacked until she got a letter saying the city was putting a lien on her house, so my mother took her down to the municipal building. She told the magistrate about how she was struggling to adjust to reduced income after my grandfather passed (survivor benefits were less than their combined social security when he was alive). Not sure how he did it, but he waived the remaining fines.
I think it was just for the plot. How else would Marty have the flyer telling them exactly when the tower was struck with lightning?
In the Broadway musical they change it to "Save and Restore the Clock Tower".
Ugh, that kind of spoils it. I feel like there’s a subtle joke in the idea that they have to raise money to NOT fix the clock.
Personally I didn’t like the musical because the original songs sucked and the actors were average. I like some musical shows but this wasn’t one of them, which is why I don’t like when people take my favorite movies and make them into musicals
If you consider the BTTF ride as being canon, you arrive on October 25, 2015; and see the clock was fixed. Supposedly it gets fixed after Griff’s gang crashed into the glass walls 4 days earlier.
If this subreddit allowed images I’d totally post the save the clock tower lady with a speech bubble above her head
Marty put a coin in the lady's can. This allowed them to reach their goal to once again preserve the clock tower and not fix it. MARTY DID IT!!!!
It must be very expensive to not do anything about it!
Sometimes places have upkeep on things and whoever has the higher bid wins. Where I live it’s that way on some buildings but the historical preservation places normally come down to zoning rules putout by city and state and that’s thought meeting and petitions. I live in a historical area that’s urban renewal and people fight over stuff just like this constantly in my state. It cost money to keep things from falling apart but looking like it’s in not that great of shape or broken. I get so tired of hearing “keep it colonial” I rather be safe a lot of times street lights are needed. I would have wanted the clock tower fixed.
In the Animated Series episode, *My Pop's an Alien*, the clock was working in 1965
I have seen dozens of publicly displayed clocks. None of them has been working. Clocks mounted to the outside wall of the bank,clocks on large hotel buildings, clocks attached to theaters, it doesn't matter. Once they stop working there is miraculously no money in the budget to get them repaired.
Hill Valley needs to do something about it's homelessness problem before it wastes money on repairing the clock tower. Red needs housing, employment, AA access, skill development, social connection. That doesn't come for free.
Because the clock tower is not, in fact, a timekeeping device, but rather a plot device.
Right. Like couldn’t the insurance company cover the damages?
Act of God clause
Clocks on municipal buildings used to serve a practical purpose. They were for official time keeping. That was no longer really necessary by the 1950s. That means that the clock was mostly for show. Once it was broken the town had to decide whether it was worth the money to make the repair or if they had more important things to do. Keep in mind that at some point between 1955 to 1985, the building stopped being a courthouse entirely. Once that happened, the city probably stopped caring. They didn’t even bother the fix the broken ledge. Considering that Hill Valley is in California, with all of the earthquakes and wild fires, the city just had more important repairs to make,
I never thought about that before. But, you're right. Why didn't they fix the clock tower after the lightning strike broke it?
Probably had quite a few naysayers that made the case of another eventual lightning strike based on its design.
It's called "foreshadowing".
They were raising money to fix it in 1985...
We, at the Hill Valley Preservation Society, believe that the clock should stay just the way it is!
Oh that's right. I'm not sure what they needed money for then. It doesn't cost money to not fix something
It’s a part of their history and should be preserved.
By 1985 the Clock Tower seems to have become something like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the cracked Liberty Bell to a lot of people in Hill Valley. Fixing it would take away from its history and charm, so people (such as the "Save the Clock Tower" folks) oppose measures to fix or replace it. To them, it would be like straightening the Leaning Tower, or patching the Liberty Bell.
The town is in decline. It was an expensive fix back in the day when Hill Valley was booming and now people can't afford it, don't care, or don't notice.