Detroit in Ruins

Dabbling for years I believe.

 

If you haven't already, go here:

www.opacity.us

 

There's another slideshow with more pictures at the photographers' website:

http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html

 

What's interesting is that Germany has post-industrial wastelands like the Rust Belt, but is doing OK in some areas.

Deustche Welle had a story on how a city in what was East Germany did.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6358119,00.html

 

There's a site dedicated to modern ruins of Japan:

http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/ruins-gallery/

As for the Rust Belt, Detroit is a symbol of urban decline, but it's hardly alone. Eight out of the top 10 cities in the 1950 Census had their population peak that year (only NY and LA didn't), and Cleveland and St. Louis have lost a greater percentage of its residents than has Detroit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_cities_in_the_United_States_by_population_by_decade

White flight was a factor then, but Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester and Dayton all have declining metro population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Combined_Statistical_Areas

You'll find even more of this in a lot of the smaller Rust Belt cities that had one or two major employers. The I-69 stretch is a graveyard of small- to mid-size cities with past industrial glories: Anderson, Muncie and Marion in Indiana, and Flint, Port Huron and Lansing in Michigan. Anderson once had 30,000 GM workers. Now it has zero.

 

Not just white flight, but urban renewal, redlining, Title 1 and 2 financing the building of the suburbs and the Interstate Highway act all contributed to the decline of cities. A bit of racism is in there as well--bankers refusing to give loans out/give extravagant rates to people in inner-cities and the cronyism that kept all the white male banking buddies together on the various planning boards.

Change has come slowly, but many cities are making a comeback...Heck the Upper West Side of Manhattan used to be a dump.