Detroit in Ruins

[YankeeFan]

A photo essay:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit#/?picture=370173054&index=0

15 more photos like this one:

 

[Batman]

Is that one of those 3D posters that, if you stare at it long enough, an image pops out?
Gotta be either that or one of those M.C. Escher posters you buy in a college bookstore your freshman year and hang on your dorm room wall.

 

[Football_Bat]

These pictures make me almost physically ill. Looking at all the artifacts left behind in the abandonment. The books, the chandelier, the upended grand piano.

 

[playthrough]

There's a cult of people who photograph ruins in once-great cities. Mezmerizing, sad stuff. And a pretty dangerous hobby given the condition of all those buildings.

 

[YankeeFan]

These pictures make me almost physically ill. Looking at all the artifacts left behind in the abandonment. The books, the chandelier, the upended grand piano.

I watched the Kite Runner on Netflix last night.

I was thinking about how sad it must have been for people to have to abandon their city and know that it had fallen into disrepair.

Then I look at this and think about my mother & her family who are from Detroit and think how sad it must be for them.

It looks like something post apocalyptic.

 

[Stitch]

These pictures make me almost physically ill. Looking at all the artifacts left behind in the abandonment. The books, the chandelier, the upended grand piano.

I watched the Kite Runner on Netflix last night.

I was thinking about how sad it must have been for people to have to abandon their city and know that it had fallen into disrepair.

Then I look at this and think about my mother & her family who are from Detroit and think how sad it must be for them.

It looks like something post apocalyptic.

I wonder if it's worse in other large Rust Belt cities?

 

[Armchair_QB]

These pictures make me almost physically ill. Looking at all the artifacts left behind in the abandonment. The books, the chandelier, the upended grand piano.

I watched the Kite Runner on Netflix last night.

I was thinking about how sad it must have been for people to have to abandon their city and know that it had fallen into disrepair.

Then I look at this and think about my mother & her family who are from Detroit and think how sad it must be for them.

It looks like something post apocalyptic.

I wonder if it's worse in other large Rust Belt cities?

The only place that leaps to mind is Gary, Indiana.

Bigger cities like Cleveland & Pittsburgh have done a pretty good job remaking themselves. Detroit just seems to be rotting away at it's core and not enough people seem to care.

 

[poindexter]

Somebody like JR would remember this...remember the urban prairies we linked here years ago?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMV8_J49diKs

This may or may not have been the same link...

Very interesting stuff. Sad.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I've seen a few other sites about ruins of Detroit and other places. There was one of Tiger Stadium before it got demolished.

Very sad to see. Too bad they can't be restored.

 

[slappy4428]

A photo essay:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit#/?picture=370173054&index=0

15 more photos like this one:

Six years old, a friend's mom took us to see Dr. Dolittle for her son's birthday party. Found the first crush of my life in that movie with Samantha Eggar -- all in that very balcony.

 

[Liut]

BookTV interviewed a photojournalist on this very subject a few months ago. Fascinating and sad at the same time.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Just saw a TV report that some company had relocated to Detroit and was adding 3500 or so jobs, and that another company had just expanded its hiring there.

It's not rocket science. It takes jobs to rebuild the Rustbelt. Buffalo, Erie, Detroit, Cleveland have lots of cheap water and cheap land. I know there's more to it than that, but those places have the use the assets they have to actract business.

 

[WolvEagle]

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has talked about consolidating the city - moving people out of some areas and focusing city services on where the people would be. Some parts of the city would be great expanses of nothing. A great idea, but lotsa luck paying for a bunch of eminent domain.

One place where that did work, though, was the Herman Gardens housing project on the west side, which is now an open field. At one time, it was the largest housing project in the nation. It still looks weird to see the open field when I drive along the Southfield Freeway.

The biggest example of urban decay is the Michigan Central rail station - about 10 stories tall and rotting. It used to be beautiful. The ironic thing is it's the first thing you see when you come off the Ambassador Bridge, which like the rail station, is owned by that SOB Matty Moroun, who is very good at paying off politicians to vote against the proposed second, publicly owned, bridge across the Detroit River. The second bridge needs to be built. The Ontario and Canadian governments want it. Moroun's Lansing lackeys keep shooting it down. I'd love to see the second bridge be built (it's needed!) and for people to abandon Matty's bridge. Eff him.

 

[mustangj17]

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has talked about consolidating the city - moving people out of some areas and focusing city services on where the people would be. Some parts of the city would be great expanses of nothing. A great idea, but lotsa luck paying for a bunch of eminent domain.

One place where that did work, though, was the Herman Gardens housing project on the west side, which is now an open field. At one time, it was the largest housing project in the nation. It still looks weird to see the open field when I drive along the Southfield Freeway.

The biggest example of urban decay is the Michigan Central rail station - about 10 stories tall and rotting. It used to be beautiful. The ironic thing is it's the first thing you see when you come off the Ambassador Bridge, which like the rail station, is owned by that SOB Matty Moroun, who is very good at paying off politicians to vote against the proposed second, publicly owned, bridge across the Detroit River. The second bridge needs to be built. The Ontario and Canadian governments want it. Moroun's Lansing lackeys keep shooting it down. I'd love to see the second bridge be built (it's needed!) and for people to abandon Matty's bridge. Eff him.

Matty is an asshole who screwed over most of his family to turn the family business into the empire that it is. So it doesn't surpise me that he screws the city by keeping all of his decaying buildings sitting around for no reason.

 

[nmmetsfan]

I've never been to Detroit but those pictures tug on me a bit.

One thing I couldn't help thinking was about the left behind stuff in the classroom, the police station and the library. You'd think they'd move that stuff or get rid of it before shutting down the building? It's almost like a lost civilization, one where life ceased without warning. You'd think Detroit had already been through the Rapture.

 

[heyabbott]

The American Pompeii, Capitalism erupted and left devestation in its aftermath.

 

[Double J]

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has talked about consolidating the city - moving people out of some areas and focusing city services on where the people would be. Some parts of the city would be great expanses of nothing. A great idea, but lotsa luck paying for a bunch of eminent domain.

One place where that did work, though, was the Herman Gardens housing project on the west side, which is now an open field. At one time, it was the largest housing project in the nation. It still looks weird to see the open field when I drive along the Southfield Freeway.

The biggest example of urban decay is the Michigan Central rail station - about 10 stories tall and rotting. It used to be beautiful. The ironic thing is it's the first thing you see when you come off the Ambassador Bridge, which like the rail station, is owned by that SOB Matty Moroun, who is very good at paying off politicians to vote against the proposed second, publicly owned, bridge across the Detroit River. The second bridge needs to be built. The Ontario and Canadian governments want it. Moroun's Lansing lackeys keep shooting it down. I'd love to see the second bridge be built (it's needed!) and for people to abandon Matty's bridge. Eff him.

Matty is an asshole who screwed over most of his family to turn the family business into the empire that it is. So it doesn't surpise me that he screws the city by keeping all of his decaying buildings sitting around for no reason.

Sarnia-Port Huron is a much better/easier border crossing.

 

[Armchair_QB]

The American Pompeii, Capitalism erupted and left devestation in its aftermath.

Why didn't this happen in Cleveland and Pittsburgh then? I know they had their down times in the 70s & 80s but neither city is in anywhere near the trouble Detroit is.

 

[JayFarrar]

In my town, a long way from Detroit, they turned over the high school to the local little theater group after a new campus was built on the other side of town.

They used the auditorium and cafeteria for productions. And some other rooms for storage and such.

The rest of the building was abandoned but since the school was getting all new equipment, everything was left behind.

The really crappy Apples were still in the computer lab. The desks, the chairs, the chemistry lab. Everything was still out but just covered in dust.
It was very odd to see.

And that's in a town with a population of 4,000. I'd imagine that a major city would hundreds, if not thousands, of such buildings that were abandoned.

As for Detroit, it still seems like a renaissance is possible there. Homes and property are so cheap and parts of the city are still really nice from everything I hear from people who live and travel there.

 

[Armchair_QB]

In my town, a long way from Detroit, they turned over the high school to the local little theater group after a new campus was built on the other side of town.

They used the auditorium and cafeteria for productions. And some other rooms for storage and such.

The rest of the building was abandoned but since the school was getting all new equipment, everything was left behind.

The really crappy Apples were still in the computer lab. The desks, the chairs, the chemistry lab. Everything was still out but just covered in dust.
It was very odd to see.

And that's in a town with a population of 4,000. I'd imagine that a major city would hundreds, if not thousands, of such buildings that were abandoned.

As for Detroit, it still seems like a renaissance is possible there. Homes and property are so cheap and parts of the city are still really nice from everything I hear from people who live and travel there.

Any idea why the school district didn't make the effort to sell off the equipment, fixtures, etc. to raise money? Or was that just too much of a bother for them?