Lost Detroit

[Barklessdog]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20101002&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=10020806&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=10

With Detroit's shrinking population, the city has begun to tear down entire neighborhoods, planning to loose a third of its size, as its unable to afford city services to the areas of dwindling population. They are turning much of it back into farm land. Pretty sad.

[Highlander]

What was that movie with Will Smith, and before him, Charlton Heston...? either that or a song by REM...

[lowend1]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20101002&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=10020806&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=10They are turning much of it back into farm land. Pretty sad.

Considering the situation it sounds like a pretty darn good solution to me. At least the land will (hopefully) produce something.

[OldManC]

It's sad that the city has had such a long decline. Some of those beautiful buildings have sat abandoned for 30 years? You'd think someone would have done something in that amount of time to try and stop the decline...

[Chaser001]

What was that movie with Will Smith, and before him, Charlton Heston...? either that or a song by REM...

Soylent Green and I Am Legend.  I only become aware of the Will Smith movie not long ago. 

[TBird1958]

That is really hard to look at, very sad to see such once beautiful interiors and buildings left to the vandals........I hope Seattle never falls to this 

[Pilgrim]

I believe you're thinking of The Omega Man, not Soylent Green.

Perhaps it's sad - perhaps it's just evolution in society.  Of course, it's easier to be dispassionate when you're not one of the displaced.

[Highlander]

Al just pipped me to the typing...

Nearly Michael... the Heston film was The Omega Man - both films were from the same story... but Harry Harrison's "Make Room, Make Room" (filmed as Soylent) is equally apocalyptic... Edward G's last movie; he knew he was dying when he played that death scene; possibly one of the most honest and emotional portayals I've ever seen...

[Barklessdog]

http://detnews.com/article/20100919/OPINION03/9190309/The-three-I-s-of-Detroit-s-decline

Two-thirds of Detroit residents don't have a high school diploma. Half are functionally illiterate. Only about 10 percent graduated from college. Illegitimacy is a direct by-product of ignorance. More than 70 percent of the city's babies are born to unwed mothers, and more than half to teen-agers. There's no greater predictor of poverty. Most Detroit babies are added to the welfare rolls before they leave the delivery room.

Already, Urban Farming, an international outfit that has made Detroit its headquarters, is said to boast some 500 small plots under cultivation to supply free food to the city's poor. "It wouldn't surprise me, frankly, if Detroit produces more food inside its borders today than any other traditional American city," Renn writes.

Even raccoon- and pheasant-hunting is not unheard of within the protein-poor city's limits. Yes, a retired truck driver reportedly shoots raccoons and sells them as food, at $12 per carcass to feed a family of four.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100919/OPINION03/9190309/The-three-I-s-of-Detroit-s-decline#ixzz11VDcE8BP

[eb2]

I bet in our lifetimes we will see it happen more. Detroit is a rare example of bad business planning and short-sighted union representation working alongside inept and/or corrupt local government.  Rare but not unprecedented.  It is a cousin of Gary Indiana, and to some degree the abandoned cities of the Roman empire and along the silk road.  But the Romans probably had better schools.  In a way Detroit is returning to the development and size it would have had prior to 1900.  The auto industry was kind of a century-long boom town blip.  You see similar shifts throughout the US in cities in different ways.  The flight of traditional families from neighborhoods of cities of the northeast hasn't meant abandonment, but a social and economic shift - a reversion - to the patterns of the people who lived there in the streetcar era.  Black families began moving from the industrial cities of the north in small but observable and documented numbers to the deep south starting in the early 80s.  The sun belt has been growing over the last 30 years, the rust belt has been declining, and the northeast has been festering.  We live in interesting times.

Detroit is great for those guys who sell old doors, mantelpieces, lights, etc.  Kind of like that scene in Patton where the bedouins find the watches and fillings.

[gweimer]

Interesting timing on this.  CNN has been running a short piece on Detroit and the apparent lack of fresh food available locally.  They are interviewing people who are trying to get urban farming started in areas like this. 

[Chaser001]

I read an article about Detroit around a year ago which discussed many of these things.  One thing that struck me is that it seemed like some people there were offended that other people were saying what they considered to be negative things about Detroit.  These residents were saying that Detroit was just like any other city and would find a way to bounce back and be normal again.  These were all people who had lived in Detroit all their lives and were very loyal to it. 

[Freuds_Cat]

Following on from the 1954 book I am Legend Vincent Price starred in 1964 in The last man on earth. Same kind of scennario. Virus escapes, turns ppl into Zombies, Star has to exist is a world of zombies while he works out how to escape or find a cure for said virus........sound familiar? 

[Denis]

Considering the situation it sounds like a pretty darn good solution to me. At least the land will (hopefully) produce something.

Very sad pics indeed, but I agree that turning some of it back into farmland, maybe even forest is a good solution. I'd love to go snooping around those buildings though, but I'd bring a pistol or something, just in case I run into any unsavory types.

[Highlander]

sound familiar? 

Hmm... tricky...