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Detroit, 3:36 AM
Sun Nov 15
8 posts in the last 24 hours
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Andy Didorosi
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12/17/08
12/17/08
12/16/08
[www.oboylephoto.com]
have largely come down -- so that a blinkin' slot machine casino can rise in its place. That's redevelopment in 21st century America for ya.
12/16/08
lowes, target and a chili's! woot!
12/16/08
My office was in the AT&T/Ameritech building on Woodward Ave., itself a 1920's era brick structure that was probably around 20% occupied. The cafeteria in our building had been closed for over a year, and gave me a real Overlook Hotel vibe whenever I'd pass by it.
12/16/08
Regardless of condition and location, there's always a price and a buyer for a piece of property out here.
Hell, for the price of the Project House Hell property I'm looking at right now, you could probably buy one of those and turn it into your own modern industrial castle: walls, gates, (moat?) and inner courtyard. where you can just hang out.
12/16/08
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12/16/08
you will be driving around in a rejuvenated housing block [think suburban sprawl only in a downtown] then you would cross the street and it would be tracks and track of what are referred to as urban prairie
along with several burnt out shells of homes. over and over you would see this.
occasionally you would see a turn of the century stone castle like complex that has been turned around.
somewhat like this
selling for something in the range of 5ook. 5ook, next to a damn meth lab.
then you have the old industrial areas surrounding downtown. you would think these would be prime land for... something. but no, what you have are buildings just sitting there half collapsed. not due to some failed attempt at demolition, but merely because they cant stand upright anymore.
that jersey barrier... thats not a demolition crew, thats just to keep people from getting hurt as the building just falls apart.
anyone looking for an exciting weekend, i highly suggest renting a car and just driving around detroit. never know what intriguing things you will find.
12/16/08
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12/16/08
Moving to LA in '05, I was blown away at all the character one can get in the original LA suburbs (see here). My last apartment in Hollywood was built in '29 and my current house in Glassel park was built in ~1918. I'm gonna have a hard time living in a slab-floor mid-70s faux-ranch style ever again.
Re: Abandoned structures...the only places in CA that are really like that are in ex-urbs (like Palmdale, Lancaster, Fresno, Modesto, etc) that have no jobs and cheap land.
Go anywhere in town in LA or San Diego or the Bay Area and housing values aren't really dropping...much to my dismay, as I'm house-hunting these days.
12/16/08
For now though, there's a cobbled together bum house in the empty field where that warehouse used to be.
12/16/08
there are a few turn of the century pads around san gabriel. they look more like tiny cowboy houses but they are very historic
@evoCS is possibly NSFW: why yes it is.
12/16/08
12/16/08
Are there really that few jobs in Detroit?
I just don't understand how land/buildings can have so little intrinsic value.
12/16/08
think los angeles sprawl but with out the natural barrier of mountains
12/16/08
Anytime anyone speaks of Detroit, I think of this.
12/16/08
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12/16/08
And hell, it would probably be warmer if the D2.1 were profitable, and you young'ins wouldn't be buyin all them foreign autos (MBW210 Pre-Facelift). I'm sure they are offering some very competitive prices on a nice Ford Edge.
12/16/08
12/16/08
Although, you might want to watch it around some parts. Higher amount of rundown urbanity=higher number of crimes.
12/16/08
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12/16/08
Most of the factories cited in the article have been largely or completely empty for decades. There was some small-scale industry in the Packard plant up until about 25 years ago, but the plant has been largely empty for over forty years. Most of these buildings have been occupied only by junkies, vagrants, and wildlife for quite a while, and today are the regular haunts only of the most daring "urban explorers", and of the scrappers who illegally strip the buildings of anything even remotely valuable. Only in the last couple of weeks, someone removed the steel girders under the floor of the Packard plant's skybridge over Bellevue Street - pictured in your feature - leading to its collapse (see pictures at [detroitfunk.com]).
12/16/08
12/16/08
It's a beautiful tribute to what was, and so sad that it's a day we'll likely never see again.
12/16/08
12/16/08
Except Didorosi, of course. He's just a hack.
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12/17/08
Isn't $70n the employer cost? So the worker earns, say, $30.
Does that mean the Mexicans will actually be paid $2 an hour, and isn't that illegal?
Sorry, but they talk crap about the workers on my side of the Atlantic as well.
12/16/08
It's means it is.
Its is the possessive form.
12/16/08
12/16/08
"In too deep and out of time/
Why'd you have to go and let it die?"
I feel queasy.
12/16/08