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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
In Perspective, Planet: From the Guardian...Not me, the Newspaper!
- Thread starter fahim mohammed
- Start date
Charles L Webster
pro member
I get a 404 page not found error from that link
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
The guardian-Observor's article is about the decline of Detroit, a great city. The pictures are indeed outstanding. It's heartbreaking to see a giant hall, be it church, railway station or theater, no longer needed. Like Cathedrals of old, all across Europe, unless the structures are used for tourism too, the supporting populations, having shrunk, can no longer pay for the upkeep. There is none more fabulous, perhaps, than Notre Dame in Pairs. Yes, at times the congregants pack the place, but at others times it's almost empty.
Theaters, churches, great halls all require a regular flow of interested people for whom the buildings are a necessary part of their lives.
In Detroit, with the collapse of a great part of the auto Industry there, (blame the Unions, blame Detroit companies, blame imports), folk cannot pay their mortgages and but groceries, never mind travel, go to theater or drive to their favorite church.
Still, with these buildings still standing, a great inventory of new possibilities is created. New projects can now rehabilitate and repurpose the neglected buildings and kick start the new ideas that can work in the Detroit that will re-emerge. Some uses will shock us but some will be really adventurous and help the community recover.
Unless the population moves away, the buildings will be exploited for new purposes or else will vanish.
Asher
Theaters, churches, great halls all require a regular flow of interested people for whom the buildings are a necessary part of their lives.
In Detroit, with the collapse of a great part of the auto Industry there, (blame the Unions, blame Detroit companies, blame imports), folk cannot pay their mortgages and but groceries, never mind travel, go to theater or drive to their favorite church.
Still, with these buildings still standing, a great inventory of new possibilities is created. New projects can now rehabilitate and repurpose the neglected buildings and kick start the new ideas that can work in the Detroit that will re-emerge. Some uses will shock us but some will be really adventurous and help the community recover.
Unless the population moves away, the buildings will be exploited for new purposes or else will vanish.
Asher
fahim mohammed
Well-known member
Charles L Webster
pro member
I find it hard to imagine that a public library and a police station would simply be abandoned, with all the books, files, furniture, etc. in place. Why would someone do such a thing?
The possibilities for these abandoned theaters and ballrooms are incredible, but costly....
The possibilities for these abandoned theaters and ballrooms are incredible, but costly....
John Angulat
pro member
They, quite simply, ran out of money.
The police station is actually the former police headquarters of Highland Park.
Highland Park is peculiar in that it is a city nearly completely surrounded by Detriot (a very small city embedded in a much larger one).
Detroit goes, so does the surrounding community.
Heres a link to some other images: http://www.theseekerbooks.com/detroit/MorePix.html
Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Hi, John,
Early in the 20th century, some developers wanted to create a new planned municipality just outside the then northern boundary of Dallas. They were concerned that after Dallas grew to surround it, Dallas could unilaterally annex it.
So they decided to create a pair of adjacent cities. Since Dallas would never adjacently surround either of them, they would be safe from such unilateral annexation.
Interestingly enough, the names of the two new municipalities were Highland Park and University Park.
Best regards,
Doug
A peculiarity of Texas municipal law is (or at least was at one time) that a municipality that entirely surrounds, adjacently, another one (that is, at a continuous closed boundary) may unilaterally annex the enclaved municipality.
Early in the 20th century, some developers wanted to create a new planned municipality just outside the then northern boundary of Dallas. They were concerned that after Dallas grew to surround it, Dallas could unilaterally annex it.
So they decided to create a pair of adjacent cities. Since Dallas would never adjacently surround either of them, they would be safe from such unilateral annexation.
Interestingly enough, the names of the two new municipalities were Highland Park and University Park.
Best regards,
Doug