Detroit in ruins

Detroit in ruins

www.guardian.co.uk

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! This is an amazing photographic tour of a city in decline...

First off this is just a wild thing to behold...

Second of all, I would like to direct your attention to the photos that show the church and the street...

The church has a quote that says "And they shall say that God did it!" - interesting...

Also, note how the people are just milling about in the street!

There are not enough cars to warrant staying off the street!

Lastly, I would think this would be a great place to film the next post-apocalyptic movie.

UPDATE: to add more information.. from a few posts down...

Here is some more information on The slums of Detroit

If you want directions to see what happened to the American Dream in the age of globalization, go north on Woodward Avenue. When the empty sidewalks and spiffed-up ghosts of department stores give way to miles of vacant lots, piles of arsonists’ ash and ruined factories, you’ve hit your destination: Highland Park. A beaten-down man in a black vinyl coat was there to greet me. Waving his hands furiously while I drove by, the crack-addicted hustler shouted, “Right here! I got that [stuff] right here!”

Detroit is now the most dangerous city in America.

here are more pictures...








www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Was just looking at this on the guardians website. Was deciding whether to post, but got caught up looking at other threads while searching, you know how it goes.
The city is near on derelict ,such a shame.With most of the industry gone and a spiralling crime rate not much can be done......hmmm thinks to self *if only the US government had not wasted all that "bail out money" or maybe not spent so much on arms* then things could be different.
Detroit could go two ways in my opinion. Either total abandonment (apart from the dregs) or a massive redevelopment project which would take years.
They could in the future just tear it all down and develop the first ultra modern city in the USA. Cut a small percentage of the defence budget for a few years that should cover it.
Anyway good post. take care.
regards

reply to post by maythetruthbeknown


Here is some more information on The slums of Detroit

If you want directions to see what happened to the American Dream in the age of globalization, go north on Woodward Avenue. When the empty sidewalks and spiffed-up ghosts of department stores give way to miles of vacant lots, piles of arsonists’ ash and ruined factories, you’ve hit your destination: Highland Park. A beaten-down man in a black vinyl coat was there to greet me. Waving his hands furiously while I drove by, the crack-addicted hustler shouted, “Right here! I got that [stuff] right here!”

“In the mid-1980s, crack just hit us like a wave,” says Franklin Gaudy, a 46 year-old lifelong resident. Crack’s legacy is felt throughout a city that offers few other opportunities of escape. Middle-aged men and women shuffle out from the bulletproofed interiors of Iraqi-Christian-owned liquor stores with their heads hung low. A dilapidated drug treatment program sits between the old Ford Plant and a newish McDonald’s. Although most of Highland Park’s three-mile-square area lies in ruins, either burnt out or vacated, a few well-kept blocks of wood-frame homes do jut out of the rubble. The remaining homeowners, fearing rampant burglaries and worse, announce themselves against the falling darkness with bursts of floodlights.

For women and children forced to pick out gifts in chain drug stores along Woodward Avenue, the holidays in Highland Park are an especially grim reminder of the outside world, as viewed through TV. The Iraqi-Christian shopkeepers are even known to indignantly upbraid customers who wish them a generic “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Yes, the images from Detroit are incredible. Urban decay is a favourite form of photography and Detroit doesn't fail in this regard. To some degree, Detroit's decaying spaces have fallen victim to 'disaster porn' photography and these images are visually intoxicating.

Some of these images appear in an amazing photography book called Urban Decay.

So, as good documentary photography should do, what do we think here?

reply to post by LarryLove


Come to find out that that police started burning down crack houses in the 80's..
this is a sad story

reply to post by HunkaHunka


It would be an interesting city to explore and photograph. I know many accomplished photographers have captured the decay of Detroit already, but it holds an incredible visual fascination for me.

What's really disturbing is that there are ruins like this all over the United States. Being an amateur photographer, I enjoy this type of photography, but it's still a shame to have these kinds of things to take pictures of really.

reply to post by Klassified


Where else in the states? Could you point me towards any online photography?

Urban decay as a photographic genre can be a visual drug.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Come to find out that that police started burning down crack houses in the 80's..
this is a sad story

Judging by those photos they got what was coming to them too.

There's a photo of an abandoned police station, with evidence photos and information sheets scattered all over the floor like someone had been pilfering through their abandoned cabinets (and I'm sure someone did).

I read an article on here not too long ago that Detroit had completely stopped funding police and other services for 20% of the city.


If the direction of this country doesn't change, that's where it's all headed.

I wish I had that entire library to myself.

Originally posted by Klassified
What's really disturbing is that there are ruins like this all over the United States. Being an amateur photographer, I enjoy this type of photography, but it's still a shame to have these kinds of things to take pictures of really.

I don't think you will find it anywhere near the scale as this...

Detroit is now the most dangerous city in America.

here are more pictures...

reply to post by bsbray11


If I was photographing that police station, I would have gone through the filing cabinets!

Tell me why they got what they deserved though.

This video really gives you an insider look of how bad it is in Detroit. Pay attention to the traffic light at the 8:48 minute mark. I mean how bad is that???

Detroit is a festering sewer. I was there about 3 years ago and I couldn't see much difference between the washroom I used versus going outside. Some of the pictures are from the 70s and have been abandoned for decades. Americans should take a long hard look at this dump because that is where many more of her cities are heading.

brill

Looks right for New Detroit to be built. What if a movement of people/communities decided to breathe life back into the city by helping each other build homes and start cooperatives to live self-sustaining lives. Are all the dilapidated buildings owned by banks and speculative property buyers?

reply to post by LarryLove


Have to start with the economy and get jobs there first. Then there will be people willing to move back, work there, and rebuild. Without jobs, I'm afraid nothing will happen.

My dad is from Youngstown/Campbell, Ohio and I thought the run down steel mill and abandoned/neglected area near it was bad, but it has nothing on Detroit. It's the same situation there, lack of jobs that's why a lot of people left the area and it was neglected.

And for this ruin, to a large degree due to the decline of the US auto and steel industry, I'd like to extend my personal thanks to unions.

You union-ed yourselves right out of jobs.

Congratulations.

Originally posted by LarryLove
Looks right for New Detroit to be built. What if a movement of people/communities decided to breathe life back into the city by helping each other build homes and start cooperatives to live self-sustaining lives. Are all the dilapidated buildings owned by banks and speculative property buyers?

With increasing debt, municipal shortcomings, higher unemployment, weak dollar and a litany of other issues it doesnt bode well. Your right though if they can somehow pop this zit and start fresh but where is the industry that will drive it ?

brill

reply to post by brill



Many of the pictures in the first link have been abandoned only since the early 90's as well.

This continues to occur... and is a very sad state of affairs...

Evidently the mix of Crack in the 80's Sup Prime mortgages, city corruption, and the attempt to compete against japanese automakers have all had some sort of issue... I'm sure there is much more as well