Ufunk.net

Ouah … Qu’est-ce que ça peut être glauque ! C’est même triste de voir ça quoi ! Y a des bâtiments qui ont l’air beau.. C’est bien dommage.

A transition. Thank God I am a Canadian. The Middle Class American is under attack by his own kind. Are the American Uber-rich feeding on their base to maintain an unsupportable consumption. Some of the timbers rotting in this damage have yet to re-grow in the forests of the world. A crime against humanity. Europe maintains its older buildings and gets much more mileage out of them – so does Canada. End of the Cheap Oil Era! end of American extravagance. End of industrial age, beginning of the new biological, environmental ecological age, or are we looking forward to a Third World in America?

Une bibliothèque abandonnée, terrible…
N’oublions pas que paris a aussi ses lieux abandonnés (Piscine Molitor, bâtiments administratifs, voie ferrée pérphérique, gares…

Here in australia this would never happen. Not only were these beautiful buildings abandoned and not reused, but the items inside them were left to rot. who are the people in those photgraphs? Who walked these halls? It’s a strange and poignat scene to see a city’s last breaths..

Welcome to the reality of living in a Rust Belt city. I live in Buffalo and many of our great buildings, if they have not already been torn down, are in this kind of disrepair. It isn’t that we don’t want to reuse these buildings or that we are overeager Americans just looking for the newer and better; in fact, there are many movements to repair what we can and people generally would like to see these buildings restored to their original grandeur and put to use again. Unfortunately, the reality is that we do not have the money. Many of the inhabitants of rust belt cities are in the lower to middle economic classes and the upper classes can only sponsor so much. We are forced to pick and choose what to restore. For example in Buffalo, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin building was torn down and sold to various collectors and museums in other cities, while right now his Martin house is almost completely restored and has a newly built visitor center. The Buffalo Terminal is in such disrepair that although the entire city would like to see it restored, everyone knows that it is almost impossible due to the massive amount it would cost. The main area that is repaired was done so only for a movie. The once great rust belt cities didn’t want to lose their grand architecture, but there is only so much you can do when a city is in economic peril. The people of rust belt cities are not examples of American exuberance and hoarding; they are working class people who lost everything with the end of manufacturing and the most recent recession. We try to do what we can and hope that someday someone will be able to afford to fix more.

You have to understand that these ‘Detroit In Ruins’ photos are the same few buildings that have fallen into disrepair. What they don’t show is the revitalization that Detroit is getting. Young entrepreneurs are coming in and making use of these beautiful old structures. Detroit has made some mistakes with it’s city, but such is the legacy of many large cities. Detroit is in ruins…go downtown, to midtown, and you will see some life, lots of hustle and bustle.

Also, check this out: http://www.palladiumboots.com/exploration/detroit

I’m tired of these sad, albeit beautiful phots and the headline ‘Detroit In Ruins’. Enough.

Look at those books.

…Where is that.

There are admittedly a few pockets of places that people are trying very hard to revitalize but, unfortunately, those are way too few and far between to make the difference that the city so desperately needs. I’ve worked in midtown for years and as long as I’ve been there, the area has only grown. However, drive down 2nd street a half mile from the Fisher Building and watch the decay. Driving home from work, I’ve watched beautiful buildings and homes that people lived in turn to burned out husks– sadly at the hands of people in those very neighborhoods. I will never understand why anyone would work so hard to destroy the area that they live in.

What did you expect after 70 years of complete Democratic rule.

I’m American and aware this country has it’s faults, but you are coming off as a pompous ass right now. You do know that we aren’t the only country to use trees to build houses, right?

P.S. Were you drunk when you typed this?

If you don’t think there’s a big difference, you haven’t experienced living as both. I have, and I agree with everything that this fellow Candian is saying, even if (s)he is being a bit rude about it. There’s a huge difference between being a citizen in the two aforementioned countries.

You can’t complain about people not helping, as I doubt that you yourself are. Give us examples of your God-like charity, since you’re implying that it’s what everybody should do. The fact is, the average person from all over the world can’t afford to put their money into a city that isn’t their own – just because there’s differences doesn’t mean we are all infinitely wealthy.

So next time you read a comment and it makes you angry, try thinking about what you’re saying before you post it and make yourself look foolish.

OMG … the books … arrrrrrrghhhhh

Shit! – you can see the ZOMBIES in the top picture!

Incredible photos and totally evocative. Detroit has been covered so many times by photographers and urban explorers, but these images are some of the best!

WDF !!!

If your country is « greatest country » in the world, how do you explain absolute abject poverty, ppl living in shacks, literally in your so-called great country – it seems like it’s more like third world in some areas — I’m Canadian and definitely NOT envious of my US cousins down south – I have HEALTH CARE and so does every other Canadian citizen … Your government gives $$ from public coffers to private interests in the name of Capitalism, and a larger percentage of your GDP… so, get « educated » and find out what is really going on in your « great » country — war mongerers always believe « they are the greatest »…with so little of anything to back it up!!!! 

May God bless you all and enlighten your path, Sincerely…. a northern neighbour….

Has a lot to do with the fact that Detroit is a « chocolate » city.