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Time Magazine Photo Essay: Ruins of Detroit

post #1 of 34
3/11/09 at 4:53am
Thread Starter 
There are photos before and after this one, but this is easily the most tragic:

http://www.time.com/time/photogaller...850980,00.html

Tell me that's not waiting for some super villain to make it his lair.
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post #2 of 34
3/11/09 at 8:43am
Or maybe a coven of vampires. I instantly got a "Lost Boys" vibe on seeing it, for some reason.
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post #3 of 34
3/11/09 at 10:12am
Now that's a setting for a horror movie - I can see a horde of undead just feasting on folks all over the place. It's a shame, too, as you can see how beautiful that place was once upon a time. The filigree and detail looks astonishing.
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post #4 of 34
3/11/09 at 10:44am
I was born outside of Detroit and lived in one of its suburbs until I was 7. Even in the 70s, we rarely ventured into the city. I really need to thank my parents again for moving. Holy crap.
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post #5 of 34
3/11/09 at 10:46am
That's just heartbreaking. Buildings sitting unused for in some cases 50 years? Unbelievable.
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post #6 of 34
3/11/09 at 11:01am
That theater must have been great. What a waste.
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post #7 of 34
3/11/09 at 11:37am
If you'd like to expand on your journey into Delta City, follow some of the top links here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=ruins+of+detroit
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post #8 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:06pm
Actually, the first thing I thought of while looking at this essay was WWII-era Europe.
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post #9 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge View Post
If you'd like to expand on your journey into Delta City, follow some of the top links here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=ruins+of+detroit
Third link-

http://www.white-history.com/hwrdet.htm

I'm on a fucking list now, aren't I?
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post #10 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:07pm
This is pretty much the real-life version of Children of Men's London.

I half-expect deer to be running down the halls of that school.
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post #11 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Third link-

http://www.white-history.com/hwrdet.htm

I'm on a fucking list now, aren't I?

The one where the government catalogs white supremacists as domestic terrorists?

Yep.


And while the racist statistical bullshit can be dismissed wholesale, all of the photos are unfortunately real.
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post #12 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pop Zeus View Post
Actually, the first thing I thought of while looking at this essay was WWII-era Europe.
We don't have a lot of cities in the U.S. with any sort of historical/renaissance/gothic feel to them. Nearly everything was built too late. Quite a few cities in the eastern seaboard, New Orleans, and San Francisco come to mind. The fact that one of them has been left to crumble into dust is really amazing.
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post #13 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Third link-

http://www.white-history.com/hwrdet.htm

I'm on a fucking list now, aren't I?
The pictures are , if real, quite amazing. The site and its content, however, is pathetic.
Since you wouldnt be on these boards if you were of their opinion, I suppose I congratulate you on finding this great series of pictures and (hopefully) resist the urge to initiate a DOS attack on the site

Seriously, anyone living in Detroit? I stopped by there a few years back on my trip to Birmingham, AL, to meet a girlfriend, and while I only had a few hours, it didnt seem THAT bad to me around the airport and center.
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post #14 of 34
3/11/09 at 1:54pm
I think I might have gotten this link from another thread.

Quote:
Whole neighorhood blocks cleared of houses by arson and bulldozers have reverted to urban prairies, visible in satellite photos as unusually large green patches in the middle of the inner city. Sidewalks vanish beneath creeping grasses, while aluminum fences between homes become entwined with the branches of dozens of saplings growing as high as the droopy utility wires. Animals normally scared out to the perimeter of the exurban rural areas are wandering back, sometimes finding more greenspace in parts of the city than they do in the increasingly developed parts of the exurbs like northern Macomb County.
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post #15 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:01pm
Thread Starter 
There are other threads about the ruination of Detroit?

*blinks innocently*
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post #16 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:02pm
Excellent. This brings Bear City is one step closer to reality.
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post #17 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Khaunshar View Post
Seriously, anyone living in Detroit? I stopped by there a few years back on my trip to Birmingham, AL, to meet a girlfriend, and while I only had a few hours, it didnt seem THAT bad to me around the airport and center.

I do, and the main Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) is in Romulus, a suburb that's separated by the city of Dearborn from the actual Detroit.

And a lot of what is known as "Metro Detroit" (all of the surrounding suburbs to the actual city) ranges from downright dangerous and ugly (Inkster) to incredibly nice (Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills). It's the city itself that's almost a complete disaster.
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post #18 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:03pm
Sort of tangential, but isn't Detroit where some reporter or someone randomly found the guy frozen in a solid block of ice with only his feet sticking out? If so, Detroit has an awful stigma but gives birth to some amazing photographers, cause that frozen guy picture (IIRC) was pretty fucking amazing, just like these.
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post #19 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JGButler View Post
Sort of tangential, but isn't Detroit where some reporter or someone randomly found the guy frozen in a solid block of ice with only his feet sticking out? If so, Detroit has an awful stigma but gives birth to some amazing photographers, cause that frozen guy picture (IIRC) was pretty fucking amazing, just like these.
Of course it was. Do you even have to ask?
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post #20 of 34
3/11/09 at 2:09pm
When are we just going to say 'Fuck it.' and wall off Detroit and send all of our prisoners there to engage in some awesome 'Lord of the Flies'/'No Escape' type shit?
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post #21 of 34
3/11/09 at 4:32pm
Natural decay can be so beautiful...

Detroit may not be somewhere I'd ever want to set foot in, but man, those pictures are gorgeous.
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post #22 of 34
3/11/09 at 4:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Happenin View Post
When are we just going to say 'Fuck it.' and wall off Detroit and send all of our prisoners there to engage in some awesome 'Lord of the Flies'/'No Escape' type shit?
Seconded...

but I'd rather see someone try to build Delta City.

Dammit... they already did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_City
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post #23 of 34
3/11/09 at 5:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Werewolf Girl View Post
Natural decay can be so beautiful...

Detroit may not be somewhere I'd ever want to set foot in, but man, those pictures are gorgeous.
It being the byproduct of tremendous amounts of human misery takes the "beauty" out of it.

I find nothing but tremendous sadness in looking at these pictures. In America (and really the first world) we're always quick to point out how tragic and horrific things are elsewehere while ignoring our own blight, our own problems. It's hard to reconcile this nation saying it's the beacon of the world, the light of freedom and social justice, when we have a major American city crumbling to dust and people starving to death on its streets.

I've been involved with three things in my life that have given me tremendous personal joy: Habitat for Humanity, an urban renewal program that focused on mixed income development and coaching disadvantaged young people. I've seen things that would break your heart, mostly involving children. I see no beauty in things like these because I've seen the human cost and it is high.
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post #24 of 34
3/11/09 at 5:19pm
I'm just appalled at the tremendous amount of indifference that's been going on for decades. You're telling me nothing could have been done with those buildings? Even if it was just tearing them down? The short-sightedness is simply astounding.
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post #25 of 34
3/11/09 at 5:21pm
That's Detroit for ya Dickson.
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post #26 of 34
3/11/09 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
The short-sightedness is simply astounding.
You could say this about a great many things. Detroit is a harbinger. If we don't pay attention, tomorrow we may wake up and find that the whole world has become Detroit.
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post #27 of 34
3/11/09 at 6:20pm
Somebody cue up "Nothing But Flowers"
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post #28 of 34
3/11/09 at 6:33pm
Apart from the hobos and packs of feral dogs, why isnt detroit being used for filming? A "Fallout" movie sure could use those settings.
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post #29 of 34
3/11/09 at 6:43pm
and is Las Vegas going to look like that in ten or twenty years. It has happen before and it will happen again. Living out on the west cost, and seeing a lot of the ghost towns out here, it does happen. One does wounder at what point will the forestry service will take over Detroit?
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post #30 of 34
3/11/09 at 7:00pm
So when is Werner Herzog gonna start filming his movie there?
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post #31 of 34
3/11/09 at 7:55pm
Aronofsky definitely needs to shoot ROBOCOP there.
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post #32 of 34
3/12/09 at 12:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Death Surge View Post
I do, and the main Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) is in Romulus, a suburb that's separated by the city of Dearborn from the actual Detroit.
Do the citizens have funny eyebrows and pointed ears?
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post #33 of 34
3/12/09 at 9:57am
The funniest/ saddest aspect about the decline of Detroit is that the culture of the city just seemed to spread out and slowly move away from the central downtown area for the last twenty years. Death Surge is right, there are areas around Detroit such as Royal Oak, Taylor, even as far as Yspi and Ann Arbor that are really quite lovely. I put a lot of blame on GM and the other large companies that refused to exert any amount of social responsibility or pride for the area in which they are (soon to be were) domiciled.

Detroit is the Willy Loman of American cities.
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post #34 of 34
3/12/09 at 2:43pm
Detroit was liked, but it wasn't well liked.
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