Images of a Forgotten America

[winton]

The house two doors down from my home is like these pictures. There are thousands of houses around that need to be torn down. If you can get a decent house for $60K, why buy a junk house and replace electrical, plumbing, roof, windows, flooring, cabinets, and other systems? I work in mortgage, so I understand buying a foreclosure, replacing cabinets and flooring and selling for a profit. But, some houses are so beat up, they are inhabitable. They attract squatters and worse. Tear them down. Eventually the land will become valuable again.
Winton

 

[pipestud]

Well, that was sure depressing.
Pipestud

 

[ssjones]

Thanks rickpal, it appears a group is trying to save and rebuild that Buffalo terminal. Two coal burning powerplants no doubt led to its demise. No one wants coal energy these days...

 

[brian64]

@jiminks: Wonderful article...thanks for posting that.
@winton: I essentially agree, and this is an ever increasing problem. My only concern is that it would be a slippery slope determining where to draw the line on that and there are a lot of folks who are struggling to keep up with repair costs these days. But when the homes are vacant and in that condition then I think you’re right...probably need to be torn down in many cases.

 

[kashmir]

A sad commentary on our current state of affairs. There's a reason that I say that "yesterday was better than today". I'm often accused of rose tinted glasses, but I say it ain't so. And these pictures prove it. I'd be hard pressed to come up with a single thing that's better today than yesterday. Medicine? Are you kidding? Cars, trains, planes, buses, TV, movies, food, drink, bars, restaurants, hotels ... morals, ethics, artists, music, politicians ... The WWII generation who taught us what work and sacrifice were about. The death knell for this country was outsourcing our manufacturing base to third world countries, and replacing it with a service based industry centered on box stores selling foriegn made goods. However you slice it, red state, blue state, it all comes down to this.

 

[wayneteipen]

I really enjoy pictures like these. I don't find them depressing at all. I think they are amazingly beautiful. Decay is a part of the circle of life. I find it fascinating how relatively quick nature reclaims the land and resources we borrow. Thanks for sharing.

 

[brian64]

@Kashmir: Very well said...I couldn't agree more.

 

[brian64]

I really enjoy pictures like these. I don't find them depressing at all. I think they are amazingly beautiful. Decay is a part of the circle of life. I find it fascinating how relatively quick nature reclaims the land and resources we borrow.

True, but unfortunately things are not progressing. One thing that is depressing is most of the new architecture compared with the magnificence of so many of the old buildings. Many of these, imo, could and should have been maintained, but only went into decay due to the factors Kashmir articulated.

 

[kashmir]

That's why I'm fortunate to live near NYC. The City has done an admirable job maintaining its Art Deco past. The old wasn't bulldozed to make room for the new. It was integrated. These pictures showed the pride that went into the buildings, the mouldings, the plaster facades, the sense of space. Now contrast that with today's strip malls, and box store layouts, surrounded by acres of bleak parking lots. Compare today's shody housing, McMansions put up in a fortnight, as compared to houses built in the 20s thru 70s. When they burned the unions they killed the American worker. Stupidly the corporations convinced the mainstream that unions were un-American. Unions made possible the American way of life, with an honest paycheck for an honest day's work. Now the best we can hope for, for our kids is some job in a cubicle hunched over a computer screen. What happened? And why isn't everyone else mad as hell?

 

[brian64]

What happened?

Unfortunately, IMO, these things are not merely the result of “market forces”. It is a very deliberate agenda of globalization...a major component of which is the intentional, systematic eradication of the middle class in America.

 

[kashmir]

Perhaps. But the cabal, if that's what it is, shot itself in the foot. Without a vibrant middle class, who's left to buy the goods? If I were at the helm, I'd freeze the whole shebang, throw a monkey wrench in it, by taxing the bejeezus out of imports, and giving tax brakes to the manufacturing sector to keep jobs in the USA. Also, I'd restrict all banking, all monies, to our shores, and preventing any capital from leaving this country. Where its needed most. I'd also institute a back to work program to rebuild this country's infrastructure. Isolationism? Perhaps. But I think globalization has cost this country its future. It's benefited the few at the expense of the many.

 

[brian64]

You could count on my vote Kashmir. Although my approach might differ a little, your platform would be infinitely better than the course we’ve been on as a nation for a very long time now.
As for the powers that be having shot themselves in the foot, I believe the reason they don’t see it that way is because money is just a means to an end for them...and they’ve been able to create as much of it as they like out of thin air for a very long time now. I think their perspective on the future, and the roll of the masses in it, is more something related to the below article.
Why the future doesn't need us
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html