Derelict Detroit by DER SPIEGEL.

[General Zod]

And for that matter, why nobody's come along to claim salvage after the fact; some of that stuff looks like it could fetch a pretty good price at a pawnbroker, or as scrap. Or has the economy tanked so badly that there's nobody left to sell it all to?

Going around those buildings isn't exactly safe. There's plenty of inherent dangers that would keep people from looking around them for salvage.

[Zaune]

Going around those buildings isn't exactly safe. There's plenty of inherent dangers that would keep people from looking around them for salvage.

I wouldn't have thought Detroit had a shortage of people desperate enough to risk it, unless Michigan's social security net is a lot more robust than seems to be typical for the US.

[General Zod]

Going around those buildings isn't exactly safe. There's plenty of inherent dangers that would keep people from looking around them for salvage.

I wouldn't have thought Detroit had a shortage of people desperate enough to risk it, unless Michigan's social security net is a lot more robust than seems to be typical for the US.

I guess that depends on whether or not you think walking into a meth lab by mistake an acceptable risk.

[Aaron]

According to the Detroit Blog entry "Plant Life" buildings collapse on a regular enough basis that they've gotten used to the noise, so that's a real enough threat.

[Zaune]

That would very much depend on how long it had been since I'd last eaten, though I suffer from the twin handicaps of being too honest to shoplift and too proud to beg.

[General Zod]

That would very much depend on how long it had been since I'd last eaten, though I suffer from the twin handicaps of being too honest to shoplift and too proud to beg.

There's also a risk (albeit minor) of getting charged with trespassing and vandalism if you're caught stomping around the empty buildings.

[Aaron]

That would very much depend on how long it had been since I'd last eaten, though I suffer from the twin handicaps of being too honest to shoplift and too proud to beg.

Well if it comes down to it then you have to do whats needed to eat. Its just not without risk but few things are.

[Darth Nostril]

What surprises me is the enormous waste. Like the abandoned library, still full of usable books - or the music instruments lying around in that High School including a cello. Why nobody took them with them is beyond belief, especially considering the value of them.

Especially seeing as there are schools and libraries in the rest of the city, you would have thought that when shutting those places down they'd salvage anything of value and distribute it amongst still extant establishments.
Not only because of the significant outlay of expenditure by the city that it represents but also the savings it would also represent to the still open schools and libraries that would no longer need to expend any of their budget to replace broken instruments & damaged books.

[TrailerParkJawa]

When I was a teenager in the 1980's we used to explore an old steel mill near my high school. It had been closed for mabye a decade and like these buildings there was an odd assortment of things simply left behind. The employee lockers had things that would be considered junk; Playboy magazines, packs of gum, gloves, etc. Yet, when we searched some of the offices there was all sorts of stuff that seemed valuable; fire extinguisers, high quality tools, an entire encyclopedia set from 1947, car keys (where did the car go?).

As a teen we couldnt really collect this stuff for salvage and sell. Adults would ask questions. As an adult I wouldnt want to enter these places for fear of getting in trouble. So I can sorta see why some places get left alone even though my urge its to recycle or resuse some of this stuff.

[Zaune]

As a teen we couldn't really collect this stuff for salvage and sell. Adults would ask questions. As an adult I wouldn't want to enter these places for fear of getting in trouble. So I can sorta see why some places get left alone even though my urge its to recycle or reuse some of this stuff.

One of the most important lessons of my transition from teenager to adult was that finding one who wouldn't is really, really not hard. Another one was that the police have many more urgent demands on their time than someone breaking into a building that's scheduled to be demolished anyway.

Big Brother is not watching. Big Brother doesn't care.

[General Zod]

As a teen we couldn't really collect this stuff for salvage and sell. Adults would ask questions. As an adult I wouldn't want to enter these places for fear of getting in trouble. So I can sorta see why some places get left alone even though my urge its to recycle or reuse some of this stuff.

One of the most important lessons of my transition from teenager to adult was that finding one who wouldn't is really, really not hard. Another one was that the police have many more urgent demands on their time than someone breaking into a building that's scheduled to be demolished anyway.

Big Brother is not watching. Big Brother doesn't care.

Unless Big Brother is passing by and feeling a need to reach his quota.

[Lonestar]

Unless Big Brother is passing by and feeling a need to reach his quota.

Don't get me started. Fuck, do not get me started.


Dammit, you got me started.


When I was in Orlando at the start of the month I left my car at my mother's house. Loudoun County requires two stickers on the car(one from the county and state) Fairfax requires just the one form the state. Some passing Deppity put a $150 ticket on my windshield, saying that if I was not a resident of Loudoun County I would have to go to the courthouse during the week and dispute it(I'm going tomorrow after school, since it's the last week of the month). The kicker? The Deppity ran my tags and had my name and address(that said FAIRFAX, VA on it) on the ticket printout. I'm going to ask the judge for compensation for me driving 40 goddamn miles out when the officer clearly knew the car was registered to someone in another county, but I don't have high hopes.

[Balrog]

And for that matter, why nobody's come along to claim salvage after the fact; some of that stuff looks like it could fetch a pretty good price at a pawnbroker, or as scrap. Or has the economy tanked so badly that there's nobody left to sell it all to?

Going around those buildings isn't exactly safe. There's plenty of inherent dangers that would keep people from looking around them for salvage.

There are still some people who are willing to take the risk; there have been plenty of stories about people going into abandoned buildings to strip out all the copper wiring to make a pretty buck. The thing is, in a city where over 90,000 buildings are abandoned (out of 300,000, it was on NPR recently), that's a lot of territory to cover, so it's hardly surprising there's still items being left about. Why they were left there is the real mystery, but I can imagine when your lifestyle is being uprooted, such as, the factory you've worked at for twenty years is being closed, you tend not to give a shit about "little" things like that.