Quote:
MrPushbutton wrote:
Leedy-- that is the $64,000 question, and as I write this Detroit is being systematically dismantled by low-rent, don't want a real job losers who are thriving in an underground economy that rivals narcotics. These people are making money that is not taxed, it is not helping pay police, fire or services for city residents, and it's a lot of money.
Any building that sits idle is fair game, and the police are so vastly outnumbered and outgunned that they can't begin to respond to scrapping calls. They can't keep up with murder calls, so the priority of scrapping is low on the scale.
Almost every one of the 100 or so school buildings closed has been scrapped, including the lovely 1924 English Tudor elementary school I attended.
The city is full of scrap dealers, some are somewhat honest, most are not. The city recently enacted a scrapping ordnance, things like catalytic converters are not permissible for fast cash transactions and business transactions must have a paper trail--but there are ways around this.
I honestly think the only way around this is to starve out the bad dealers by taking the supply of scrap away--I'd station the national guard at every abandoned building for a year. Apply the rule your mother gave you "if it's not yours, don't touch"
But that's not going to happen.
We have one of the most impressive stocks of historic buildings in the country, if they can survive this wild, wild west thing until order prevails, if ever.
Yes, Mr. Pushbutton. As someone who grew up in Detroit in the glory years all this stuff is heartbreaking. That first house I lived in on the east side until I was about 10? Someone burned it to the ground a couple of years ago. I cannot tell you how many other places I knew that are now either gone or in ruins. Much of it just senseless anarchy. Driving along 6-Mile Road between Woodward and Livernois last year had me in tears. I just couldn't look at it anymore. This is not just poverty and lack of jobs... this is a new kind madness on a city-wide scale.
It was also heartbreaking to go visit my other old neighborhood of Boston Blvd. off of Woodward. Abandoned and crumbling mansions. I was sickened just to think of the Packards I personally knew were still in a couple of those old garages as recently as the 1980s. And people standing out in front of liquor stores on Woodward... with dazed looks... turning in circles...staring up at the sky. Drive past the next day and they're STILL there! What's up with that?
I have a life-long friend who is a retired artist who refuses to leave. He sends me incredible stories... reports that sound like the end of the world. Like a couple years ago, people working at a company he visited came out at the end of the day to discover most of the cars in the parking lot were MISSING THEIR CATALYTIC CONVERTERS! Stolen in broad daylight! They found a guy with a station wagon FULL of catalytic converters. The only other things he had were a baloney sandwich, a portable Sawzall and a hydraulic foorjack! WHO was buying this stuff?
And I have mentioned in another posting about how one of my family's old properties was broken into. Scrappers or dopers or winos took two (2) brand-new early 1950s Dodge Red-Ram Hemi engines with GM 6-71 blowers stored there from my boat. BRAND NEW. Never used. GONE. Supposedly sold for scrap according to local alley characters. Now what scrap yard could honestly buy these engines and NOT know they were stolen??? So this isn't just the bummy dirtbags down on the street level that need to shoulder the blame for all this nightmare. How much do you figure the "recycler" scrap yard got when they re-sold my Red-Ram engines?
This is madness and greed on a massive scale. By the way... the house on THAT property was also burned to the ground. So were my family's old stores on East Jefferson. So am I surprised at the craziness that has taken place at the Packard Plant on EGB? No. Not al all. Just profoundly, deeply saddened.
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