Hey, Guardian... How'd you miss THIS STUFF in Detroit? (Just say no to decline/decay porn)

[LuckyTheDog]

Sure, you show the decayed United Artists Theatre.

But what about the restored Fox Theatre: http://www.olympiaentertainment.com/venues/foxtheatre.jsp

Or the restored Detroit Opera House: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D602174%26page%3D6&usg=___YJLsiL3QURKjvxTUXmMuMpys38=&h=375&w=500&sz=198&hl=en&start=0&sig2=iNugOmTijjIhW8--GR2O6g&zoom=1&tbnid=iBVzaRwSQnukFM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=208&ei=g_kgTZHkCKTenQevtZmTDg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddetroit%2Bopera%2Bhouse%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4ACAW_enUS384US384%26biw%3D1345%26bih%3D570%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C171&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=526&vpy=225&dur=890&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=149&ty=104&oei=f_kgTfSzCdPVnAev6ZnTDQ&esq=3&page=1&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&biw=1345&bih=570

Or the restored Orchestra Hall: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelliekp/353254525/&usg=__zYzUdQwKASBnWlw7NghNBk4gNo4=&h=351&w=500&sz=204&hl=en&start=0&sig2=IiV4_4fX6TfWFqHYpABVWQ&zoom=1&tbnid=-f_H5twuVja1AM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=179&ei=0_kgTcy3CIionQeXneHlDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dorchestra%2Bhall%2Bdetroit%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4ACAW_enUS384US384%26biw%3D1345%26bih%3D570%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=140&oei=0_kgTcy3CIionQeXneHlDQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=128&ty=87

Or Detroit Music Hall: http://www.musichall.org/

Or the Gem Theatre and Century complex: http://www.gemdetroit.com//GEM/Site_3/GALLERIES/GALLERIES.html


You show the ruins of the Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church. But what about

Cathedral Church of St. Paul www.detroitcathedral.org

Fort Street Presbyterian Church: www.fortstreet.org

Old St Mary's Roman Catholic Parish www.oldstmarysdetroit.com

St. Josaphat Roman Catholic Church http://gbjann.com/stjosaphat/

Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church http://www.sweetestheart.org/


You show the Lee Plaza Hotel.

But what about the reetored-to-its-former-glory Westin Book Cadillac: http://www.bookcadillacwestin.com/

Or the Inn on historic Ferry Street: http://innonferrystreet.com/05/

Or the jaw-dropping, historic Inn at 97 Winder: http://www.theinnat97winder.com/


You show the ruins of the Broderick Tower. But somehow, you miss the story about how that tower is under redevelopment -- a $50 million project http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/12/downtowns_broderick_tower_is_u.html.


I could go on and on!

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. So maybe they should have done Garry Ind

Which has been completely abandoed.

The photos are striking and remind me of a depressiion, which Detroit is in the midst off.

[LuckyTheDog]

2. You can find decayed buildings in every city...

... and sure, Detroit has more than its share. But it is irresponsible to present those images as representative of the city as a whole.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Actually I disagee

Since more of the city is decayed. Also I doubt any of these photos, or for that matter Gary, will make it to the usual US press. What they showed you is what an empire in decline looks like. For all those in denial, there it is, a gaping wound if you ask me. And Detroit has more than just a few decaying buildings, as some neighborhoods have been reclaimed by the prairie.

[LuckyTheDog]

8. I live in Detroit -- the city, not just the "metro area."

And I know first hand the impact depopulation has had on this town.

But what I was pointing out is that there is a lot of glory left. A good example would be the theaters. Sure the decay of the United Artists Theatre is sad. But it is one theater and several other more significant theaters have been restored.

And you should see the historic churches here that have NOT decayed. They are stunning. Virtually all of the most important historic houses of worship are still open and operating.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. I get the point they were making

And for the record it piss me off too. But there is something else at play here. In the US historic preservation is NOT in anybody's radar in the best of times.

[kas125]

32. I don't hold out much hope that Gary will have anything

restored anytime soon. It's my hometown and the town I live in borders Gary, so I still go there often. Gary was recently used, for the second time now, by people filming a BBC miniseries - as what the world will look like post-apocalypse. It's heartbreaking.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. And it is what an Empire in decline looks like

by the end of the Roman Empire things started to fall apart.

England... well WW II had something to do with it. The USSR is far closer to us in some ways, as well as Spain in the 1790s... the Bourbon Reforms were meant to try to deal with some of it. It didn't work. It took longer for Spain to lose both Philippines and Cuba... after the Americas kicked them out... but the way our economy works is close.

For a few reasons I cannot wait for the fall. Mostly we need to get over it, to start paying attention to the country again.

[mudplanet]

35. Whole neighborhoods of lower middle income homes that have been

taken over and squatted in because they were going vacant and derelict.

Lots of good buildings being kept, but what a shame to see these masterpieces gone to hell.

[pacalo]

7. I agree. It's good to see the beautifully restored buildings, too.

I'm impressed with the architecture!

But, really, a good point of the abandonment pictures was that there were beautiful fixtures that could have been salvaged -- or weren't they saved eventually? And I'm skeptical of all those police records being left in a pile; surely they were recovered & restored. Lots of questions.

[snagglepuss]

16. After it was too late to edit the OP, I discovered the story in the Guardian

that accompanies these photos. The story is a must read. As for that disturbing image of the police station, boxes of evidence regarding an infamous serial murderer and his victims were indeed abandoned.

snip

In December 2001, the old Highland Park police department in Detroit was temporarily disbanded. The building it vacated was abandoned with everything in it: furniture, uniforms, typewriters, crime files and even the countless mug-shots of criminals who had passed through there. Among the debris that photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre found there in 2005 was a scattering of stiff, rotting cardboard files each bearing a woman's name.

In total 11 women had been cataloged by the police, including Debbie Ann Friday, Vicki Truelove, Juanita Hardy, Bertha Jean Mason and Valerie Chalk. Down in the dank basement of the police station, where "human samples" were stored – and had been abandoned along with everything else – the two French photographers also uncovered the name of the man who was linked to all of the women's deaths. Benjamin Atkins was a notorious serial killer. Between 1991 and 1992 he left the bodies of his victims in various empty buildings across the city.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/02/detroit-ruins-marchand-meffre-photographs-ohagan?intcmp=239

[pacalo]

29. Thanks for responding to my questions, snagglepuss.

:hi:

[kgnu_fan]

3. It is the scale of architectural glory that those new "restored" buildings do not have....

Shame --- Detroit could not maintain truly glorious, magnificent and artistic landmarks. Now many new buildings you are trying to show look all mundane, cheap looking, non-significant, all same old commercial building structures...

The Guardian photos definitely point out tremendous decline of once powerful culture...

[LuckyTheDog]

5. You did not look at my links, did you?

I showed pictures of many historic buildings in Detroit that have been restored or have been maintained all along.

There is NOTHING "cheap looking, non-significant," or "same old" about any of the historic theaters or churches I linked to, that is for damned sure.

[kgnu_fan]

6. I looked at them, many photo are commercial web site... I was not impressed....

[LuckyTheDog]

9. OK... it's clear you did not look

Because if you had, you'd realize that the gloriously restored Detroit Opera House is far more architecturally significant and interesting than the decayed United Artists Theatre.

If you really, really think the very historic, 19th-century Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church (http://picasaweb.google.com/shmchurch/ChurchTour#5553250968171512402) is a boring "commercial" building, you just didn't bother to look.

You mentioned the "new buildings" I was "trying to show." Yet, you seem unaware that all of my links were to information about historical buildings -- not a new one in the bunch.

Just look at what I posted.

[leeroysphitz]

11. +1

[susanna]

36. +2

[Hannah Bell]

24. They're historic restored buildings. Your comment that they're "new" is wrong.

They're every bit as historic as the buildings that haven't been rehabbed.

[canetoad]

10. Those pictures are not originally from the Guardian

They are the work of two artists; photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. This is their artistic statement from this, and another set of photos.http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/index.html

Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies
and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.

The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at
some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires.
This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time :
being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.

Photography appeared to us as a modest way
to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.


It's ART. Don't take it personally

[LuckyTheDog]

12. Art? Maybe. But it's also misleading

And, it sends a message that says "don't go there" to everyone who sees it because there is no context provided.

[LuckyTheDog]

14. Oh, for gosh sakes

I post something to provide some balance to a very negative thread about my home town and now folks are un-recommending it?

Sheesh. Wallow in the negative, if you must folks. But don't actively try to bury the context I am trying to provide.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. There, recommended at 14

Don't worry I could produce this about Cleveland OH too

[butterfly77]

17. Like these

http://www.worldofstock.com /

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2q3vqTi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrZVxhOI-VI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfJv0G2xwm8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXVbc9T1Lp0

[LuckyTheDog]

20. Yep! (nt)

[snagglepuss]

18. The number of buildings restored doesn't come close to the number

of magnificent buildings that were totally razed or left to rot. This is clearly documented at www.detroityes.com,
a site created by a Detroit artist.

I am thrilled to see that some buildings have been saved and restored but those efforts don't negate what was lost.

It also doesn't negate the shocking image of police files left scattered in an abandoned station house or a shelves of books left to rot away in an abandoned library.

[LuckyTheDog]

19. I am very, very aware of what has been lost

But presenting that, without context, leaves the impression that all of Detroit is just one big post-apocalyptic scene. And that just is not true.

There is a lot to love here:

http://www.bakerskeyboardlounge.com/

http://www.detroitriverfront.org/dequindre/

http://www.historicindianvillage.org/

http://www.detroiteasternmarket.com/

http://www.palmerwoods.org/

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/detroit/d19.htm

[snagglepuss]

22. The Guardian published photos from an art book, they weren't writing a travelogue.

Without any disrespect, it seems like your peeved that you weren't able to control the spin, that your upset that the photographers formed their own judgements and presented a take on Detroit that you disagree with.

[butterfly77]

27. And

http://www.campusmartiuspark.org/index.htm


http://www.detroitjazzfest.com/index.html

[mahina]

21. Thank you for that information!

I found beauty in both the French photographers' work and in the links that you shared. I would feel as you do if their work was from Honolulu.

Loved seeing your renovated buildings and cultural institutions thriving. Mahalo!

(We just lost our symphony but the building still stands.)

[Kermitt Gribble]

23. So Detroit is booming?? n/t

[Hannah Bell]

25. Not booming, but not a ghost town filled with only decrepit buildings and empty lots --

as some paint it -- either.

[LuckyTheDog]

40. +1

Exactly right, Hannah Bell.

[Texasgal]

26. Isn't that pictorial old?

The one with the decrepit buildings?

I somehow remember seeing it several years ago.

Glad to see things are on the upswing! :)

[Duer 157099]

28. Yeah! And when the World Cup comes to SF, let's not show photos of the homeless

Because as long as there are pockets of wealth and glaring examples of grotesque over-consumption, it puts the poverty and suffering into the proper perspective as only a fraction of the total picture.

No problem that the suffering is actually more important to pay attention to.

Let them eat cake!

[snagglepuss]

31. DING. DING. DING. WE HAVE A WINNER.

Exactamondo my friend.

[derby378]

30. Hey! My ghost town photos are NOT "decay porn"

They're a look at histories that are in danger of being forgotten, of dreams for new communities that came to naught, and a warning to cities that they're more fragile than they realize. That's how I see them.

[alfredo]

34. Masonic Temple Music Hall image.

The acoustics are better in the balcony. I saw Bette Midler on her first national tour, and Nina Simone at that theater.

[susanna]

37. Some of the best acoustics ever at the Masonic.

It's an amazing venue (in Detroit). Thanks for posting this!

[alfredo]

38. Yeah, it was the place to listen.

[mimitabby]

39. Rome, Italy

people just can't afford to repair all the crumbling historic buildings.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

41. "Parts of this city are not falling down" is not a terribly strong boast... N.T.