The D

April 19, 2011 7:54 PM

Abandoned Houses in Detroit.... what it says on the tin.
posted by tomswift (14 comments total)

Oh boy, more ruin porn. I can't wait to talk about how cheap those houses they are and how great it is that nature is taking the land back. Poor people, too! And you don't even need a visa!
posted by nasreddin at 8:01 PM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've seen this before, definitely. Maybe a repost? It would be from 2007 or so.
posted by codacorolla at 8:08 PM on April 19, 2011

They look like secret lairs hoping for a coup de grâce in the back of the attic.
posted by clavdivs at 8:09 PM on April 19, 2011

Let's see: urban farming, hipsters & artists reclaiming space, systemic racism, political corruption, it's all coleman young's fault, what a shame about dennis archer.

Did I leave anything out?
posted by leotrotsky at 8:12 PM on April 19, 2011

Don't worry everybody -- couple years more, and all will be gone, and we'll be standing like an Adam and an Eve.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:12 PM on April 19, 2011

This is so sad, you can tell that a lot of these houses were so cool looking especially compared to so many of the boring Architecturally Controlled developments being built today.
posted by Mitheral at 8:17 PM on April 19, 2011

Let us revel in the misfortune of others like so many frisky kittens with some balls of yarn.
posted by LarryC at 8:17 PM on April 19, 2011

Mitheral's comment is spot on.....
posted by tomswift at 8:18 PM on April 19, 2011

I am tired of a place I lived in not so terribly long ago treated like it's some sort of urban decay funfair.
posted by Windigo at 8:20 PM on April 19, 2011

Finally, someone uses the Internet to point out the awful economic situation Detroit is in. It had been at least five minutes.
posted by HostBryan at 8:21 PM on April 19, 2011

Maybe a repost? It would be from 2007 or so.

Yeah, seems like these photos have been making the rounds.
posted by gwint at 8:21 PM on April 19, 2011

I think this set has been on the Huffington Post for some time.

Part of the problem is that some of these houses shared qualities 'McMansions' of their day: quickly and cheaply constructed to sell to lower-middle-class factory workers during the post-WW2 housing shortage.

The more ornate brick ones in this set are located in Brush Park, which was upper class housing about a hundred years ago.
posted by ofthestrait at 8:22 PM on April 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

And here's the double. From 2009.
posted by ofthestrait at 8:23 PM on April 19, 2011

Kevin Kauman interview from May 2009. He is on Flickr.

Time magazine had a photo essay on a similar theme ("Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline") back in 2009. Got the link via BoingBoing (and they got it via MeFi).
posted by vidur at 8:23 PM on April 19, 2011