Detroit

Detroit proper has been a slum since the '60's. Back then I was to Ford and GM at least once a month, and always scared to take the short cut to the airport since it went right thru the middle of that mess.

Now Dearborn, where I stayed at the Dearborn Inn (a restored Henry Ford I mansion), was very nice.

I just grin and bear it anymore... seems like I'm always either in Michigan or upstate New York or Massachusetts in January :-( ...Jim Thompson

The first time we were there, my boss took me to a really nice Italian restaurant downtown. It's been there for something like 70 years. I was sorta nervous but I was amazed. There was NO ONE around. The streets are empty. It does look a lot like the pictures of Berlin, around 1945. I won't be staying downtown but I'll be commuting down there for a week.

There is also the Whitney (now a restaurant), in downtown. Haven't been there yet but the pictures are amazing.

I want to go to the Henry Ford Museum. We drove by on my last trip. I'll have a weekend (maybe) this time.

Really, that's all I can do. I remember leaving that mess...

S: "How's the weather in California?" Me: "About 75 and *really* windy." S: "We're supposed to get a foot of snow tonight. It's nasty already." Me: "The snow shovel is down by the basement door."

Looks like we're going to reverse that, now. We're also driving up to Illinois for Christmas (SIL's place). I should be doing this stuff in the summer.

Well worth it, IMHO. Unfortunately, Greenfield Village will be closed for the winter.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

LOL- anything that needs that much explanation is a failure. The house, or whatever that thing is, is a waste of materials.

They're transitional traditional of some kind. These days the interior layo ut and functionality reign supreme, the exterior is just wrapping paper. Th e perspectives always make some 2,000 sq ft thing look like a vast 10,000 s q ft. job sited on a pastoral lot of unlimited extent, and the typical deve lopment has these things with as little as 30 ft clearance to house next do or out, of the same plan set, sometimes they just alternately flip the plan left to right as they go down the street.

I think you'll find Dearborn has changed drastically, having become some kind of epicenter of Muslim Arab immigrants where they blast those prayers over the exterior speakers of the mosques there.

I know of one individual who was checking out a house in a similarly situat ed neighborhood rehabilitated with urban renewal federal grants. While they were viewing the property, the "neighbors" warned them, if they move into the place, they would burn it down.

Sound like they broke something critical when they lifted it for the new foundation pour, like some kind of anchor uphill they weren't aware of.

That' a cute little house and street. See if you were born later, you could have been the pajama boy.

No, other side of Buffalo, but not along the I-90.. maybe on 5, and the Skyway.. Lackawanna and such like. The road was good.

I think we're talking about the same area. They pulled some grain elevators in downtown Toronto down about 30 years ago- took them forever, they must have been loaded with rebar.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

On Friday, December 20, 2013 10:37:02 PM UTC-5, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wr ote:

e:

ated neighborhood rehabilitated with urban renewal federal grants. While th ey were viewing the property, the "neighbors" warned them, if they move int o the place, they would burn it down.

I was checking out a fine century-old Craftsman-style house for sale in California, 2009, in prime citrus country. Four bedrooms with a basement for a shop and a lab, plus nice detached garage Hewlett and Packard would've drooled for.

A nice shirtless gentleman with a tear drop tattoo walked up to greet me, while his "second" pulled up and stopped mid-pavement across the street, setting up a clear killing field using his vehicle for cover, and hanging back half a dozen meters down the street. #2 watched attentively.

It was nice to know the ol' welcome-wagon custom is still alive and well.

Cheers, James Arthur

modern popular options would be like so:

If it was particular to califorinca i could accept that appellation. But the disease spreads clear across the nation, perhaps beyond.

?-)

Here's a photo of an old Bethlehem Steel office office building:

and more:-

Kind of Chernobylesque.

You can get photos of some of the old industrial buildings with the lakefront windmills in the background if you want to emphasize the post-industrial aspect.

Such brownfield sites cost a fortune to remediate (often tax dollars if the companies have disappeared), but I expect they'll gradually get changed into parks or condos or something.. for the moment they're hauntingly beautiful.

Best regards,

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Don't know about you, but i would charge one hell of a premium for that. Since i lost interest in skiing and snow boarding i don't like snow/ice any more.

Lots of abandoned office buildings in "Atlas Shrugged Part I". ...Jim Thompson

I sure hope Jim has moved up in the world. His last house was hideous.

s/Atlas Shrugged Part I"/"Obama Administration Part Deux"/

And you're rude and crude... I guess that goes along with your manic/depressive disease?? ...Jim Thompson

San Francisco is great. It never snows and doesn't seriously freeze. Surfing is

Nobody has home a/c here, and heating bills are low.