AYN RAND predicted the downfall of DETROIT

In Ayn Rand’s book…..ATLAS SHRUGGED……..She described how American Cities would die…….she called hers Starnesville.  Detroit fits that description.  BANKRUPT.

Ayn’s description:

A few houses still stood within the skeleton of what had once been an industrial town. Everything that could move, had moved away; but some human beings had remained. The empty structures were vertical rubble; they had been eaten, not by time, but by men . . . The inhabited houses were scattered at random among the ruins; the smoke of their chimneys was the only movement visible in town . . . Beyond the town, on a distant hill, stood the factory of the Twentieth Century Motor Company. Its walls, roof lines and smokestacks looked trim, impregnable like a fortress. It would have seemed intact but for a silver water tank: the water tank was tipped sidewise.

This is Cass Technical High……where I went to school in 1958.

For Sale  $100.  The Chas. W. Hauschrr building.

What isn’t dumped in the street…..is stolen.

80,000 houses are in this condition.  Anything of value has been stolen……….plumbing and wiring ripped out and sold.

This is the house where I lived in 1950.

The only sign of life near here is a liquor store on Jefferson Ave.

A hundred abandoned schools.  Illiteracy is almost 50%.

 

 

 

 

Snowed under in DETROIT

DETROIT got dumped on ….AGAIN.  Biggest snow fall since 1880.

My friend, Richard Bell, from Cass Tech High school…….[we were students together in the Art Department in 1959]……sent me these photos.

 

Dick now lives in California……but has returned to Detroit to see the disaster for himself.

 

I don’t think her little shovel is gonna do the trick!

One of the grand old houses near downtown………making a  come back.

Thanks Dick for the photos.

 

City of Detroit 111……the STEAMER

The steamer….CITY of DETROIT 111…….was built in 1910 by the Detroit Shipbuilding Co.  It was designed by Frank E. Kirby.

In todays’s dollars…..the ship would  cost $38 million.  It was the largest side-wheeler in the world……….traveling between Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit.

The interior decoratios were designed  by painter and architect Louis O. Keil.

The “Gothic Room” with it’s gothic architecture.

The ship was taken out of service in 1950 and sold for scrap six years later.  The GOTHIC ROOM was salvaged and can now be seen in the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.

THANKS for all my Birthday Greetings

Danka……..gracias……….Mercí……for all my Birthday Wishes.  How many candles were on that cake……….too many…………took a blowtorch to light them all!

 

This photo………..with me in my favorite ROY ROGERS shirt was taken with a brownie camera 65 years ago when I lived on Lincoln street in Detroit.  WOW!

How those years have flown by.

DETROIT……….I was there for the last 2 weeks

On Grand River Avenue………across from the abandoned Train Station………

was this very interesting GRAFFITI.

Click on to learn more about it.

http://www.dare-dare.org/

DETROIT…….Houses that are Homes

My sister, Wini, and I drove around our old neighborhood……..and this is what is left of it…….and some people are actually living in these houses.

CLICK ON TO SEE MORE:      Detroit City Tour of Ghetto (final cut) – YouTube

I was born in this house on the corner of Alexanderine and Cass Ave.  Looks like someone is trying to restore it.

This reminds me of the time that City Marshals evicted us for non-payment of rent.  A neighbor let us move into their garage in the alley.  Then local kids broke into the garage and stole it all.

Three little kids were on their porch.  We gave them a pumpkin………and they ran inside.

Sidewalks grown over……ghostly !  The entire city block looks like this.  Only 3 houses left standing.

The man who lives in here came out and shooed us away.

A guy came out and told us he would call the police if we didn’t leave! WE LEFT!

My friend Lucy used to live here.  She was the dress buyer for Sak’s and Korvettes.  She now lives in Heaven. {I hope}.

Someone is trying hard to maintain their home.

We lived on this corner for 10 years………..

This Catholic church was just down the street on Trumbull Ave. Now it is the only building left for 12 blocks.  Homeless people are living in the basement.

Sad !  What happened to the family who lived here?

They were having a Bar-B-Q in the front yard!  I was NOT invited to chow down.

He is actually trying to restore this house.  GOOD LUCK!

Entire neighboorhoods are GONE.  Sidewalks GONE.   Families GONE.

This church was called HOPE GOSPEL when I was a kid. It’s still there on the corner of  what used to be Lincoln and Willis streets.

Now the church is on the corner of Aretha and Temptations!.  I get the “temptations” part………but Aretha?

Dionne Warwick sings “A House Is Not A Home” at St Lucia Jazz Festival – YouTube

DETROIT IS BANKRUPT………and burning down!

Detroit is BANKRUPT!  They have no more $$$ in the budget for tearing down the abandoned and burned out houses.  Tens of thousands have been demolished……..78,000 are waiting for demolition and the city only tears down about 1000 a year.  Kids have fun burning down the others.

This is 195 South Military…..where I lives as a child in the 50’s.

There are 43 firehouses …..but many of they have no fire fighters on duty.

95 percent of the fires are arson.  This was our living room and dining room.

Other fires are just labeled “suspicious”. They have only 15 ladder trucks with only have 27 engines…….duh!  This was our kitchen.

They only have 15 ladder trucks.

There are only 8 Batallion Chiefs to deal with the thousands of fires.

Peeling paint….or ART?  Both !!!

My childhood home is just one of the thousands of yearly  tragedies in Detroit.

IN MEMORIUM for Georgie Lou Jordan

50 years ago………at age 20…….when I lived in detroit…….it was my good fortune to meet Georgie Jordan.  I lived on  25th street and she was my next-door neighbor.

We would meet over the fence in the backyard…..I would trade her one of my home-made pies……..for one of her famous roasted turkey legs.

This dear sweet lady began her life in Georgia April 1, 1904.  She was twice married…….had three children and all passed before she did.

Georgie lived in Atlanta before moving to Detroit.  She was a seamstress……gardener…….cook ………and loved to crochet.  For  years I sent her boxes of yarn…..and her afghans were admired by all those who got one.

HATS were her passion.  For every Christmas and  birthday………I would send a hat and scarf…………..a brooch or pearls.

If the hat didn’t have flowers or feathers…….she would send it back and tell me to gussy it up.  I loved her spunk.

At age 100…..her friends from the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church and I gave her a Birthday Party.  The President sent her a congratulatory wish….as did the Mayor of Detroit.  She was tickled!

Georgie…….sweet photo taken in 1908.

I admired her for her directness………she loved to give her take on politics…….she took no “cuff” from anyone…..and she hated gossip.  In the nursing home she took all her meals in her room…….had no use for all those “old people” sitting in the dining room…….gossiping!  Georgie was 106 when I took this photo……….and still possessed “all her marbles”

Georgie…..passed last week at age 109.  She will always have a place in my heart.  I will miss our phone calls.

25 fab Trees around NYC

Thousands of trees light up New York at Christmas.  I look forward to them all every year.  When I lived in Detroit I decorated trees like this for J.L.Hudson’s.

The creche at the Metropolitan Museum…….seen by thousands every day.  They won’t allow photographs so I sneaked in this one.  Then the guard grabbed me!

The tree in my lobby.  The kids in the building trimmed it.  Nice

I make this one……scraps of jewelry…….for a Christmas card.

My neighbor around the corner had this one created out of laurel leaves $5000.

Light reflecting onto a tree on Broadway and 68th street.

In the Century Apts. on Central Park West.

Next door to Lee’s Art Supply…..where I have been buying for 45 years.

Martini tree……….Prost!

In a crazy shop window in the cheesy strip of Fifth Avenue.

Lobby tree in my swimming pool building………..at Lincoln Center.

“FRAMED TREES” at Anthropology in the Chelsea Market.  The whole tree is for sale $32,000.  Would look cool in your loft !

In the Peninsula Hotel on Fifth Avenue.

Side hall in the NY Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

In the main hall of the Library at 42nd street.

Crazy trees [and mannequins] in the candy store on Broadway and 62nd street.

Very “1960’s”……..but Ilove it.  Takes me back to the days when I did the same look for J.L.Hudson;s in Detroit.

And this critter needs no intro………..at the Scholastic Book store in Soho.

Chair Cushions…….or a tree……..in Soho.

Trump Hotel………all aglow at Columbus Circle.

Ornaments galore at the ornament store.

Awful cute…..as in AWFUL……….on west 74th street.

Brooks Brothers on Broadway………special SALE 2 for $100……..and all rather boring.

Apthorp  Aparments on Broadway since 1906. ………. 8 to 20 room apts.

Oil cans tree in the Chelsea Market.

And my friend Barbara put her tree outside….where it wall still be alive next Spring.

DETROIT Monument to the Dead Africans

Where Grand River Avenue splits with Grand Blvd. , the artist Olayame Dabls has   created a monument to Africans who died trying to escape from slave ships.

His use of materials reflects many of those used in African cultures.

This sections is called:  ” Iron teachings rocks to rust”.  Is there a metaphor here?

The artist welcomes visitors…..and is happy to oblige them with a tour.

Many of the objects he uses are dropped off my total strangers.

I wonder what his intent was/is with the car?  Is it a form of a slave ship?

His Bead Museum is packed full of African artifacs.

detroitblog » Blog Archive » Mirror man

All kinds of people are involved in his projects…..Africans, Europeans and other artists who want to help him with his vision.

Iron……a mainstay in his sculptures…..teaching us how to rust?

Use the paint…………then reuse the cans.  UseRefuse?

Stelle?

Three slaves………..

I shot for hours.  More BLOGS of his art will follow soon.