Offtopic

Big Red—

This is apropos of nothing. It just came to mind from reading a British website tonight.

We've talked about Detroit before. You've posted links to other "Ruins of Detroit" sites, and so have I. This link is not being offered to mock your city of origin: It looks a lot like my big-city Indianapolis looked back in the day... The sun hits the streets in almost exactly the same way. But jeezus, some of these photos are haunting.

I looked up some of those spots on Google streetview. The misty one is not a Photoshop effect.

But spin that image around with your mouse, or...

But spin that image around with your mouse, or look at this one.

A city with as much TAXABLE space as central Detroit has to work with has got to have a future.

If you had a reason to be there, if you owned some sturdy business, and were making a reasonable middle-class wage, you could buy an entire BLOCK and build an estate near downtown.

Two things:

1. Energy for heating is going to get cheaper. (Links provided upon request. [Hi, Raddy!]) Detroit may never be as sunny as L.A., but you survived it OK, right? And being de-industrialized, it will probably be cleaner than it was in your generation. If there's any infrastructure left at all, rail and rivers and interstates, there will certainly be some kinds of businesses that can make use of it.

2. Global warming is real, they say. Everybody says that. So the climate will eventually match that of Indianapolis, then Louisville, and then maybe who knows? Nashville? Two "sticking" snowstorms per year?

So this is my theory— If you were a crazy rich person and you wanted to buy something that would pay off for your grandchildren, Detroit real estate might not be the worst investment.

(The clock on that Daily Mail page is fantastic.)

Andrew Moore should get an award for that clock photo.

I'm pretty sure the "construction" at the Pilgrim Church was just cinematic lighting.