Packard Plant: Then and Now

Very cool. Kinda sad at the same time

http://www.freep.com/article/20121202/NEWS01/120823062/The-Packard-Plant-Then-now-interactive-comparison-photos?odyssey=mod%7Cdefcon%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE

I have never been to detroit so i may be wrong... but if the modern pictures are any indication.. That city looks like a war zone.. def most sad....

It is what happens when you fail to put anything back into the community and give it to all the citizens instead.

Ranger50 wrote: It is what happens when you fail to put anything back into the community and give it to all the citizens instead.

I'm not really sure what you said.

That is rather sad.

It's also interesting to look at the older picture where the surrounding area is covered with houses and the more recent one where so many of the abandoned houses have been demolished it almost looks like a park.

In reply to carguy123:

Trying to not flounder up this thread with talk about the Robin Hood nature that existed under that blowhard Coleman Young.

Similar to the Ford plant in StL before they Tore it down. Hostess will look like that in a few weeks.

This is the area I work in. It used to be a very nice neighborhood.

Beautiful video on a guy who LIVES THERE!

http://vimeo.com/39346092

BARNCA wrote: I have never been to detroit so i may be wrong... but if the modern pictures are any indication.. That city looks like a war zone.. def most sad....

Not far off in parts.

Another unlikely source of a good video about detroit

Johnny Knoxville...yes, that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMysMDHdb4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvKevvGnGt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCxC5ozQ7hQ

One large impact on Packard was WWII. Once the war was over, their machinery was pretty much worn out. That and a couple of bad decisions and poof!

Love this kind of "then and now" photography. Detroit is of course one of the ripest places for this, and it gives a lot more perspective than most of the "ruins porn" kind of work that lots of young photographers here do.

I have been thinking about doing something like this in my little town, maybe it's time to start the project.

bastomatic wrote: I have been thinking about doing something like this in my little town, maybe it's time to start the project.

No hurry. We'll be seeing plenty more "ghost towns" before long.

bastomatic wrote: I have been thinking about doing something like this in my little town, maybe it's time to start the project.

Around here it would be multiple pictures of farmland morphing into vast fields of McMansions...

Yeah, that's an interesting pictorial. As far as the Detroit is a war zone comment (or looks like one) is more true than not. There are people that will say how wonderful it is, that they just walked from X to Y and had no trouble and saw nothing bad. Usually X and Y are both within the same safe, protected area. Those tourists never venture into the neighborhoods or more than a few blocks away from Greektown, Cobo, JLA, Ford Field and so on.
The area I grew up in is down right scary at night now, and not too pleasant in the day-time. I went to look at a car for a buddy a few weeks ago. This neighborhood made me feel VERY uneasy, between the two of us we had a few grand cash and were driving an RX-8. My buddy (not a Detroit native) was scared enough that if it weren't for me, he'd have not gone back to buy the car after dark.
All that being said, in very few places have I met nicer people. Yeah, I've had some bad experiences during my time in Detroit, but those people are the exception. They'd be bad people in St. Louis, L.A. or Batton Rouge.

One of these former factory buildings used to have a paintball "field/company/course" (whatever you call it) inside. It was back in about '02 that I had a company outing/teambuilding/event at it.
It was very cool and rather scarey. It was somewhere on the eastside of downtown Detroit.

I heard that there is a resource for urban explorers...

JohnRW1621 wrote: One of these former factory buildings used to have a paintball "field/company/course" (whatever you call it) inside. It was back in about '02 that I had a company outing/teambuilding/event at it. It was very cool and rather scarey. It was somewhere on the eastside of downtown Detroit.

Splat Ball City if I remember correctly. The dealership I worked at won a night there. Man, what fun!!