I hate to be dense, but why would they go to the expense of taking out the light poles - so they can’t be sued for one falling, or the meltdown value of the metal?
Now, IF the area ever gets rejuvenated (um, yeah), they’ll have to redo the infrastructure to even have street lights.
I wonder if the electric company can use them elsewhere - and viewed it as part of “payment” that they have already ackowledge they’ll ever see?
I think Detroit is a real interesting (and tragic) case study. Especially for those who think that this couldn’t happen to America as a whole. (It can.)
Metal recycling. If the electric company doesn’t take these poles, the local entreprenuers will. Abandoned houses, which in the 90’s were 60-70 percent anecdotally, were stripped of siding, brick, plumbing BACK THEN. Huge mansions are everywhere, burned out. Used to be the wealth center of Detroit, then they left. No jobs. In 1990’s, they had no more police force and a serial killer taking out the prostitutes and not enough working garbage trucks to pick up the garbage.
What do you do when someone can’t pay their bills and hasn’t for 10 years? There’s no income there. It’s not the peoples’ fault or the leaders’ fault, except that they should abandon the place for work like the dust bowl folks, but go where? These are not easily trained people - either due to age and past poverty/education, or the young with Detroit’s 50% graduation rate and raised in single parenthood inability to be with the kids. What a mess. How can you help?
But we have our foreign cars purchasers getting the better deal. And we have our domestic cars makers making the best short term decisions money can buy for their bonus/stock holders, and the unions leadership making the best deals that money can buy for their local leaders to get re-elected (overtime for me, not demanding another guy get hired instead). This is what happens when “truth is relative to me and my wants”.
The “cheese” didn’t just “move”, it’s all gone. No more cheese out there. Have to start going for insects and calling it “cricket cheese”.
Michigan in good faith gave it’s soul away to get biotech and new battery technology and green and everything else - tax free, just come over here and use our great engineers. Everything has fallen flat. These Highland Park folks would provide services to the new industries - but the new industries too went to china or flopped.
You put a job out there, they’ll grab it, but there’s no business to hire. (the lazy have a term already - criminals - so lets disregard our direct concern for them here)
Everywhere in this country we need a new product to make/consume - one that has a short shelf life so it needs to be produced everywhere locally and employs folks that take pride in their work. A product that old people can make because they aborted the young folk so no one can retire anytime soon. Something you don’t need much training to learn to do, for our poorly educated young AND Old, just a pride in ones work that shows in greater quality. I always thought it would be manufacturing. I feel like a commie to say (it seems so anti-technology)....farming. Return to individual farming - animals, produce...trade/barter/sell/hire. Knock the buildings down between the absent light posts.
because the lightpoles would have been looted.