It is the beautiful, ruined homes and ornate theaters that really piss me off. The way people have broken the windows and spray painted those lost gems. It is tragic, and straight out of “Atlas Shrugged.”
The moslem Turks treated Constantinople the same way.
When people in Newark NJ made a stink about abandoned homes that were being looted by scrappers and used for drug dealing/using, the city said they would go after the negligent owners...then admitted that they had already seized the homes for tax liens. THEY were the owners.
A year or two ago there was a push to sell the lots for minimal amounts, but you basically had to “re-colonize” Newark if you bought one. You had a certain amount of time to construct a home on it, then had to live there for a certain amount of time as well (similar to some HUD home requirements). All the people lined up to buy them looked like they already lived in Newark; they couldn’t draw in any real money (suckers).
I worked doing rehab on Detroit ghetto welfare houses about 30 years ago. The fact that they were standing then after 30 years of neglect is a testimony to the craftsmen that built them.
It was awesome to drive down the block where each house was unique and different, not like today where they are the same design and same color.
Those s standing are beyond any hope of rehab.
When I was working there, I almost bought an awesome house, 3000 plus square feet, perfect condition. $35000. If I moved the house a block to grosse pointe, it would have been 10x the value.