On 4/7/13 02:31 : , Chris Crawford wrote:
> I disagree with you in respect to this house, though. It is being replaced
> with a giant hole in the ground (a limestone quarry), not a new building.
> Also, you have to understand that even if it were being replaced by a
> modern house, the houses built today in the United States are the ugliest,
> most culturally empty, vile things that one could imagine. No beauty or
> individuality, just soul-crushing ugliness and conformity (the house would
> look like every other one on the street). Not only that, but they're built
> to the lowest standards of quality imaginable. Several builders have
> admitted to me that they design the houses to last just 30 yrs, on the
> assumption that no one lives in a house that long anyway without moving.
> The house in the photo was probably built in the late 19th century, and it
> is still structurally sound.
>
>
Gary, IN used to be a thriving, successful city, the place where the
wealthy from Chicago would come to play on weekends and also had its own
share of wealthy residents. Charlie Finley, former owner of the Oakland
Athletics baseball team, got his start selling insurance in Chicago and
lived in a small mansion in Gary (side note - my parents met while both
were working in Finley's agency. Dad was a salesman, Mom was a secretary.)
There are still several of those old mansions, the majority of which are
now abandoned and decaying, because the city is decaying. Gary is a
steel town, built up around the steel mills and the steel industry.
When the steel industry started to boom, there was a flood of workers
from the South who moved up here to get jobs at the mills. When that
industry started to decline, so did the city, and you're left with urban
decay, slums, and an elevated crime rate.
I would love to photograph some of those old mansions, but, sadly, a
number of them are in neighborhoods that I would be taking my life into
my hands if I got out of my car holding a $1300 camera. The same goes
for a lot of the old downtown area (places where my wife remembers going
to dances and movies and such when she was a little girl). Today, that
area isn't safe for someone like me to walk around, much less with a
shiny DSLR. That's not being racist, it's being realistic.
--
Paul Braun
Certified Music Junkie
Valparaiso, IN
"It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." - David St. Hubbins
"Music washes from the soul the dust of everyday life" - Harlan Howard
--
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