Urban Decay

[The Terminator 0]

So....whats the most decayed place you've ever been to?

Personally Urban Decay facinates me somewhat, its just so amazing that Neighborhoods that were nice to live, in lets say....1947, become Slums by 1965(that is the case with Central Newark,NJ). I just got back from Nassau,Bahamas and its really..an education. Its just so astounding how Right nex to a Ghetto is a five star resort.but i have to say that the Mott haven section of the bronx is in my opinion, the worst area in America.

anyone care to join in on this little sociological disscussion?

[BarbulaM1 38]

The South Chicago Gary, IN is a really sad place, it looks like it could have been really nice, but the downtown is horrible and there is nothing there not even one store open at all. It looks like it will soon be a place for New Urbanisam though, but given the state of the industrial economy in the US and the socioeconomic class of the Gary area it may not happen for awhile or may not even happen. It is just really sad, 100 years ago it was the most modern and classiest cities in the country, now it resembles a town in the middle of WY. I could start ranting on a few of those towns but no one would have a clue what Im talking about.

[halo_lover 1]

Philadelphia has some really bad parts. 10 years ago the neighborhood of Kensington was easily the worst place in the city, and easily one fo the worst in the country. However in the last 5 years it's gotten much better, because neighborhoods right to it's south and west have gotten much better (Fishtown and Northern Liberties, mainly). North Philly and West Philly are pretty bad too. North Philly is probably worse though (West Philly has the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League college, and they have done WONDERS for the neighborhood!).

[GAT-X105 3]

CAMDEN, NJ.

It's right across the river from Philadelphia and it's consistently the most dangerous city in America.

I'm not sure, but I believe it was very industrial/shipping, with lots of shipyards and whatnot, and when the industries left, the city became hell on earth.

[halo_lover 1]

Date: 8/29/2005 8:19:52 PM
Author: GAT-X105
CAMDEN, NJ.


It's right across the river from Philadelphia and it's consistently the most dangerous city in America.


I'm not sure, but I believe it was very industrial/shipping, with lots of shipyards and whatnot, and when the industries left, the city became hell on earth.

quote>

Actually, thats almost exactly what happened to Chester, PA. It's a city about 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia. It's almost as bad as Camden (Chester and Camden are the two places most people in the area try to avoid). For those who are interested, I-476 was originally built so goods could quickly be transported out of the seaports in Chester to points to the north.

[Buffalonian1 0]

Suburban sprawl is defanatley a pain. I know what you mean about 5 star resorts right next to the ghetto. Any shops in this area have bars over the windows. Usually at least two murders per week here. And about industry, Buffalo's left too, helping fuel the decay. Two words- East Buffalo. (Of course Buffalo, thats all I ever talk about ) This city has been hit hard by urban decay. So many failed revitalization projects...

(off site hosted img)
align=baseline>

On a good side, the enviornment improved with the loss of the steel industry. Now ranked 3rd cleanest city in the nation.
Buffalo is like a mini-version of Philadelphia.

[Joesocwork 4]

One of my colleagues was telling me about how low housing prices were in Buffalo.  I joked about wanting to move there immediately, (housing is outrageous here in the metro Washington, D.C. area & getting worse; I'm probably one of the few who wishes it is was a bubble), but the colleague said that b/c Buffalo is depressed that the salaries aren't close to being equivalent.

The worst was visiting a friend in Brooklyn a few years back where slummy looking blocks seemed to go on for miles.  

 

Indy has bad sections but they seem to be a few blocks here or there interspersed by better looking buildings.  The Magistrate (my wife) would probably think it's worse than what it appears to me.  The apparent zoning mix has often intrigued me about Indianapolis.

 

Washington, D.C. has it neighborhoods that I could take you right to.  But there have been revitalization efforts that have improved quality over the years.  The buildings here are also built of brick which keep them fr looking so blighted.

[Compromise 1]

The worst looking place I went too of which I can remember is Brighton, Sussex, UK. For some reason I got the picture it as really run down.

Buffalonian1: I recommend you read the pinned topic at the top of this forum.

[Swiss_Canadian 2]

One word everyone: Detroit Detroit has been ranked only second to Philidelphia in many studies, including the most depressing city in America. The plight of the downtown is the direct result of the race riots of the late 1960's.....see what happens when you keep one group of people penned up in a ghetto together and don't allow them to live elsewhere? (apparently the Detroit gov't. of the 60's didn't learn anything from the Holocaust! )

[trackseventeen 0]

The whole city of Philadelphia was once a great place to live, now only about a handful of nieghborhoods are worth straying into.  And this nothing to do with putting a bunch of people in a so called ghetto and having riots break out.  Before 1960, Phillys poorest nieghborhoods were clean, safe, good places to raise a family no matter what color you were or your nationality.  Up until this time Philly had the highest standard of living for ALL economic groups of any American city. This was due largely to the fact that Philly, unlike most cities didnt have tenement districts.  Instead EVERYONE lived in thier own house.. A row house that is, yes some were in better nieghbirhoods than others.  But chances are even the poorest people in Philly had thier own bathroom and thats saying alot.  Its a shame waht happened to Philly in the past 25 years. Mostly people are becoming upwardly mobile and moving to suburbs in Pa and Jersey. This is eveidence bythe fact that even while the city is losing pop. the outlying 7 counties are bursting at the seems

 

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

Liegh Park, Havant, portsmouth, Europes largest council estate.

[justanothersim86 83]

Parts of East London, Canada (Hilton, Marconi, Carlton Heights and some parts of Huron Heights) are in bad shape or have crime. White Oaks area in South London is notorious for crime and some areas to the southeast of downtown near the train yards is rough. But there improving greatly over the last few years and the improvements on the city's horrible planning of the 80's and 90's. Nothing compared to poverty in some parts of american cities and it doesn't compare to other parts of the world.

[ExiL3 10]

just checked Camden, and look how it was before.




My impression is that things are really not going great for many American cities...


take care

[beachfrontproperty 0]

Date: 8/29/2005 8:05:00 PM Author: halo_lover Philadelphia has some really bad parts.  10 years ago the neighborhood of Kensington was easily the worst place in the city, and easily one fo the worst in the country.  However in the last 5 years it's gotten much better, because neighborhoods right to it's south and west have gotten much better (Fishtown and Northern Liberties, mainly).  North Philly and West Philly are pretty bad too.  North Philly is probably worse though (West Philly has the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League college, and they have done WONDERS for the neighborhood!).

 

I agree...in south philly, the just built new tennements...really looks better then the place i live in...then days later they were full of trash crime grafiti and jumpings... I live in a nice area of philly with some nice row homes and duplexes, but really gets me mad is right across the street is a abandon church. But the cities is taking car of it..someone have bought it and it going to put duplexes there. A few days ago there was a meeting at the library...the talked about the number of jumpings in the area...so they got together a nice townwatch and i have seen less gangs of kids messing up property and drinking

[brancra 1,150]

Let's not forget the term Rust Belt here. Cities from Gary to Buffalo *although I'd make a stretch to Albany* suffered when industries decided to look for more cost-efficient facilities and more importantly, cheaper labour.  The worst communities often end up being the ignored ones. Take Utica, New York for example. If I'm not mistaken, their population dropped 40,000 or so, about 50 percent, since 1950.  Or let's take Pittsburgh's suffering into discussion. Some of these places have even begun to bill themselves as resort areas. If you consider abndoned factories and run-down apartments hotspots for tourists.

Just don't do the Syracuse New York method and have a huge hotel and mega mall approved for your city.

[GaryReggae 81]

Yes, urban decay fascinates me. There are tons of websites out there which I stumbled across by chance, from all over the world of 'urban explorers', people that explore derelict/abandoned buildings and post photos of their visits on the web. I have spent hours looking through the photos - fascinating. A lot of the British ones seem to focus solely on asylums for some reason - kind of creepy if you ask me. The US ones are better as far as general stuff is concerned.

This is a good place to start:

[MallowTheCloud 41]

I'm trying to think of urban decay in the Portland area, but I can't think of anything. Sure, there are poor neighborhoods... especially in North and Southeast Portland. But, none of that 'decayed'... nor is it in mid/high rise areas. It's just single family homes, duplexes, and the occasional small apartment that make up poor neighborhoods.

[wallasey 8]

Some corpy estates from the 60's are now boarded up here in the UK. Liverpools Croxteth Park (not Toxteth) is now looking a bit sorry for itself as are the roads off Picton Road where at least 5 terraced houses are boarded up. Now doubt they will be bulldozed.

Going back 20 years though, the whole city was a grotty place to be with Hatton in charge (he is now a TV presenter) annd all our buildings were derelict. The Albert Dock was silted up and many scousers left for a better life. Thats why there is such a big expat population! In the 60's, leaders thought that Liverpool would have a population around a million by the year 2000. Unfortunately, they went and demolished most of innercity Liverpool and moved people out to places like Kirkby, Skelmersdale (Skem) and Cantril Farm (which became known as Stockbridge Village ) now, these estates are being buldozed and new homes are being built.

I wonder how long these new estates will last?

[noel5624 3]

Dublin city centre in Ireland is surrounded by a ring of old council complexes from the 50's to the 80's, and most of these are really run down. Areas of note are Summerhill, (worst Irish slum I've seen with collapsing buildings, abandoned apartment complexes, rubbish everywhere, and from anywhere in this area, you can see the new sparkly high rise commerical blocks rising up) Also, see Fatima Mansions, Ballybough, Dolphins Barn and the North Strand.  In fairness, most of these areas are now up for renewal from the council, and are seeing a lot of demolition and reconstruciton work, but this time including things such as playgrounds, shops, community centres etc, which they badly lacked in the original design. I have yet to see plans for Summerhill though. Pity as its only a 5 minute walk from Dublins main street and some of its highest costing hotels!! New transport systems through these areas also makes them more appealing for the ease to get into Dublin City Centre, which hopefully will bring some money to these areas. After all, house prices in Ireland are so high at the moment, that virtually nobody can afford to live in the city centre anyway, with hundreds of thousands of people moving into outlying counties and towns. Not a bad thing if you have a good transport network, but we dont, so MAJOR gridlock is a part of life for many now with some people spending up to 4 hours a day commuting over distances like 40 miles. Some fear we'll end with an abandoned decaying city centre serving only commercial purpose, and massive sprawls of semi detached housing for 10s of miles around the city in every direction. The urban decay had started to spread into council suburbs ( see Coolock, Ballyfermot etc ) but in fairness to the councils, they've done a great job of nipping it in the bud, and renovating these areas. May it last a long time......

 

[dzi 0]

Now that's an intresting thread!

[1ajs 49]

you whant urban decay heres some for ya of winnipeg
these are taken bye me





ogilive florwer mill burnt in 97 imploded aug 23 2005 whats left of it




union bank tower first sckyscraper in westen canada sits empty


empty old warehouse for sale city valued it at 250k owner whants 110k for it just one of the many like it


scheam of the downtown biz to get plp downtown with are new socalled saviour of the downtown cost 200mil what we lost first etons department store in canada

[wallasey 8]

Some interesting buildings there! It's sad to see things l;ike this in a bad way

[justanothersim86 83]

This is W Dundas St. in London Canada in the late 1800's. Its still nice today, just thought it was a cool photo.

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/3043/dundas1885l1tg.jpg align=baseline>

 

One block south of Dundas St. in the East-Central Area of London Canada today:

 

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/5035/dundasatnight5te.jpg align=baseline>

 

 

This is about as bad as it gets here, and this is a city of 469,000 people.

Not to mention its improving compared to what it was 10 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jordanmac 0]

The northern section of Tulsa, Oklahoma is the most decayed place I've been to. Back in the 70s is was a thriving part of town. The houses were well kept and the major roads were lined with many different kinds of stores. Now, the place is falling apart. Most of the stores and houses are abandoned and crumbling. Even the occupied buildings look like their abandoned and crumbling. Crime is horrible there too. I heard stories that at certain times people have to take cover in their houses because of gangs and drive by shootings almost every day. Luckelly, I live in a nice neighborhood in an entirely different city miles away from North Tulsa. Right now, most north Tulsa residense are blaming The city govornment for what happened. Tulsa's govornment has been in a lot of trouble recently thanks to a couple of trouble makers in the city council.

[Duke87 1,070]

Waterbury, Danbury, and Bridgeport (Connecticut) have experienced the a lot of urban decay over the years. The fromer mayor of Bridgeport, Joe Ganim, was kicked out of office for corruption. Most of the city is just rather low-income stuff. You see projects and apartments in some places, although further north you just have small houses on tiny plots of land, and some duplexes and the like. Waterbury is worse. The city actually wnet bankrupt a few years back, and the place has become a real dump. Abandoned and dilapidated buildings all over the place. Danbury is really only decayed because all the buildings are so old, as if from the early 20th century or even older. New Haven and Hartford haven't really experienced quite as much decay. Hartford since it's the Capital, and New Haven because of Yale University. And then you have Stamford, The City that works, as mayor Dan Malloy puts it. There are low income areas in Stamford, but no seediness, and not much crime at all. And we have a rather nice downtown. And the situation is really helped by the fact that North Stamford is like New Cnaaan and Greenwich- full of big houses on an acre or more of land. However, the mayor insists on keeping the budget balanced. He's ambitious. He's going to be running for Governor, and no doubt is looking to be President someday. That leaves New London and Norwich... New London is really just very industrial, due to the submarine building and the submaine base. And Norwich... I've never been to Norwich, so I don't really know much about it.

[louisville327 0]

Detroit, Michigan, is the absolute epitome of urban decay in the United States.

Entire neighborhoods have been bulldozed to the ground and nothing built in their place. Some central sections of Detroit resemble prairies more than city streets.





Notice that the burned house is not surrounded by anything but empty lots.

Detroit is a vast urban wasteland, with only isolated cases of renewal in recent years.


Please forgive the fact that these images are taken from a white racist web site. In an effort to take up their bandwidth, I linked directly to the pictures on the site instead of saving and storing the pictures myself. Racist morons. They blame the decline of Detroit's traditional neighborhoods on black people, rather than the politicians, real estate agents and scared white people that took advantage of them and created the decimated residential zones that exist today.

[fivedayrental 0]

danbury isnt really decaying. sure, there are some areas that have seen better days kind of near downtwon and toward westconn and the hospital that have becoome kind of dumpy nad some of the have became multi-unit (mostly redone without permits) into hoyusing for new american citizens or illegal immigrants. however, there are lots of nice neighborhoods that you havent seen in danbury im sure because they are kind of away from things (such as the mall and city-center) such as the aunt hack, king street and the various subvisions near candlewood lake. to put danbury in the same league as waterbury and bridgport is is not really a good call.

[brancra 1,150]

From my travels, I'd say that the cities in the Rust Belt that I'd like to avoid are Flint, Michigan, *and I will never go there again* Buffalo New York *my buddy's car was vandalized near D'Youville University* and if you stretch it, I have a passion to avoid Patterson, New Jersey. These are the places that you'll look at out the window and make you want to keep on driving to the next town. Come to think, that's why I went to Flint...stupid, stupid, STUPID.

[screename 0]

Paterson is not that bad as long as you do not go into certain places. It just looks bad cause it is so old. You do not need to worry about the gettos because all the people want to do there is sell drugs and will not bother you if you dont bother them. I more afaid of the cops cause if they see a white kid driving around they will pull you over a search you because they think you are trying to buy drugs.

[organicsabre 1]

Date: 9/3/2005 4:02:37 AM
Author: 1ajs
you whant urban decay heres some for ya of winnipeg

these are taken bye me

union bank tower first sckyscraper in westen canada sits empty




empty old warehouse for sale city valued it at 250k owner whants 110k for it just one of the many like it




scheam of the downtown biz to get plp downtown with are new socalled saviour of the downtown cost 200mil what we lost first etons department store in canada

quote>

I am surprised these are left empty is it because of the area? In the uk these would ahve been snapped up and converted into flats or small business units. As for the warehouse at a cheap cost of