Completely abandoned city streets

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

Park Heights, Baltimore

Wait, what happened here?

If you look at the earlier Streetviews, the neighborhood was completely intact a few years ago. Now leveled.

City planners are often the biggest contributors to blight and urban decline. The teardown fetish is out of control. I'm betting this is some urban renewal scheme.

There are neighborhoods in Detroit that, if the city waited 5-10 years, would have decent, semi-intact urban form, but they just had to start demolishing everything once the abandonment spread, so they're urban prairies. They could have waited and seen the neighborhood organically heal.

[Pedestrian]

This is San Francisco's Great Highway. Crazy libs want to shut it down to cars and turn it over entirely to bikes and joggers:


https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...xiAoA3oECAAQJw

Threats, vandalism, crank calls: Great Highway debate turns nasty
Heather Knight
Oct. 16, 2021

On the long Labor Day weekend, under blue skies and a blazing sun, not a single person strolled or rode a bicycle along the shut-to-cars Great Highway. Not a soul roller-skated, walked a dog or pushed a baby carriage along the popular beachfront stretch all three days.

Or so said the data trackers.

Staffers with San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department noticed their sensors, placed to study usage of the road to determine its long-term fate, weren’t spotting anybody. So they went to investigate. Turns out someone had messed with the devices, rendering them useless.

Two weekends later? Somebody stuffed cotton balls into the sensors, meaning more lost data. Over the recent October long weekend including Indigenous Peoples’ Day? Somebody switched up cotton balls for ripped plant parts, and the city lost data again.

It’s certainly not the crime of the century, but it’s bizarre — and it’s one more example of just how heated the arguments over 2 miles of pavement have become.

Protests and counterprotests? Dueling petitions? Competing flyers? That’s all productive.

But vandalizing city property, holding nasty signs as bicyclists roll past, and even making crank phone calls to an advocate’s mother clearly cross the line. And raise a key question: Of all the crises in San Francisco, this is what’s got you fighting mad?

Tamara Aparton, a spokesperson for the Recreation and Park Department, previously worked at the Public Defender’s Office and said the imbalance between how little that average San Franciscans cared about her old office’s work then and how much they care about her new office’s work now is stark . . . .

“The pitch, the level of passion about this, it’s just wild,” Aparton said. “It’s probably gotten worse during the pandemic. People are spending time at home, and they probably have time to obsess about things and nurture their resentments” . . . .

The city in the spring of 2020 shut the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard to cars because sand covered it — and to give people space to exercise while socially distanced. Many people loved the new beachfront promenade and wanted one of the pandemic’s few silver linings to become permanent.

But some neighbors hated that cars spilled into their residential streets, sometimes double-parking, speeding or damaging their parked vehicles. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency added speed bumps and stop signs, but some neighbors said the problem remained.

Mayor London Breed and Supervisors Gordon Mar, Connie Chan and Myrna Melgar met privately in August before announcing the road would reopen to cars during the week but remain closed on the weekends and holidays until a permanent solution was reached. And then the over-the-top reactions among some people really started flying.

Bicyclists who want the roadway permanently shut to cars have staged weekly protests, riding across both lanes to slow traffic behind them. They’re not breaking any laws, but those who want the road open to cars seven days a week find the 45-minute slowdowns an affront.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayar...y-16536729.php

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Wait, what happened here?

If you look at the earlier Streetviews, the neighborhood was completely intact a few years ago. Now leveled.

City planners are often the biggest contributors to blight and urban decline. The teardown fetish is out of control. I'm betting this is some urban renewal scheme.

There are neighborhoods in Detroit that, if the city waited 5-10 years, would have decent, semi-intact urban form, but they just had to start demolishing everything once the abandonment spread, so they're urban prairies. They could have waited and seen the neighborhood organically heal.

When I was in college, Park Heights was a thriving Jewish neighborhood. There's even a Barry Levinson movie about it:

• Video Link

[SAN Man]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Chicago certainly has abandoned areas, tbut he one you happened to pick happens to be where Norfolk Southern wants to expand their rail yard and has been buying up homes and demolishing them to do so. I keep meaning to watch this documentary about it: http://theareafilm.com/

But you can go a few blocks away and find non-NS-induced abandonment: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7837...7i16384!8i8192

I didn't know about Norfolk Southern rail yards expansion, thanks, I learned something new today.

Jackson MS https://goo.gl/maps/ubgp1LHbATmStUph7
https://goo.gl/maps/C94fEQkttWzubWPP8

New Orleans https://goo.gl/maps/PR1CJsjEXcw9zKZR9
Hurricane Katrina flood zone.

[aderwent]

Originally Posted by edale

Glencoe Pl in Cincinnati was an entirely abandoned rowhouse neighborhood that was standing until pretty recently.

Pre-Demo
Pre-Demo 2

Post-Demo

Did the hospital buy that land? Those didn't look beyond repair.

[Echostatic]

The Yarrabee Bend and Onion Creek Forest neighborhoods in Southeast Austin were bought out by the city a few years back due to frequent flooding. The city designated the area as a city park not too long ago, and all the homes there have been demolished by now. Most of the streets are still remaining, though, which gives some pretty surreal vibes as you can drive down a typical suburban street and see nothing but trees.

A few streets:

Onion Creek Drive
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1688...7i16384!8i8192

Springville Lane
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1715...7i13312!8i6656

Thatch Lane (this section has been demolished recently and is now part of a dog park)
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1745...7i13312!8i6656

Wild Onion Drive
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.1677...7i16384!8i8192

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by edale

Glencoe Pl in Cincinnati was an entirely abandoned rowhouse neighborhood that was standing until pretty recently.

Pre-Demo
Pre-Demo 2

Post-Demo

the thing to do here is just clik the bottom post demo link. then hit the arrow forward on the street on streetview. it moves you back and forth in time with the structures being there and being gone. wild!

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by edale

Glencoe Pl in Cincinnati was an entirely abandoned rowhouse neighborhood that was standing until pretty recently.

Pre-Demo
Pre-Demo 2

Post-Demo

Well that's depressing. What a beautiful couple of blocks those were - especially regrettable as the surrounding neighbourhood seems to be in generally decent shape and isn't too far from the gentrification happening in OTR.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Wait, what happened here?

If you look at the earlier Streetviews, the neighborhood was completely intact a few years ago. Now leveled.

City planners are often the biggest contributors to blight and urban decline. The teardown fetish is out of control. I'm betting this is some urban renewal scheme.

There are neighborhoods in Detroit that, if the city waited 5-10 years, would have decent, semi-intact urban form, but they just had to start demolishing everything once the abandonment spread, so they're urban prairies. They could have waited and seen the neighborhood organically heal.

Yeah, that Baltimore scene is shocking. It looks like they bought all the properties up, moved people out, and demoed it all between 2012 and 2017. Appears that it was getting ready for construction around 2017 then that just fell through.

It definitely reminds me of some of Detroit's self-inflicted wounds.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Yeah, that Baltimore scene is shocking. It looks like they bought all the properties up, moved people out, and demoed it all between 2012 and 2017. Appears that it was getting ready for construction around 2017 then that just fell through.

It definitely reminds me of some of Detroit's self-inflicted wounds.

The #1 rule in urban redevelopment should be not to let a developer demolish anything existing until there's ironclad financing. I've seen so many cases of "speculative demolition" which has resulted in holes even in desirable neighborhoods for a decade or more.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

Park Heights, Baltimore

Tragic! As others have pointed out, things looked fairly intact not that long ago. What happened?

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Well that's depressing. What a beautiful couple of blocks those were - especially regrettable as the surrounding neighbourhood seems to be in generally decent shape and isn't too far from the gentrification happening in OTR.

i wish I was a billionnaire. I would waste my money on buying up and refurbishing these brick row blocks. Just to save what little is left outside of places like NYC where fortunately there is so much. The stuff that comes after (if anything) is always banal at best.

[photoLith]

One of the most depressing places Ive been was Cairo, IL.

When I went about 10 years ago a good chunk of the downtown was still there, albeit abandoned. Looks like now nearly all of it is gone.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.0006...7i13312!8i6656

[MolsonExport]

^my god. that is horrible. Looks like an apocalyptic movie set.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by photoLith

One of the most depressing places Ive been was Cairo, IL.

When I went about 10 years ago a good chunk of the downtown was still there, albeit abandoned. Looks like now nearly all of it is gone.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.0006...7i13312!8i6656

that reminds me of a visit to superior, wisconsin, but much worse.

[biguc]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

i wish I was a billionnaire. I would waste my money on buying up and refurbishing these brick row blocks. Just to save what little is left outside of places like NYC where fortunately there is so much. The stuff that comes after (if anything) is always banal at best.

You could probably even make money at it, if you were rich enough to do it at scale.

Better effort than rathole car tunnels and rocket ships, anyway.

[SAN Man]

1 block from the ocean front in Atlantic City: https://goo.gl/maps/4Hyvs6zTWoimHGHU8

Memphis https://goo.gl/maps/kRbPRDRVs37D1EXg8

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

that reminds me of a visit to superior, wisconsin, but much worse.

Superior, WI isn't exactly the model a thriving, vibrant small city, but it's still an order of magnitude more intact than Cairo, IL.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/pRSaUGHJdpHs3VoEA



Cairo is in danger of going full ghost-city in the coming decades.

1920 peak: 15,203
2020 census: 1,733

Decline: -13,470 (-88.6%)



Superior is in nowhere near as dire straits.

1920 peak: 40,384
2020 census: 26,751

Decline: -13,633 (-34.8%)



And Superior has Duluth (86,697) just on the other side of the harbor, and together they still anchor a region of actual economic consequence (2020 MSA pop. 291,638), whereas Cairo is done being such a place, and has been for some time. It was always just too damn floody to be a real population center.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by SAN Man

1 block from the ocean front in Atlantic City: https://goo.gl/maps/4Hyvs6zTWoimHGHU8

You'd think that with its proximity to the insane prices of NYC, that this would be a very attractive place for redevelopment. Not so, it seems.



no wonder Vermont ave is worth so little in Monopoly.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

i wish I was a billionnaire. I would waste my money on buying up and refurbishing these brick row blocks. Just to save what little is left outside of places like NYC where fortunately there is so much. The stuff that comes after (if anything) is always banal at best.

Baltimore has, for many decades, had a program where you could buy abandoned buildings--houses and some commercial buildings--from the city for $1 if you promised to renovate and occupy (or cause to be occupied by renting out) them. My sister once bought an office building near the Inner Harbor (now trendy) under the program and used it as the office of her business.

But a lot of the row houses, for example, are nothing but shells. The renovation costs are steep.