Quote:
Originally Posted by ZenGum
I recently saw that 47% of Detroit residents are functionally illiterate. Why scavenge a doorstop?
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That number comes from a study dating to 1993, with a margin of error noted only as "greater than plus minus 5%."
Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
I'm a little surprised there isn't more scavenging going on.
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There's a huge amount of scrapping. It's actually a really bizarre part of the problem, and a huge industry to boot:
- From one angle, drug users/dealers routinely squat houses, strip it out, then burn it down and move on. Non-owner neighbors are powerless to call the cops, since it isn't their building they're trying to evict someone from.
- From another, brazen dudes will just roll into vacant commercial buildings and pull structural steel out by the truck load. I saw this just yesterday, a block away from Eastern Market. One dude, one bobcat, one trailer. Parked his truck around the corner, worked at it for a day, and then drove off.
- From a third,
building owners who want the land to be vacant but happen to own a historically significant building will leave it open to the elements (and scrappers) until they can get an emergency demo permit due to the building's now-imminent threat to public safety.
- From a fourth, people buy buildings (that step is optional) and then pull architecturally significant stonework, woodwork, etc, out and sell it or
move it to their out-of-state mansion.
Detroit is a silly complicated mess.