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What were they thinking?!
North Pointe, Highland Park, MI, 2008

"North Pointe Village", Highland Park, MI, 2008
Highland Park was in serious trouble. It was losing population, it was bankrupt.
Something had to be done.
The best and brightest put their heads together. They reasoned, "Highland Park is losing tax-paying residents. Let's build a lot of ticky-tacky houses and people are sure to swamp our city, falling over themselves to be the first to buy one of these fine $130,000 houses!"
Rather than preserve what was already here, and perhaps throw in some maintainable parks and playgrounds (a coffee shop would be nice,) they actually went ahead with this hair-brained housing scheme. Notice I use the work 'they', not specifically naming names? This is because, mysteriously, no one is running forward to take credit for "North Pointe" (Now, who came up with that name?!)
Cruise by. It's really rather astounding and would look really impressive on the cover of a National Geographic, "Failing city produces modern ghost town." Come check it out, Just East of Woodward, south of McNichols. The first three photos are taken in 2005, when the 'family homes' were spanking new. See how rather pathetic they look, compared to the magnificent ruins they stand next to. The proceeding nine photos were taken in January 2008. A quick trip through the real estate database shows that the few folks who were actually foolish enough to purchase these fine establishments have long since defaulted. The boxes now stand mute and empty, close to a hundred of them. The doors kicked in, windows smashed, copper stripped. Now, let's play a game. Let's see which ruins last longer. The ones just completed, or the ones constructed close to a century ago?

001 002 003 004
Old, new, 2005 New, old, 2005 Which will last longest?   Jan 2008
005 006 007 008
Looking good! Deserted Prairie Best on the block Attractive location
009 010 011 012
Going once... Going twice... Sold...! ...To the smoker