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?
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