The corruption in the politics, the rage at so much being destroyed, and wondering about those poor deer... This story makes me both angry and sad. I want to work myself up into a fit but what would be the point? I live far away and this happened when I was still in high school.
Thank you for sharing.
Wow. You've written some desolate posts before abandoned buildings but this one really brought it home for me. Our zoo is one of the few things that I really love about Wichita and I can't imagine happening across a zoo that has been so woefully mismanaged and just left to rot… how very, very sad.
We were in the Detroit Zoo last spring with our almost 3 year old daughter. Violet glanced up at the tigers and commented that one of them (nearly out of sight on it's perch) was "not happy". She said it a few times, with that look of deep sincerity that only children can conjure. Later in the evening, as we sat with my news junkie father-in-law, a local station reported that a tiger at the zoo attacked one of the handlers. It was eerie moment.
Very sad and frustrating. What is one to do?
wow. another stunning piece on Detroit's urban decay.... I hope you have at least given passing thought to assembling your photography and writings into a book? You are truly documenting a post-twentieth century urban phenomenon with insight, humility, and as always, the keenest of wit. kudos.
Ugh, so sad. And as someone above said, so angry, too!
This was a very nice piece. I understand some of the reasons zoos are good, such as preserving threatened or endangered species. But I also cringe and am very sad when I think of those beautiful animals being held captive for our amusement. I believe zoos should get these animals into a preserve or park where they can roam with some semblence of freedom. As for the dirty politics, well, it runs rampant throughout this country, from the biggest city to the smallest backwater town. It's a sickening fact of life.
We went to the zoo this weekend. Actually, it's not a "real" zoo. It's an animal sanctuary. There are mountain lions, bears, tigers, foxes and bobcats who have been rescued from their horrific living situations and brought back to health. These are animals that can never again live in the wild for their own safety. Tigers who were near death in breeding farms. Bears who were fed by humans too many times and have lost their foraging instincts. Ravens who were hit by semi's on the highway and have damaged wings. Wolf-hybrids who should have never been cross-bred and can't live domestically or in the wild. We have another zoo here, too. A "real" zoo. But we like going to the sanctuary much more. Because it's a real life lesson about how what you do matters, and the world is so much bigger than just you.Thanks for the reminder.
Again, another fantastic piece.
I really hope you write a book on your Detroit.
Wow! Just wow. What a great commentary on Detroit. Great pics, too. I can't beleive you were able to get in and roam like that. How eerie and beautiful.
Very sad how that zoo fell rapidly into ruin. When we lived in Detroit I used to always take out-of-town friends and my kids there, not only the Belle Isle zoo but the aquarium and conservatory as well. Sadly, only the last remains open, albeit in a somewhat Sisyphean battle against the increasingly harsh times.
the BI zoo was on a much more intimate scale than the "Detroit" Zoo, which, frankly, I think is a bit overrated. The boardwalk was a great vantage point, particularly for younger kids. The crackhouse rescue tiger was quite spirited, and we always enjoyed the ease by which a visit to that zoo was accomplished. No bataan-style death marches from the parking lot...just more of a pull up, walk in and run-the-boardwalk type of outing. Same goes for the aquarium....which, although avowedly modest in sophistication and scale, possessed a certain Pewabic-encased old world charm which you just can't find nowadays.
What is the condition of the aquarium now? Would be sad to see that fall into disrepair as well.
the aquarium has not been abandoned in the same manner, the albert kahn exterior is still beautiful and a peek in the windows reveals that everything (including all those pewabic tiles!) still appears to be there. unlike the zoo, there is an active preservation organization seeking the re-opening of the aquarium.
chances look grim though.
I was amazed at how BIG the zoo was when I first wandered inside. like you casey, I find the actual zoo a bit inconvenient in the way it's laid out, particularly because I don't like to use a stroller. I really wish my kids could have seen this one when it was open---its layout reminds me a bit of Binder Park Zoo in Calhoun County.
This reminds me a bit of that essay you wrote for the dooce anthology.
Which was awesome, by the way.
I remember field trips to Belle Isle as a kid. It's so gross to see it in this state.
But it won't surprise me in the least to see Kilpatrick reelected when his 5 years is up.
Shame on you, Kwame!
Sorry, won't be surprised to see Kwame put back in office when his five years ARE up. Someone has a case of the Mondays.
jim, you make me hate what the worst in us are capable of...
reminds me a bit of what we've done here in queens to the site of the 39 and 64 worlds fair sites in flushing meadow park...just allowed beautiful spaces and sites to decay into rubble. total crap.
Bravo Jim. You write so well and I really enjoy reading your stories. I still look up your Ireland stories just to laugh.
Probably one of your most amazing pieces of writing yet. Detroit is a really amazing place - it must be surreal to be in the thick of it.
I am awestruck.
I so deeply admire the way you are able to reveal so clearly the conflict between our constructed world and our natural one; especially our desire to protect and preserve the things we build, but that nature and man's scavengers will have their way with if given the chance.
There is a simultaneous grief and admiration captured in both the images and writing (and yours are inseparable in my mind). I want to cheer on the middle-finger waving foliage that seeks to overtake a bridge men spent hors and many thousands of dollars to make. but I want to cry over the decisions of greedy men who made every swing of the hammer used to build that place a complete and total waste.
Wow.
You should write books man.
Don't be frightened, but this was so good I had to pass it along to some of our law school classmates...via Facebook. I know, perish the thought. But still, these pictures are lovely, although hearing the story of the zoo's downfall was not.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw on tv about mother nature taking over Chernobyl and what's happened in the last 20 years since the initial disaster.
And then makes me think of a phrase from the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still--"If the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives." (I haven't seen the movie yet but that quote gets right to the point).
Once again you have eloquently led us to understand a little more about why Detroit is how it is. Do you ever get spooked in these places? Sign me up for an autographed first edition please.
Sometimes when you write pieces like this I feel like it's so close and real, but then it's so completely detached from all of my experience it's still unbelievable. An abandoned zoo? I mean, how can that happen? And yeah, is it better to not have a zoo or have one--having been to the LA Zoo recently, I'd argue it's better to abandon them to the wild dogs anyway. Beautiful post.
Great post.
Wow - those pictures make me think of post-apocalyptic earth-reclaiming itself from industrialization suspense movies. Hard to believe it's for real and not just a movie set.
Very interesting story.
And as for the first paragraph of your post... I grew up in Alaska and April is when everything from carcasses to dog poop thaws out and starts to rot. I always wondered where the term "April fresh scent" came from.
Superlative piece. Thank you.
Whenever we go on vacation, people are trying to make us visit zoos and aquariums. We find them incredibly depressing and people never understand why we don't want to go.
Wow! I wish I could say that this surprises me, but it doesn't. I've read your blog long enough to know that nothing that happens in Detroit should come as a surprise. I simply cannot fathom what it must be like to live in a city that is so utterly broken and in such despair.
As for zoo's well, a few years ago I took my class on a fieldtrip to the Louisville Zoo. As I strolled through the Gorilla exihibit, as nice an enclosure as enclosures get, I just became haunted by the looks in their faces. You could see the saddness in every eye and I've never been back and never will.
I will hold fast to my (delisional) belief that taking my children to the zoo will foster a love for wild things, and a desire to keep them free.
This was an amazing post, thank you.
Bethany
What a wonderful piece. My grandparents grew up in Detroit, as did their parents. They had a very strong connection to Belle Isle. When I read things like this I am glad they are no longer around to see the ruin and decay; they would be heartbroken.
I visited Michigan for the first time over the Christmas holidays with your posts about growing up here and living in Detroit ringing in my ears. I understand a little better now how you feel about it. I really, really enjoyed my time there and everything I got to see. And in the little of Detroit that I saw I better understand what this city was and is today. I think it's hard for us in other parts of the country to understand what it means, and how it happens.
Echoing everyone else, this was an amazing post. I have to agree with a couple of the other commentators that I don't think zoos are a good thing either. But such vast corruption in a city is just unbelievable. What a waste.
Amazing writing.
You should submit to the New Yorker.
Good to know that Illinois hasn't cornered the market on political corruption, isn't it? Is there an honest politician out there....or is that an oxymoron?
i don't know how you do it, living in detroit, i would spend my days in despair and my nights in anger, wondering how it was that things so beautiful and full of promise could end up so desolate. and yet, at once, it is a window into a world of what-ifs that is strange and wondrous, better than a will smith movie version of what civilization, re-wilded, becomes.
thanks for the unusual window into corruption, wilderness, and urbanity gone native.
Aside from the usual depressing commentary on our wasteful and crumbling society, this looks like a really cool place to visit, at least in a different way than the other sites you've explored.
Fake wild became really wild, and I hope the scrappers could somehow be barred from it, to leave it as a giant work of art and social statement.
What a world.
Those are some of the saddest (and yet somehow most beautiful) pictures I've seen in quite awhile.
Unlike most of the abandonned building work that you been doing lately, these pictures evoke thoughts and images of being recently inhabited...in a creepy and nostalgic way. I think you should put these in your shop too.
Is nothing sacred in Detroit? (And I ask non-rhetorically.) Piles of school supplies, theatres, a zoo. I am waiting for the day you stumble upon an abandoned hospital or the crumbling remains of a has-been regional airport.
no need to stumble. we have several abandoned hospitals (complete with patient records and x-ray machines!). as well as a virtually-abandoned municipal airport.
the most shocking abandonment though, is the highland park police station. at some point the police force in this tiny borough was replaced by the county sheriff, and the cops just walked away from the station, leaving everything. EVERYTHING. my favorite is the big display board of murdered hooker photos.
nothing is sacred here.
Your pictures are beautiful, and this story makes me so sad. You grow up thinking the people in charge only want to do what's best for the city, and then you find out they spent all the money for the zoo on a roaming ground for inbred deer. Here in Texas, those deer would probably be mounted on someone's wall before they could even make it to their fancy habitat...
I honestly never knew the state of Detroit's forgotten places until I began reading your blog. Your work is important, affecting, and I hope the sorrow of it never fully overwhelms you.
Zoos have always perplexed me, since I grew up without one anywhere nearby. I think I've been to a total of 4 zoos in my life.
Growing up, we spent our time searching for animals in the wild. There's no feeling like seeing a predator in it's natural habitat. Probably because these encounters are mostly left to chance. It makes you appreciate their presence that much more.
I just started reading the Life of Pi, and what I've read so far talks about zoos and how animals are creatures of habit and take to zoos very well. They spend their wild lives trying to find safety and food and basic necessities. But when taken care of properly in a zoo, they live a life of luxury - with no worries. In fact, an animal would choose zoo life over wild life!
I disagree.
When you take away a creature's basic survival instincts, they fret about petty stuff.
Look at us. Very few of us have concerns about food or shelter or other very basic life needs. So what stresses us out?
You should really save your essays for a book-maybe something along the lines of Moving Back to a Dying City. They are always your best.
Thanks... I never even knew there was a zoo on Belle Isle, and I used to go there all the time as a kid (and later as a teen, to watch all the people dancing on the sides of the road to their car stereos. It was somethin'.)
***
I remember the closing of the aquarium -- it was the oldest public aquarium in the country, and such a beautiful space. I was there on the last weekend - donated, supported, the whole bit. Detroit has lost so much -- it's impossible to tally. And it's such a good place.
***
The last zoo I went to was in Toledo, and I agree with another commenter -- the looks in the eyes of the gorillas were so damn miserable that I left the gorilla house in tears. I don't think I can ever go back. Does it count as a lesson, I wonder, to marvel so much as a child and then reach that epiphany? Is it worth that to keep zoos open? A moot question, I s'pose.
Beautiful! Sad and haunting, but beautiful.
This is one of those places I wanted to ask you about. Thanks so much for telling the story of what happened to get to this point.
I learned something from this post in that for some reason seeing these images weren't as troubling for me as the depository or the Packard plant. I don't think it's because I have a philosophical issue with zoos, it's more that they are just weird to me. I think it's just because I remember how nasty the Detroit Zoo used to be, I guess I always thought the Belle Isle one would come back in the same way.
If you can find a way to write about what is going on with the aquarium, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks, Jim. & thank Wendell for us, too.
Beautiful post. I can't go to zoos or even aquariums anymore. It is just so sad. This abandoned zoo actually seems a better option to me. Wildlife habitat back how it should be.
Every month we donate money to the Wildlife Sanctuary, where the animals are rescued, and have many acres on which to roam. This is the only false habitat I can stomach.
Last zoo I went to was in Montreal. I can't step foot in another. If my son wants to go, my husband will have to take him.
It just makes me so angry, so very angry. This shouldn't have happened. So much shouldn't have happened.
Great post. Have you ever read Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake"? Your wanderings through abandoned Detroit sound a lot like the world in her book.
You'd write a great book but you could also lead an uprising.
This made me one part pissed off, two parts wistful. Beautiful.
The story about the dead dogs made me cry, as my own dog (much like your Wendell) was rescued off the streets of Detroit. I can't even picture her trying to survive on her own like that, although I know she managed (especially since she still eats ants and loves to eat snow and drink out of puddles).
I'm going to go give her a hug right now.
Wow.
First of all, I'm ashamed. I graduated from Michigan State University's Zoo and Aquarium Science Program in 2003, and wasn't aware of the battle to the east. I never intended to stay in Michigan, so I never gave Detroit Zoo much thought. Our advisor never mentioned it, to my knowledge, probably trying to avoid bringing our program into political contraversy, and to aviod discouraging the young idealists in our midst.
I did my internship in Montana, graduated and went on to work for a non-profit park in Oregon, where most of the collection was in a drive through, kept in herds, interacting with their environment, with predators separated from prey by a chain-link. The park is also in a rural area, and years ago employees wondered if their paychecks would bounce. The keepers are/were there because of a commitment to care for the animals. My former colleagues would give a limb for the kind of facilities left to rot at Belle Island.
I understand the sentiment that animals shouldn't be behind bars, and it would be an ideal world of interspecies utopia if animals had enough space to meet their needs. It would be wonderful if an animal's only care was their next meal, or avoiding becoming another animal's next meal. As it is today, survival depends on more than food and shelter, but avoiding poachers, avoiding being shot by the farmer, finding ways to migrate around the 10 foot wall or fence in the middle of their migration pass, finding water that isn't tainted with a zoonotic disease, and last but not least, finding one of the few surviving of their kind to procreate with.
When you look into the eyes of a sad or frustrated zoo animals, say a little prayer for the animals, and also give thanks that this animal has food and shelter and state of the art veterinary care, and it will most likely die of old age or obesity.
Then seek out the keepers who care for your favorite animals, and ask about the enrichment programs in place, and if there are any items they need for the animals. Keepers are caring, thrifty and innovative indviduals, dedicated to making the lives of the animals tolerable.
If you question the conditions at your local zoo, check out the Association of Zoos and Aquariums website (www.aza.org) and contact the local officials. Don't support facilities that don't meet USDA standards for holding animals in captivity. Be a voice for the animals.
Jim, I apologize for using your site as a soap box. Everything you write is a motivation to move back.
I just want to jump on the bandwagon and encourage you to put your many insightful and poignant pieces about Detroit into a book. Please and thank you.
Well, now that there's officially a bandwagon, can someone give me a hand climbing on?
A very unnerving post. Is this the future for the rest of us when the downturn kicks in?
This post is so fascinating. Who would have thought a deserted zoo could be so riveting. Thanks for your work.
Wow. I don't know what's more interesting: The zoo or the fact that there are abandoned X-ray machines and hooker photos?
Oh, Detroit...
A really wonderful and heart-wrenching post--you maintain a balance of detachment and complete sentiment in your writing that never fails to affect me. I am so sorry for that zoo, so sorry for so many animals. We sometimes take our two-year-old to the tiny local zoo near our town and it's a constant dilemma...I don't feel the zoo is anywhere near up to snuff (whatever snuff might be), yet I feel that by going and giving my money I am helping the animals somewhat. Logic riddled with holes, I know. Zoos are really almost always bizarre concepts.
I took some time off from reading blogs, sure glad I read yours tonight. You are extremely talented. if you write a book, I'm buying it. As far as zoos go, I have always detested them along with circuses and pony rides. Even as a child, I hated visiting the San Diego Zoo because it didn't feel right to me to have animals caged up for human entertainment. I grew up in Las Vegas and never saw Siegfried and Roy and their "tiger" show. I just didn't want to see wild animals performing for me. Is Detroit as awful as it sounds in your posts? I hope not.
Absolutely, utterly bewildering.
As much as I loved this post, I also loved Jana's comment. One part pissed off, two parts wistful. What a lovely way to say it.
Jim, I think you should consider finding a jaunty Kangol somewhere and running for City Council. You would be the one bright spot of hope amongst the tiaras and Shrek-screaming we now have.
I hope this posts okay. I'm having a bit of trouble.
Just an aside to last week's post. I work part-time in retail. Trust me, there are such things as chain-smoking, high end retail store pubic lice too. Wash everything. You would be disgusted at the things we find in fitting rooms.
These photos are haunting and beautiful at the same time. So is the story here.
I just found this blog and love it. I grew up in the burbs of Detroit, and my parents were part of the (Jewish) white flight from the city to the northern suburbs. I have always been attracted to the emptiness of the city, even when I was young and told to be afraid of evil-doers lurking around every corner.
Also, I did a quick search for the Belle Isle Zoo and it is advertised as open. Huh?
http://www.detroitzoo.org/Visito...sle_Nature_Zoo/
"Life in this town isn't easy for its people. You can imagine how hard it is on dogs."
This is so eloquent and touching. You've managed to sum up the plight of dogs in your community without blaming its people. I've been trying to communicate a similar sentiment for some time now, but you have done it much more concisely and beautifully.
My husband and I are Americans living and working at a research station on a very small island in the Bahamas. There are only about 1000 residents on the island and most of them are quite poor, living in conditions that most Americans could never imagine. For many, it is a constant struggle to provide for their families even at the most basic levels.
There are also many stray dogs on the island that are, by American standards, severely mistreated. It took me several months of living here to fully understand that to care for or about a dog is simply not a luxury that many of the island residents can afford. And I don't mean this in a strictly financial sense, but an psychological one as well. I help the dogs myself as much as I can, but I certainly have no right to judge or condemn the actions of my neighbors. I may not agree with them, but I can at least understand where they are coming from.
Now it is very frustrating when visitors to the research station, who are often upper-middle class students attending pricey east coast liberal arts colleges, flippantly criticize the local people in regards to how the strays are treated. I try to explain my take of the situation, but I'm often left feeling like they don't even try to understand or put themselves in the shoes of the locals. A person who can barely feed his children and was raised to place no value on the life of an animal can not be expected to treat a dog the same way an American would treat a beloved pet.
Anyway, the way you said what you did really struck a chord with me and I wanted to let you know. Thanks for your insight.
I'll second those who wonder aloud if a book is in the works. Or at least some pieces in Harpers? Something like that seems in order. This is a terrific piece.
I'm amazed at how well you consistently make the deserted and depressing appear beautiful.
you are a silver-tongued writer.
'We take our kids to the zoo and think we're teaching them about wildness, but really we're teaching them about dominion.'
Oof. Oof.
I think this every time we go to our local zoos - when I went to fucking Seaworld and bawled over Shamu - but still we go. Still we go. Because, you know, the wild things.
my three older kids (in their 20's)all immediately recognized these photos. although we live in GR, we visited detroit frequently, and belle isle was always a must-do. (the big slide was another big draw there.) no one was surprised to hear the fate of the zoo, but we're also wistful and pissed.
Well done. Thank you for sharing the amazing photos. Eerily not unlike the book I am currently reading - The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, a book purchased at the Center for Land Use Interpretation (which you probably already know about). I've been reading your site for a few years now, thanks for all the great writing!
p.s. On a 24 hour stay in Las Vegas last week, seeing these two things made me feel ashamed to be a human being in this world we've built for ourselves: Two lone ducks swimming on the perimeter of the hideously ostentatious Bellagio man-made lake, trying their very best to find food in its chlorinated waters. And three tigers in a glassed in "habitat" within the MGM Grand lobby, just feet away from soul-less chainsmoking retirees staring into slot machine screens.
Delurking--
What a fantastic post. This Dearborn native urges you to please, please, please write a book.
--relurk
So poignant, as always. And heartbreaking.
Makes me want to take my almost-2-year-old to the Dallas Zoo, before something horrible happens to it.
thank you for this. Enlightening, touching and sad.
you're right. in this economy it will stay the way it is. no one to save it from itself.
Haunting post. Haunting photos. I live in SF, where every square inch of land is overpopulated and overused, where nothing is really abandoned or left to rot. Not like this. Your Detroit seems otherworldy, post-Apocalypse, empty, ruined. When you write of THIS Detroit, is it an allegory for what's happening in our society? Even the term "abandoned zoo" seems ominous. And now it is so much more a zoo than it ever was before.
This is excellent work. Thank you..
Jim, your obervational and literary skills are undeniable, and you should really consider organizing these further for publication (perhaps a timely economic-driven sequel to World Without Us), yet your analytical perspective seems curiously detached, almost non-existent. These posts unveil fascinating autopsies (replete with interesting photos) without ever actually determining the cause of death. Part of this is inherent in the medium -- the velocity and accessibility of the Internet has also paradoxically solidified collective resignation and political apathy.
For many urban explorers, the abandoned building essay may soon be passe. It may not be a cottage industry (foreclosure tours anyone?) but a faint scent of decay seeps into the writng itself when there is no call for action, or even a hint of such a plea. What lingers is the inevitable despair and hopelessness from apolitical rummaging. Check Paul Reyes out in the 2008 October issue of Harper's for a contrasting example of a similar subject, or almost any issue of the Fifth Estate, or even the Rogue Forum website regarding how the nation-wide educational collapse relates to the housing crisis -- and more importantly, what can be done about it (particularly since your most profound posts remain the deserted and imploded schools). Sadly, some of your essays unintenionally flip the words of Joe Hill, as if to say, "Mourn, don't organize."
Quoting Browning's love among the ruins was quite appropriate, yet you make me yearn more for Ginsberg. This Detroit diary oddly echoes the journey of Thoreau and Edward Abbey but not the politics; at the risk of sounding dogmatic, Karl Marx still remains a good place to start in developing a direction (or closing chapters?) that offers something beyond an extended elegy or aimless wanderings amid modern ruins.
Your words, however hauntingly accurate, can end up only a few steps ahead of the destruction you describe. Without communities of change, the author and reader are simply standing in line, reading death notices they will one day join, prematurely, with too many unanswered questions about how they got there.
Addendum: after reviewing my self-important post, I realize it sounds quite preachy. Even if you don't change a word or add anything, I'll still enjoy your pics and prose, hoping you'll continue with this important project.
This made me want to cry.
Wow, thank you for this wonderful, yet heartbreaking, post about the zoos in Detroit. I love your blog for your blunt honesty and incredible insights--but mostly for your adventures through that broken city. My father grew up in Flint, my grandfather was a VP at GM, so all of this is just really sad to me. My dad can't even talk about how sad it is to him.
Hi there,I stumbled upon your page,through blogger's choice website..
Coming from the otherside of the globe,I really did enjoyed your pics.
The place and environment is totally different,even though they were shots of old buildings..
Interesting entry..would be coming back for your upcoming updates!
Wow. The last time I was to the Belle Isle Zoo was probably just before it closed, and I didn't even know. I moved out of Michigan & have often told people about this charming spot in the city. I'm saddened to learn it, like so much of Detroit, has fallen into decay from the corruption.
Life is so odd and transitory, isn't it?
That was some amazing writing and photos....
I felt as though i was right there with you and the dog.
I agree....write a book!
When I was a kid, I used to visit this zoo and loved it there. I could be making it up, but I thought it was free. I always remember the walkways over the enclosures to be able to peer down at some of the animals ... the same way I'll always remember the catfish with the tire in the now defunct (at least I think so) aquarium. We would hit the zoo and then visit the giant slide that used to exist nearby with a play scape. You used to be able to pay to use a giant burlap bag to slide down a huge slide alongside other kids.
When I still lived in Detroit, on Christmas Day we'd drive to Belle Isle and feed the deer every year.
It occupies the spot in my memory next to the trips to Boblo Island and the night time boat ride home.
I've never left a comment before, but felt compelled to share one of my own "street urchin" photos that happened to be taken on Belle Isle in 1918.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vin...lin/1154043100/
the 2nd girl from the left (agnes) is my grandmother.
(I also think one of my cousins is one of your neighbors.)
Amazing photos and an amazing find...makes me wish my hometown was that irresponsible!
at least its only dead dogs you usually find and not frozen people: http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...O08%
2F901290400
Wonderfully written and tragically sad. Why is it that no matter how many tales of government corruption we hear, we still expect that same government to solve all our ills?
In four years our the whole USA will be just like Detroit
I love your pictures.....if hadnt been for them I would have know idea just how bad it is in Detroit....no one is covering it.
It looks like a scene out of Jurassic park after it has been aboandoned. Did you get a dog for protection when you walk around places like this?
Great writing. My family and I enjoy the zoo in Royal Oak. The story of the Belle Isle zoo is sad.
I wish you could have done more for the dog you fed, like brought it in for the night, or tied it outside, so it could be taken to the shelter next day. It was obviously hoping you would help it.
Not to condemn you, since you did feed it, but my heart breaks to think of so many homeless creatures, who are grateful for the slightest attention.
This is a heartbreaking post that I can't fully grasp. I used to live in the West Village. And I would roller blade to Belle Isle with my (male) house mate and we'd loop Belle Isle (always in a rush after work before the cruising started and we'd get harrassed). The Isle was sketchy after dark, but so lively- so much happening. This was only 10 years ago. But it seems now to be a world away.
Thank you for your writing and reminding my of my roots, my parents' roots and my grandparents' roots.
Hi! I stumbled across your site looking at all the buildings in decay around Detroit. I'm so happy that I did. I really enjoyed reading your entries. I wondered if you might tell me what side of the island is the old zoo located? Near the aquarium? Thank you!
Wow, great post! I love shooting stuff like this. Do you ever get nervous while in places like this or other abandoned buildings? You never know who could be lurking around in there...
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