So I clicked the link and the first thing I thought was "Cool, there'll be a bunch of ruin porn on this site", then went in, clicked into my area (was a little disappointed at the lack of two malls that I've seen quite a bit about on the web over the years) and realized there was ... one picture?
And I'm thinking, of course -- that's a lot of why I like Hacker News -- sometimes something that seems like it's going to be a click-baity time-sink of pretty picture links ends up being a write-up that's got actual value.
But hell, this time I just wanted some ruin porn. And I was about to comment on it and was trying to think of respectful way to inquire if anyone had a solid "Ruin Porn for Dead Malls" link without expressing dissatisfaction with the content provided here[0].
Since you broke the ice on that one -- does anyone solid bookmarks ... with pics? :) I dig it partly because there's a whole lot of Detroit "ruin porn" -- my home town (metro) -- and many are places I've visited/dined in/seen shows in. It's depressing (and fascinating) how quickly these places turn[1]. The first "Ruin Porn" site I visited had pictures of the interior of a Detroit steak house ... 3-6 months after we ate there. 90% of the damage was probably people picking at whatever was valuable that was left in the first few days, but the amount of natural growth (food/all kinds was left out and the building was exposed to the elements) and how quickly the earth started reclaiming what man had built was humbling.
Malls tended to be closed up in parts. Heck, I can't remember ever being at a mall that had every space occupied, but when they failed, they'd start blocking off large portions of the realestate. There'd be walled off third-floors, then all but the first. Some were partially converted to the headquarters of the real-estate company who owned them and later went bankrupt. The two abandoned malls that I've visited had full-time police deputies with a security office[2]. There were a lot of things related to running such a large property that you would never know about unless you had that job and it's interesting seeing how that all worked.
[0] I did read a little bit, but ... Wikipedia fills that need for me. Not sure why that made me think I'd sound like a d*ck, but hey.
[1] There was a steak house downtown that my boss had taken a coworker and I out to -- great dinner, very inexpensive. It closed a week later.
[2] One was in a gang area where you're just not going to get anyone buying things if they're fearing for their safety, and the other in an upper-class area with the tax dollars to warrant giving the wealthy visitors a sense of safety beyond "mall cop".
And I'm thinking, of course -- that's a lot of why I like Hacker News -- sometimes something that seems like it's going to be a click-baity time-sink of pretty picture links ends up being a write-up that's got actual value.
But hell, this time I just wanted some ruin porn. And I was about to comment on it and was trying to think of respectful way to inquire if anyone had a solid "Ruin Porn for Dead Malls" link without expressing dissatisfaction with the content provided here[0].
Since you broke the ice on that one -- does anyone solid bookmarks ... with pics? :) I dig it partly because there's a whole lot of Detroit "ruin porn" -- my home town (metro) -- and many are places I've visited/dined in/seen shows in. It's depressing (and fascinating) how quickly these places turn[1]. The first "Ruin Porn" site I visited had pictures of the interior of a Detroit steak house ... 3-6 months after we ate there. 90% of the damage was probably people picking at whatever was valuable that was left in the first few days, but the amount of natural growth (food/all kinds was left out and the building was exposed to the elements) and how quickly the earth started reclaiming what man had built was humbling.
Malls tended to be closed up in parts. Heck, I can't remember ever being at a mall that had every space occupied, but when they failed, they'd start blocking off large portions of the realestate. There'd be walled off third-floors, then all but the first. Some were partially converted to the headquarters of the real-estate company who owned them and later went bankrupt. The two abandoned malls that I've visited had full-time police deputies with a security office[2]. There were a lot of things related to running such a large property that you would never know about unless you had that job and it's interesting seeing how that all worked.
[0] I did read a little bit, but ... Wikipedia fills that need for me. Not sure why that made me think I'd sound like a d*ck, but hey.
[1] There was a steak house downtown that my boss had taken a coworker and I out to -- great dinner, very inexpensive. It closed a week later.
[2] One was in a gang area where you're just not going to get anyone buying things if they're fearing for their safety, and the other in an upper-class area with the tax dollars to warrant giving the wealthy visitors a sense of safety beyond "mall cop".