[Denny]

I recall driving across the outliers of Gary, In about 3 years ago, and foudn it so shabby I thought I was in a 3rd world country. Run down stores, selling discount cigarettes and booze and odd trashy looking strip joint. While passing though there was a brush fire of all things that had broken out inside the city limits and created flames and smoke visible for miles around. I guess the area was so depopulated that the fire had grown befofre being attacked by the fire company.

Anyway, I saw a reference to Gary Indiana on the Kusntler website. Its gone even further dowhill since I was there.

Just take a peek, I'm sure it would make a great set for a peak oil sci fi movie.

Beautiful downtown Gary

[AQIUS]

The pics remind me of the empty, post-virus plague cities in the Charlton Heston movie " The Omega Man ".

[seahorse2]

Looks like the perfect PO get away to me. First, one could simply move into one of those old buildings and no one would ever know. Or, you could buy one for nothing, everyone pile in, take over the whole town.

[Colorado-Valley]

Oh come on. Gary's a fine example of post-industrial America.

What do you think the American suburbs will look like someday?

Will they look even worse?

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Colorado-Valley', 'O')h come on. Gary's a fine example of post-industrial America.

What do you think the American suburbs will look like someday?

Will they look even worse?

[firestarter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '
')They'll look worse, but only if they hold up. Since most suburban buildings are of the 20-year depreciation or land-banking (e.g., car wash/gas station) kind, there may not be much left after 10-20 years of divestment, save for a few crumbling asphalt parking lots.

[skyemoor]

We have just seen our future. How will each of us prepare for it? Hint: in foresight, weedwackers will seem needed but low on the priority scale.

So how will small farms control weeds when Roundup is no longer available and CO2 levels are 30-50% higher than a century ago?

The suburban brick buildings will stand for decades as quiet sentinel monuments to overconsumption. The lesson will be learned but once, as it is with yeast in a vat of beer. The trouble is, the current consumers of the latter care more about pointless professional sports, busty models in SI, or the latest NASCAR standings, simply carrying out the role of yeast on a larger, complex, more entertaining scale, with the same finite results.

[pounamu]

That's what an industrial skeleton looks like. Once the energy stops flowing it pretty much dies like any organism and leaves its resilient exoskeleton or endoskeleton to wear away.

Places like this will spread like a pox in the United States because of Peak Energy and because we are being abandoned by our global corporations that would rather take advantage of low-cost slave labor in China. Much of the remaining energy will go to China, the low cost producer and our cities will slowly deteriorate.

Our massive infrastructure has grown so enormously because of our one-time fossil fuel jackpot. All alternative energies currently considered, even in total cannot maintain these energy wasting relics of a past life. If you currently have invested in commercial real estate, you may want to consider its location in a broader economic context and its energy efficiency. I would guess that half of our industrial/commercial building will be abandoned within the next 25 years and the people that worked in them, if not prepared, may be given a first class ticket to the closest Halliburton Hotel.

The ecosystem doesn't have the problem of long lasting animal remains. Everything is recycled by decomposers, sun energy and water and wind. Hope the ecosystem is not destroyed before we realize what a beautiful system it is. A true everlasting cornucopia.

[seldom_seen]

Hi pounamu, welcome.

Glad to see more people who see the world through an ecological lense.

As Aldo Leopold said:

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.

[Merlin]

And yet these pictures were taken no more than 5 minutes from the start of one of the most beautiful scenic drives you'll find anywhere in the country -- Route 12 through the Indiana Dunes National Park all the way to Michigan City, Indiana. The first picture of that brick building with all the broken glass is, in fact, on Route 20/12. In the fall, the changing colors of forest foliage is a delight to the eye. Just goes to show how the landscape can change dramatically in the space of only a few miles. Those of use who live in urban landscapes are used to seeing neighborhoods change right next door.

[Laughs_Last]

As long as we don't all end up like Michael Jackson, Gary Indiana's most famous son, then there will still be hope.

[savethehumans]

Gary, Indiana!
What a wonderful name,
Named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame.
Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say,
Trips along softly on the tongue this way--
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
Let me say it once again.
Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
That's the town that "knew me when."
If you'd like to have a logical explanation
How I happened on this elegant syncopation,
I will say without a moment of hesitation
There is just one place
That can light my face.
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but--
Gary, Indiana,
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
My home sweet home.


Ah, how innocent America was in 1962, when the film version of the Broadway musical "The Music Man" arrived in theaters everywhere. . . .

Oh, and Gary, Indiana must've been a FINE place back in 1910, which is the year in which Music Man was set. . . .

What a difference a century (and some harsh post-industrial, age of P.O. realities) makes, huh?

[kochevnik]

Detroit is the same - 12,000 empty houses in Detroit alone.

[WisconsinMark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pounamu', 'O')ur massive infrastructure has grown so enormously because of our one-time fossil fuel jackpot. All alternative energies currently considered, even in total cannot maintain these energy wasting relics of a past life. If you currently have invested in commercial real estate, you may want to consider its location in a broader economic context and its energy efficiency. I would guess that half of our industrial/commercial building will be abandoned within the next 25 years and the people that worked in them, if not prepared, may be given a first class ticket to the closest Halliburton Hotel.

[WisconsinMark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pounamu', 'O')ur massive infrastructure has grown so enormously because of our one-time fossil fuel jackpot. All alternative energies currently considered, even in total cannot maintain these energy wasting relics of a past life. If you currently have invested in commercial real estate, you may want to consider its location in a broader economic context and its energy efficiency. I would guess that half of our industrial/commercial building will be abandoned within the next 25 years and the people that worked in them, if not prepared, may be given a first class ticket to the closest Halliburton Hotel.

[perdition79]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seahorse2', 'L')ooks like the perfect PO get away to me. First, one could simply move into one of those old buildings and no one would ever know. Or, you could buy one for nothing, everyone pile in, take over the whole town.

[Cobra_Strike]

Sadly...I do not think those pictures show the immediate future. For one, its missing zombies.

It looks like most photos I have seen of cities with similar situations. Time takes no prisoners.

Very glad that I got to look through those pics at work today. Because I would not have liked loading them on 56k.

[Judgie]

Coming soon to a videogame store near you. The successor to the multi-award winning "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl"


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Gary

Also planned for a 2012 release - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of the Western World.





** For those of you who may not game, and otherwise don't know what i'm talking about, if you are so inclined, visit these links. The game is set in post-accident chernobyl, in the "zone". Losely based on the Russian movie S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:

www.stalker-game.com

http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/773/773803p1.html


Sadly, I think the game is soon to become reality in many respects

[Mircea]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pounamu', 'w')e are being abandoned by our global corporations that would rather take advantage of low-cost slave labor in China.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Denny', '.')..

Just take a peek, I'm sure it would make a great set for a peak oil sci fi movie.

Beautiful downtown Gary