Unless Christchurch looks like Dresden, or perhaps Stalingrad during the
summer of 1945, the comparison borders on the silly. Detroit is a city of
143 square miles with literally tens of square miles of vacant and/or
profound desolation. The population in 1950 was 1.85 million; in 2010, it
was down by over one million, to 0.7 million. The scale of this
devastation cannot be compared to anything that I am aware of in the
Western world. And I really don't think that I am exaggerating.
___________________________________
Mark C. Branstner, RPA, AARP
Senior Historical Archaeologist
Illinois State Archaeological Survey
Prairie Research Institute
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
23 East Stadium Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: 217.244.0892
Fax: 217.244.7458
Cell: 217.549.6990
[log in to unmask]
"The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits." --
Albert Einstein
On 2/26/14 10:36 PM, "Brenna" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I think the scale and the nature of the resources makes the situation in
>Detroit quite a bit different than Christchurch (though I'm sure there
>are parallels which would be interesting to discuss).
>
>There are preservationists and archaeologists on the ground trying to
>document what we can.
>
>The Michigan Historic Preservation Network has completed a very ambitious
>mapping project:
>http://nextcity.org/sharedcity/entry/why-preservationists-are-mapping-detr
>oits-historic-layer
>
>And at Wayne State University we are working on a number of
>archaeological projects, including the collections-based Unearthing
>Detroit project, in an attempt to deepen our understanding of the city's
>archaeological record:
>https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=570898859653425
>
>Still, there is much work to be done!
>
>Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Feb 26, 2014, at 10:15 PM, Katharine Watson
>><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> A bit like Christchurch, New Zealand, albeit for different reasons -
>>and we
>> are getting to record the pre-1900 buildings, and to look at the
>> below-ground archaeology on pre-1900 sites.
>> Cheers,
>> Katharine
>>
>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:51 PM, <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Wow, the amount of lost architecture history, not to mention
>>>archaeology,
>>> will be tremendous. 450 homes per week to be demolished.
>>>
>>>
>>>http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20140226&id
>>>=173
>>> 87943
>>> Mike Polk
>>> Sagebrush Consultants, a wholly owned subsidiary of Commonwealth
>>>Cultural
>>> Resources Group, Inc.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Katharine Watson
>> Underground Overground Archaeology Ltd
>> P.O. Box 388
>> Christchurch 8140
>>
>> 027 656 3985
>>
>> <https://www.facebook.com/UnderOverArch>
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