forums
new posts
donate
UER Store
events
location db
db map
search
members
faq
terms of service
privacy policy
register
login




UER Forum > Archived US: South > Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer (Viewed 468 times)
RobertB 


Location: Skeeterville, TX
Gender: Male


Maybe I shouldn't be using my real name...

Send Private Message | Send Email | The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page
Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
< on 10/15/2008 4:07 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
The Dallas Observer (an alternative weekly) is running a 21-picture slideshow of the interiors of several downtown buildings. The pictures are from the City of Dallas, and by this forum's standards, they're pretty lame. Mostly pictures of dead birds and rats, broken windows, and busted-out walls. More like what you'd see in an evidence folder, not on a gallery wall.

Included are the Dallas Grand Hotel (1902 Commerce), 1712 Commerce, 211 N. Ervay, and 1604 Main. Note that while these are indeed addresses of vacant buildings, this is public information. And also, those buildings are (for whatever reason) under particular scrutiny from City officials, which is probably not good news for amateur building inspectors.

Watch Your Step: A Tour of Four of Downtown Dallas's Icky Vacancies

J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte.
La voici: "Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules!"
Dieu m'a exaucé.
consecrated 


Location: Connecticut
Gender: Male


Æthereal

Send Private Message | Send Email | 
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 1 on 10/15/2008 5:10 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I like your analogy to an evidence folder.

Certainly no artistic points in that slide show. I think the days of quality photography in the mass media are nearly over. Everything is so cookie cutter nowadays and speed is the key. In the first photo you can actually see the reflection in the sink of the red ranging led on his/her point and shoot.

Kind of a side topic, but I know it can't be just me when I say:
Why is Urbex in the news so often lately? Is it becoming "main stream"? Main stream is deadly for nearly all good things, especially clandestine hobbies. Is it because of the scrappers?

At least this article was based on the abandonments and not the act of exploration.

Raticus 

Moderator


Location: Tyler
Gender: Male


Ratus exploricus abandonae

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 2 on 10/15/2008 6:54 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I didn't read the article (if there was one). The answer may be in there somewhere. But why is Urbex in the media so much lately? Several reasons I think, probably mostly fed by a slow news day. No one outside UE circles really gives a shit about UE.

But there is some political reason behind this. The mayor of a town the size of Dallas does not go out to abandoned locations armed with a search warrant just to "see what's going on in there". Some money is going into someones pocket, no doubt. If this is all the mayor of Dallas has to do, maybe you guys need a new mayor.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
G to the Race 




Hi!

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 3 on 10/15/2008 7:14 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Raticus
I didn't read the article (if there was one). The answer may be in there somewhere. But why is Urbex in the media so much lately? Several reasons I think, probably mostly fed by a slow news day. No one outside UE circles really gives a shit about UE.

But there is some political reason behind this. The mayor of a town the size of Dallas does not go out to abandoned locations armed with a search warrant just to "see what's going on in there". Some money is going into someones pocket, no doubt. If this is all the mayor of Dallas has to do, maybe you guys need a new mayor.


Well, there are millions of new abandonments in America. Maybe that's why the UE thrust in the news? Abandoned property brings down the value of the occupied stuff around it, so it is in a mayor's best interest to have as few abandonments as possible. I know in Ohio we've adopted tough anti-scrapping laws since our state got hit hard by foreclosures (evidently, though I've seen no sign of it).

You betcha
RobertB 


Location: Skeeterville, TX
Gender: Male


Maybe I shouldn't be using my real name...

Send Private Message | Send Email | The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 4 on 10/16/2008 12:47 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Keep in mind, there's no mention *at all* of UE in the article. The abandoned buildings are the star of the show this time around. Despite what we might think, it's not all about us.

Dallas may need a different mayor (I have an opinion, which should come as no surprise, which I will keep to myself for the moment). But in this case, he's finally doing what people have been wanting Dallas leadership to do for a long time: telling absentee property owners to sh*t or get off the pot. Downtown Dallas is booming, with new high-end residential space coming up all over, but these abandoned, derelict properties are an albatross around Pegasus' neck. Ideally, they should be revitalized and their history preserved. But they're not doing anyone any good in the state they're in now.

J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte.
La voici: "Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules!"
Dieu m'a exaucé.
Arch-Image 


Location: DFW
Gender: Male


"This gene pool could use a little chlorine."

Send Private Message | Send Email | Kwikshot Photography
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 5 on 10/18/2008 2:17 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Raticus
If this is all the mayor of Dallas has to do, maybe you guys need a new mayor.


I've been a pretty big supporter of Tom but this article really got under my skin. First, they focus on the Grand yet know damn good and well plans for the renovation are well under way and there's been numerous meetings with not only the City Managers office, Angela Hunt, and while not a "formal" meeting, it has also been discussed with him, so to be totally honest he isn't doing anything but making press for himself and showboating which I find totally disgusting in any politician. Second, ya notice they aren't talking about going after Ted Hamilton or Forest City for any of their properties even though some of them are in as bad and some worse shape than the Grand. Second he talks in the article about also ongoing after these owners to make them start paying their fair share of taxes by raising the value in the tax rolls to more what they are really worth, well Tom I have two properties you can start with, the first, the Mercantile project that the city gave 78 million to and is published to have cost at least another 109 million, it's on the tax roles at 29 million and the second on would be lot that's on the tax role at I think it was 2.9 million and you just wrote a 57 million dollar check for it. This is but two examples. If the News want s to do a REAL story how about one on how our budget issues for the city and schools and hospitals is due to the fact that the commercial property in Dallas is valued on the tax roles at about 10-20 cents on the dollar of what it should be!

Sorry Tom, you just proved to me your just another Politico making a name for yourself, how about being the real man you profess to be and do something that makes sense for all of us!

I'll step off my soapbox now .............



"Your kid may be an honor student but YOU'RE still an IDIOT!"
Raticus 

Moderator


Location: Tyler
Gender: Male


Ratus exploricus abandonae

Send Private Message | Send Email
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 6 on 10/18/2008 2:45 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Arch-Image

he isn't doing anything but making press for himself and showboating which I find totally disgusting in any politician.


That was really the basis for my point. Yes, a mayor has a responsibility to try to keep vacancies from lowering other property values, but mayors don't just go out armed with search warrants to locations with an Entourage of press following them, unless it is for some political motivation, mainly press.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools speak because they have to say something.
Jaysun 


Location: New Braunfels
Gender: Male


TX Backroad Hunter

Send Private Message | Send Email | Facebook
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 7 on 10/18/2008 10:09 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
It Seems to me that Urban Exploring has gotten big enough to catch the eyes of the same people that try to make everything fun to do thats basically free illegal. People are having fun without the city makin money and they just cant bare it. Either that or theyve found out how hard it is to get in touch with abandoned building owners cause there gonna make a killing! I heard on the news they will charge 1000 dollars a day for abandoned building owners unless the fix it or sell it. Thats insane !!!!

RobertB 


Location: Skeeterville, TX
Gender: Male


Maybe I shouldn't be using my real name...

Send Private Message | Send Email | The All-Inclusive Dixie Chicks Page
Re: Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer
<Reply # 8 on 10/19/2008 5:34 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
That's $1000 per day, per violation. And each of the buildings has dozens of violations, though some of them are silly. Like for no working toilets, when there's nobody there (supposedly) to use them.

Like the D.O. article (one of them, don't recall which one) notes, these properties have been under scrutiny by the folks on the dallasmetropolis.com blog for years, literally. That the city is suddenly jumping in to do something about them is at best a case of "better late than never". More likely, it's a distraction tactic to divert attention from Mayor WaMu's two huge projects: paving the Trinity, and building a "signature downtown hotel" that looks like every office building in Addison. With teachers getting laid off*, Leppert is fiddling while Dallas burns.

* I know darn well that the city doesn't control DISD, but Leppert didn't mind confusing the two when he promised better schools when running for mayor!

Oops, getting political, sorry... if it spirals out of control (again), I hope Raticus won't mind cutting it off (and he can start with this message!).

J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte.
La voici: "Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules!"
Dieu m'a exaucé.
UER Forum > Archived US: South > Abandoned DTD Slideshow from the Dallas Observer (Viewed 468 times)



All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire.
To contact webmaster, or click to email with problems or other questions about this site: UER CONTACT
View Terms of Service | View Privacy Policy | Server colocation provided by Beanfield
This page was generated for you in 94 milliseconds. Since June 23, 2002, a total of 737063857 pages have been generated.