Old City Hall demolition

[Detroitnerd]

Somebody told me that the demolition began in the morning, and that motorists were driving downtown and saw the wreckers at work in great surprise. It had only been five years since the last streetcar ran down Woodward, which Detroiters still cherished and were largely sad to see gone.

It was a strange time in America. A building built 100 years earlier was seen by many leaders as hopelessly obsolete. I don't know that this would happen today. It would not be as easily done.

But Detroit still has a "model year" mentality about many things. It doesn't help that so many development and demolition deals are cooked up in secret, by groups that pay only lip service to the public. I am hopeful that the younger generation values the now-ancient charm of buildings designed before the advance of modernism, and will play a greater role in their stewardship.

I actually got to see the old statues that had been on City Hall. They lay in pieces, behind Fort Wayne in 2004. They've since been moved inside. Though Carl Nielbock has long offered a proposal for their public exhibition, no move seems to be made to show them. [[I think the reason they are reluctant to exhibit them is due to the damage they suffered during their ignominious "storage" at the fort.)

I remarked the other day that no city has disregarded its history like Detroit has -- no city that hasn't been conquered, that is.