First we close the schools, then we demolish them

**Gsgeorge** · May-28-09, 09:45 AM

http://www.freep.com/article/2009052...+vandals+razed

He added that it would cost $6 million to take down the old Cass Technical High.

Please don't tell me that this is the trend, and that we'll soon see old Cass Tech disappear. So the city closes these schools, leaves tons of equipment and supplies behind, allows them to get vandalized and pillaged, then decides a year later that they're beyond repair and need to be demoed. Disgusting. I have been shocked at the number of school supplies left in these buildings. Obviously nothing has changed since the Roosevelt Warehouse burned over twenty years ago. How is this possible?

I thought it was understood that the old Cass Tech is a historically significant building, and that it should be preserved for future use as offices or lofts. Does anyone have any background or insider info on the fate of the building? If it goes, we would lose yet another great architectural gem in this city. The failure of this city to recognize its assets is stunning beyond all measure.

**jt1** · May-28-09, 10:00 AM

I wish Robert Bobb agreed to stay on for 5 years.

gravitymachine · May-28-09, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by jt1

I wish Robert Bobb agreed to stay on for 5 years.

i wish robert bobb would be appointed city financial manager

**wolverine** · May-28-09, 10:09 AM

I thought it was ironic that this line was at the end of the article:

To report vandalism to DPS, please call Crime Stoppers at 800-773-2587 [[800-SPEAKUP).

As if they really care?

**Khartoum** · May-28-09, 10:20 AM

Demolition by neglect my friend. When you have a historic building that is a pain in the ass, you leave it open and let it decay...so poof! you can demo it and build some ugly, cheap, new-age, glass shitbox.

**daddeeo** · May-28-09, 10:27 AM

There isn't any money for that.

**Rocko** · May-28-09, 10:43 AM

I looks like Joy was not an architectural gem, but no doubt some others on this list of 15-16 are. :-[[

**Patrick** · May-28-09, 12:52 PM

Cass Tech is turning into a Michigan Central broken windows and all. At the very least, secure the fucking thing. If they can't put the effort into boarding/bricking it up, then it deserves to be taken down. if they acn't afford to do that, then have the CT alumni folks raise some money and have it closed up and secured.

**Hypestyles** · May-28-09, 03:52 PM

some closed schools should be turned into adult education centers, combat the adult illiteracy trend in the city..

some other school buildings could possibly be refurbished into homeless shelters/aid centers..

some buidings can be spun off into charter/private schools..

**nouthen** · May-28-09, 03:54 PM

I wish Robert Bobb was my Dad

**Maple Leaf Rag** · May-28-09, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick

Cass Tech is turning into a Michigan Central broken windows and all. At the very least, secure the fucking thing. If they can't put the effort into boarding/bricking it up, then it deserves to be taken down. if they acn't afford to do that, then have the CT alumni folks raise some money and have it closed up and secured.

How are they supposed to raise money from the alums when they only have $6 left over at the end of the month?

**Patrick** · May-28-09, 06:22 PM

F%ck if I know....turn the thing into a mushroom farm or homeless shelter.

**royce** · May-28-09, 11:53 PM

It amazes me how some forumers can be so shocked about situations that occur with DPS. Remember it's DPS - a broke, mismanaged school system. What do you expect? Truth be told, short of bricking in the entrances to many of the vacant school buildings, the scrappers are going to find ways to get into these buildings. If bricking the entrances was done, then the scrappers and vandals would have come through the windows or the roofs. Posting guards might have helped, but who hires guards to watch over buildings you really don't intend on using any more? The vandalizing of property in Detroit is a Detroit issue, not a DPS issue.

Some of these vacant school buildings needed to be closed and should meet with the wrecking ball. The reason some were closed probably had a lot to do with their poor physical plant. Why was the new Cass Tech H.S built? Because the old one was in bad shape. I'm sure that some of the vacant school buildings could be used by non-profit social services organizations, but they too are having financially difficulties that make it hard to buy these buildings for use.

The fact remains that a large number of school buildings were closed and many more will be added to that list after this school year ends. With a deficit of over three hundred million dollars, where is DPS going to find the funds to secure these buildings? What they should definitely do is decide which buildings have the potential to be reused and make a genuine effort to secure these buidings up front and market them to be sold to non-profits.

BTW, remember that some neighborhoods aren't too keen on having a non-profit drug treatment center in their neighborhood when they use to have a school. Just something to think about,

**reddog289** · May-30-09, 12:04 AM

Nothing that goes on with DPS shocks me anymore. Seeing photos of, and the buildings themselves is more saddening then shocking. From the way it looks, How can DPS take care of its vacent properties when it has a hard time maintaining its occupied schools?.

**Det_ard** · May-30-09, 08:58 AM

DPS doesn't do such a swell job with the students either.

It's ripe for radical change. Obama, here's your chance to take a dysfunctional urban school system and do your thing.

**casscorridor** · May-31-09, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Det_ard

DPS doesn't do such a swell job with the students either.

It's ripe for radical change. Obama, here's your chance to take a dysfunctional urban school system and do your thing.

The time is ripe for radical change. But it can't be just Detroit. It has to be the whole country. We basicaly need to transform the educational system-- from the way it is funded to the way it functions.

Detroit has one of the disfuctional school districts in the country because it opperates within the most disfunctional urban areas in the entire country.

Detroit can't be helped externally through anything like charity, the only way people outside Detroit can help Detroit is by helping themselves, and standing in solidarity with people inside of Detroit who are helping themselves as well.

The way things are in Detroit is hurting everyone. It is representative of wider society problems -- capitalism, white supremacy, imperialism, etc -- that affect everyone, oppressor and oppressed.