Packard Plant owner to walk away from abandoned ruins

**Honky Tonk** · December-02-12, 09:05 AM

Right now either Dominic Cristini, or whoever he's working for, is on the hook for safety and security of the place, despite his claim that the City failed to keep the building secure. As soon as it's forclosed on, the County, City, whoever the new owner is, it becomes their responsibility. I would say that the Packard Plant demolition is a priority for safety sake.

**warsaw7** · December-02-12, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

More related to the site:

The Packard Plant: Big. Ugly. Dangerous.

Getting rid of it won't be easy, but the region must find a way

Interesting photos...

http://www.freep.com/article/2012120...text|FRONTPAGE

Thank you for sharing, this was a great article and an awesome video. I hope this will raise more awareness into the dangers and the complexities of this fallen giant.

**Zacha341** · December-02-12, 10:05 AM

I hear that... The Freepress is doing alot of PACKARD coverage today:

http://www.freep.com/article/2012120...-Packard-Plant

Nice narrative with poetry:

http://www.freep.com/videonetwork/20...tvideo|article

Originally Posted by mauser

remember when this thread was about Packard ?
#sticktothetopic

**Zacha341** · December-02-12, 10:06 AM

More with an excellent narrative!

http://www.freep.com/videonetwor/199...tvideo|article

**Lowell** · December-02-12, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by WaCoTS

actually i find it quite appropriate to criticise Neavling's articles. yeah, BadBrains is getting a little obsessive about it but if this Neavling guy is such a great reporter, why are his stories all so poorly done?

personal attacks arent nice, no, but when someone regularly self-promotes like this, it seems to invite heavy critique when the material is so sub-par. and i think that yes, the muckraker stories seem to have a bit of a "Superman" tone to them, which seems disingenuous and invites even deeper critique.

by allowing it to stand unchallenged, it's almost like we're saying that we approve of sub-par material such as this to represent us / our region. originally i thought the Muckraker blog was perhaps part of an undergraduate journalism class project or something so i didnt really care too much, but it appears that's not the case.
i dont think it's wrong to ask for higher standards.

juss sayin.

Fair enough and I didn't mean to imply that anyone gets a pass just because they took the effort to pound the streets to get the stories and pictures. But unless it is a flat out lie for the sake of an agenda, a made-up-at-home article ala Mitch Albom or a Jason Blair OR one has proof otherwise, I find a lot of the criticism of media coverage, which forms the gist of this forum, overly harsh.

I think the "top brass" statement deserves criticism in that it doesn't name names. One can't prove a negative so it could be that the top brass he spoke with told a lie to him or, if they lived completely under rock, actually didn't know. So the critique should be 'who are the top brass' because I want to confirm they said that. If they say it again, that would be amazing story in and of itself. But that would require leaving our keyboards and doing some actual work.

**Lowell** · December-02-12, 11:10 AM

The above-mentioned Packard mini-documentary is outstanding. It deserves an award purely for photography if nothing else. The timing and use of light and the elements is amazingly beautiful.

One shot of what I call the "little abyss" is stunning for low sun light passing through the plant to paint its Stonehenge-like pillars and fallen floor slabs orange. It is simply is spectacular. Congrats to Brian Kaufman and his team.

The SE building had two areas of roof collapse, the little abyss was the smaller and south-most of the two. It may be the most photographed site in the plant and this is the best I have ever seen. Incidentally, there is now a third multifloor collapse on the cemetery side.

I like to describe visitors viewing Detroit's ruins as 'coming to stare into the abyss'. They come in with ideas and preconceptions and walk away shaken, having not found the bottom. This is why Detroit and its ruins are so inspirational. Both cry out for answers which are staggeringly difficult.

The Packard Plant epitomizes that difficulty with its sheer immensity and profound history of what it was -- the pinnacle of luxury, a revolution in factory design and now a giant crumbling ruin. One cannot help but being moved by experiencing the Packard.

**Zacha341** · December-02-12, 11:20 AM

^^^^ For certain...outstanding work! I really like the use of light, the color and hues, cropping along with the poetry. Outstanding camera work!

**DetroitVideoDaily** · December-02-12, 11:28 AM

I finished watching the video on the Freep site, and then came over here and read through this thread. The video is the best I've seen them do.
-DVD

**Packman41** · December-02-12, 11:45 AM

Brian and his team have been working on this for a long time and it shows.

Brilliant work!

The cameo appearances in the video with Jim Balfour and John MacArthur [[Packard Historians) and my “Aunt” Helen Riley [[former Packard worker in WWII) were filmed last July. They took their time to tell the story of the Packard Plant right.

Good on them.

**Django** · December-02-12, 12:47 PM

http://www.freep.com/article/2012120...ant-Why-has-go That was a great. Ill be sharing that on FB. I do want to tell explorers of the Packard to be careful. I wouldn't be running around the West side building [[cemetery side) if I were you. The floors have been coming down yearly and I would hate to hear of someone hurt. I consider The Packard my second home [[my girl would kick me out and I would go live in my truck in The Packard) and its a great place to explore but be careful please. I sometimes wonder if there are any bodies buried in rubble in there. But back to my main point, what a great video. http://www.freep.com/article/2012120...ant-Why-has-go

**jackie5275** · December-02-12, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

Right now either Dominic Cristini, or whoever he's working for, is on the hook for safety and security of the place, despite his claim that the City failed to keep the building secure. As soon as it's forclosed on, the County, City, whoever the new owner is, it becomes their responsibility. I would say that the Packard Plant demolition is a priority for safety sake.

If this becomes the County's property, I doubt they will move forward with any kind of demo due to the budget deficit they're in. However, if they can get some federal funds, it might be achievable. I don't see it being a priority for the County though at this point.

**Dexlin** · December-03-12, 01:47 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

If this becomes the County's property, I doubt they will move forward with any kind of demo due to the budget deficit they're in. However, if they can get some federal funds, it might be achievable. I don't see it being a priority for the County though at this point.

I don't think you understand what he's saying. The city and county wouldn't be trying to get ownership of a property with this much potential liability unless they either had the money or have a plan to get the money. Not saying that it's going to be easy to scrounge up the money, but they obviously feel that they are willing to try if they are actively trying to get ownership of the property. Obviously, they've finally decided that the status quo of wasting already stretched resources on this public safety pit undesirable.

**Hypestyles** · December-03-12, 09:59 AM

can the DEGC be bypassed, if/when the county gets control of the property?

**gameguy56** · December-03-12, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

can the DEGC be bypassed, if/when the county gets control of the property?

What's wrong with the DEGC?

**Richard** · December-03-12, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by jackie5275

If this becomes the County's property, I doubt they will move forward with any kind of demo due to the budget deficit they're in. However, if they can get some federal funds, it might be achievable. I don't see it being a priority for the County though at this point.

The seed being planted by the newspaper is that it is the responsibility of the city,county,region and state and they were presenting the case as to why everybody should pay for its demolition,nicely done though.

Fed funds would be hard pressed to acquire when it comes to a cities personal vendettas.