"So Long Cass Tech", Bobb says...

**gnome** · August-07-09, 07:50 AM

About an hour ago, DPS Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb was a guest on the Mildred Gaddis show. During the call-in portion of the Bobb segment, a caller asked Bobb the status of the old Cass Tech High School.

"We will be taking that very dangerous building down" said Bobb "We will be using Stimulous Money to take that building down as well as building a new Murry Wright High School and several other middle schools."

**gazhekwe** · August-07-09, 07:57 AM

Dangerous? Is that the new boogeyman? Call it dangerous and down she goes? Why is Cass more dangerous than Mackenzie, or other empty school buildings?

**Detroitnerd** · August-07-09, 08:24 AM

Demolition by neglect. Too bad Bobb's an out-of-towner, or he'd know we cracked that code-speak a while ago.

**R8RBOB** · August-07-09, 08:37 AM

Bobb is making the right move on knocking down the old Cass Tech. I thought it was incredibly stupid for DPS to build a spanking new Cass Tech and leave the old building still standing with no idea what purpose it could serve. Kinda remind you about a ball park that was built and the old one was left standing with no idea what do with it.

**HazenPingree** · August-07-09, 08:39 AM

god dammit.

**stasu1213** · August-07-09, 08:40 AM

Since most of the high schools are being closed down; why not build up the old Cass Tech with the stimulus money and send the students there from their closed down high school. It could be a regional high school. Have busses that would take them there

**ndavies** · August-07-09, 08:43 AM

Cass tech was scheduled to be demolished when the new cass tech opened. The Cass Tech Alumni and others persuaded the city to leave it up to be rehabbed. All the people who screamed to rehab this building disappeared shortly after the the building was "Saved". Nobody came forward to rehab it. It should have been torn down in the first place. Not left to continue to rot.

The original building was far more expensive to rehab than to just build new, hence it was not rehabbed it the first place. Anyone who thinks it's cheaper to rehab a building that old than it is to tear it down and build new is delusional.

**davewindsor** · August-07-09, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by gnome

About an hour ago, DPS Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb was a guest on the Mildred Gaddis show. During the call-in portion of the Bobb segment, a caller asked Bobb the status of the old Cass Tech High School.

"We will be taking that very dangerous building down" said Bobb "We will be using Stimulous Money to take that building down as well as building a new Murry Wright High School and several other middle schools."

Dangerous based on what? Is a bean counter qualified to make that statement? No readaptive potential for future lofts? It just goes down without due process or public hearings or a structural engineering report saying it's dangerous? Is there a historical designation on this building yet? What an a hole!

**digitalvision** · August-07-09, 08:47 AM

Politically, and economically, there's no viable plan for the place, and the school district has no money to secure it.

This is a situation where you don't have much choice if you're broke. And Bobb's doing the fiscally responsible thing.

Ndavies has it right - no one has stepped up. And frankly, as much as I love old buildings, I'd much rather DPS focus their meager resources on students, which is what they're doing by using federal demolition money.

This board keeps thinking 1st world problems when the issues are actually 3rd. The last thing Bobb, or any competent official, is going to have patience for is a public fight over an old building that is going to take resources away from kids - and I promise you, if the preservation community digs in for this fight, they're going to take significant collateral damage with the mainstream Detroit community because the taking-focus-away-from-kids card WILL be played and preservation will lose almost all political will that's left from elected officials and news media.

Preservation is the bottom of the DPS priority list in this crisis situation. And any argument that spending X thousands of dollars to preserve Old Cass Tech or other schools is worth it will fall on deaf ears when there isn't enough money for basics in the district and the feds will pay for the demo, costing the district almost nothing.

**iheartthed** · August-07-09, 08:50 AM

The old Cass Tech couldn't be torn down immediately because the new building was built so close to it.

**ndavies** · August-07-09, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

The old Cass Tech couldn't be torn down immediately because the new building was built so close to it.

Not true at all. The only reason it didn't get torn down was because of the bitching from the Alumni and preservationists.

**stasu1213** · August-07-09, 09:00 AM

It could had been saved when the new Cass was opened but the corrupt DPS and corrupt city officials let it stand for decay. They knew that the schools throughout detroit were going to close. The old Cass could had been used for transfer of students immediatly after the new Cass were opened. Kwame and the DPS had a master plan The kids in detroit were not included in this plan except to get out of Detroit.

**iheartthed** · August-07-09, 09:17 AM

Originally Posted by ndavies

Not true at all. The only reason it didn't get torn down was because of the bitching from the Alumni and preservationists.

Yeah, I should preface that by saying this was what I heard from staff members at Cass Tech. They were told that the old building couldn't be demolished until the new one had "settled". [[I'm not a civil engineer, so I really can't offer any expertise to the discussion besides what I heard from staff members.) Then once the two or three year grace period had passed, the preservationist alumni had by then organized to save it.

I'm personally on the side of the alumni organization, but I have seen the building recently, with all of its broken out windows, so I realize that convincing DPS and the city to hold off on demolition will be a steep uphill battle. TARP funds could probably also be used to properly seal the building until a developer became interested in the property, but I realize that isn't a politically lucrative route for the powers that be. So it will be torn down. And there will be another empty lot in the middle of Detroit where a historic structure once stood. At least they will finally have room to fix their football field.

**ndavies** · August-07-09, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by stasu1213

It could had been saved when the new Cass was opened but the corrupt DPS and corrupt city officials let it stand for decay. They knew that the schools throughout detroit were going to close. The old Cass could had been used for transfer of students immediatly after the new Cass were opened. Kwame and the DPS had a master plan The kids in detroit were not included in this plan except to get out of Detroit.

More delusional thinking. Cass Tech was obsolete and needed millions in rehab to bring it back to modern school needs. That's why the new school was built. It was cheaper to build new than rehab. The city did put students first. They decided the money saved by building new was better spent educating students than preserving obsolete buildings.

**davewindsor** · August-07-09, 09:23 AM

I think that whole area should be declared a historic district because it fits in well with the other glorious limestone buildings that front Cass Park like the Masonic Temple and Kresge World Headquarters. Demolishing it would be taking away from the area. Is there no historic basis to save this building? Is there a petition anywhere online that one could sign to stop it?

Lorax · August-07-09, 09:24 AM

Yet another graft induced decision to render our built environment void of any history. Thanks alot, Bobb, and the DPS, your decision making is in keeping with decades of backward, neolithic conclusions brought to us courtesy of a disaffected, bankrupt city that will, in my opinion, never recover.

No wonder it's been allowed to be ransacked in broad daylight without so much as a police officer present to witness it. That's why I'm all for scrappers salvaging what would be bulldozed by socially retarded city officials in the first place.

I was just by there the other day before returning to Miami, and noticed the bronze plaque on the corner was bent from someone trying to pry it off, as well as the Cass Technical signage carved in stone on the Fisher Freeway side which has been removed as a memento by someone.

Don't think any building is immune, the Wayne County Building, Guardian, Fisher building- any of them are in danger as long as decisions are continually made to demolish landmark buildings. Most of downtown's highrises are vacant as it is, all of them are certainly next.

As for the wrong headed thinking that restoration is more costly than demolition and reconstruction- don't even go there. It is proven time and again that done properly with the available tax breaks, private enterprise has many incentives to restore existing structures rather than demolishing and building new.

The pro-demolition metric works only when the new construction is a cheap, slapped together precast building, which isn't a fair comparison to a faithful restoration. Cass Tech would probably have been stripped of it's interior anyway and retrofitted, which would have been less costly than a historical renovation, and certainly less costly than demolishing and building new.

EastSider · August-07-09, 10:03 AM

Originally Posted by davewindsor

Is there a petition anywhere online that one could sign to stop it?

It would be better and more productive to sign a check to purchase the wreck from the district.

Oh wait, I forgot where I was. Nevermind.

**Det_ard** · August-07-09, 10:11 AM

Why do we have so many armchair preservationists and amateur urban planners and so few well-funded developers? Maybe WSU should shut down the urban planning program for a decade or so and open up some slots for business majors.

**ThaFuzz** · August-07-09, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by Lorax

Yet another graft induced decision to render our built environment void of any history. Thanks alot, Bobb, and the DPS, your decision making is in keeping with decades of backward, neolithic conclusions brought to us courtesy of a disaffected, bankrupt city that will, in my opinion, never recover.

No wonder it's been allowed to be ransacked in broad daylight without so much as a police officer present to witness it. That's why I'm all for scrappers salvaging what would be bulldozed by socially retarded city officials in the first place.

I was just by there the other day before returning to Miami, and noticed the bronze plaque on the corner was bent from someone trying to pry it off, as well as the Cass Technical signage carved in stone on the Fisher Freeway side which has been removed as a memento by someone.

Don't think any building is immune, the Wayne County Building, Guardian, Fisher building- any of them are in danger as long as decisions are continually made to demolish landmark buildings. Most of downtown's highrises are vacant as it is, all of them are certainly next.

As for the wrong headed thinking that restoration is more costly than demolition and reconstruction- don't even go there. It is proven time and again that done properly with the available tax breaks, private enterprise has many incentives to restore existing structures rather than demolishing and building new.

The pro-demolition metric works only when the new construction is a cheap, slapped together precast building, which isn't a fair comparison to a faithful restoration. Cass Tech would probably have been stripped of it's interior anyway and retrofitted, which would have been less costly than a historical renovation, and certainly less costly than demolishing and building new.

Can you explain how a disaffected, bankrupt city that will, in [[Lorax's) opinion, never recover rife with socially retarded city officials making graft induced decision[[s) can support a restoration done properly with the available tax breaks, private enterprise has many incentives to restore existing structures rather than demolishing and building new?

Are there unicorns on your side of the cognitive dissonance rainbow?

**R8RBOB** · August-07-09, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Lorax

Yet another graft induced decision to render our built environment void of any history.

Then, DPS should have invest millions to rehab the building but instead they decided because of economical reasons to build a brand-new school building to house the students of Cass Tech.

Don't get me wrong, I would love for Detroit to preserve its historial buildings but preserving those buildings cost money. DPS is broke yet it make the foolish decision to keep the old Cass Tech standing after the new school was built. Bobb is doing the right thing by removing a eyesore that is no longer an asset.

**iheartthed** · August-07-09, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by ThaFuzz

Can you explain how a disaffected, bankrupt city that will, in my opinion, never recover

You should have just stopped right there. If you believe that Detroit will never recover then what exactly is your purpose in being here?

**davewindsor** · August-07-09, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by EastSider

It would be better and more productive to sign a check to purchase the wreck from the district.

Oh wait, I forgot where I was. Nevermind.

They'll sell it to me for $1? SOLD!

**ThaFuzz** · August-07-09, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

You should have just stopped right there. If you believe that Detroit will never recover then what exactly is your purpose in being here?

The bolded portion was a Lorax quote.

Lorax · August-07-09, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

You should have just stopped right there. If you believe that Detroit will never recover then what exactly is your purpose in being here?

Sorry for crapping in your punchbowl, but since I have skin in the game, so to speak [[I own property there), I do have an interest in Detroit's survival, but sometimes rhetoric needs to be heard to the contrary to get people's backs up- thanks for responding in kind.

**iheartthed** · August-07-09, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Lorax

Sorry for crapping in your punchbowl, but since I have skin in the game, so to speak [[I own property there), I do have an interest in Detroit's survival, but sometimes rhetoric needs to be heard to the contrary to get people's backs up- thanks for responding in kind.

My apologies to ThaFuzz.

Why would you continue to sit on what you think is a bad investment? Are you a masochist? If you truly think, as you said, that Detroit will never recover then why not take your money and walk? Then save the rest of us the agony of having to read [[or scroll past) your asinine opinions. Sell it and go on with your life! Take the shit or get off the pot!

::note to self, don't accept any investment tips from Lorax since he invests in things he doesn't believe in::