In the Homestyle section of today's Detroit News [[02.05.2010), the writer Jeanine Matlow describes a house in Bloomfield Hills in whose Living Room:

"Decorative iron details salvaged from the Michigan Central Train Station hang on the wall."

As a resident of the City of Detroit, I am offended by this. The Michigan Central Train Station is still standing, and I suspect that the "details" that adorn this suburban home are not salvaged but stolen and fenced. If this writer and this home's owners want to claim that the "details" are salvaged and not stolen and not fenced, then it is their duty to prove this.

You can't sell or buy artifacts that may have been stolen from native American archeological sites without proving their provenance. You can't sell, buy or own anything to do with endangered species without proof that such items were obtained legally.

Why do Detroiters have to see their buildings stripped of their historic elements, why do we have to see houses whose brick exterior walls have been stolen, so suburbanites can decorate their living rooms and build new homes with "cute" recycled brick? Why are suburbanites who own stolen and fenced items glorified by the Detroit News?

Salvaged? Prove it.