"Gateway to Freedom" scrapped?

**leland_palmer** · August-19-10, 03:19 PM

I just noticed today that the dedication plaque for this sculpture at Hart Plaza was missing. Does anyone know if it is out for repair or has it been scrapped just like the Denby plaque from the Brodhead Armory?

http://fadeddetroit.blogspot.com/2010/08/theft.html

**jtf1972** · August-19-10, 03:25 PM

Maybe if the city started fining scrap companies for purchasing stolen wares? [[Not $100 either...)

**fryar** · August-19-10, 06:14 PM

Do people really gotta eat that badly? I thought we had food stamps and such, and so all get to eat. It seems like this really couldn't be anything but shameless. Of all the things to scrap.

**Huggybear** · August-19-10, 09:15 PM

I bet if you shot a scrapper, other scrappers would just scrap the body for lead and pull up the grass looking for the brass shell casing.

**wolverine** · August-19-10, 10:28 PM

I still think only licensed contractors should be legally able to exchange scrap metal for money. Everyone else should get nothing. To me exchanging metal legally or illegally just shows you have nothing better to do with your life. Who the heck wastes time driving to a scrapyard to get $5-$15 when placing it in the recycle bin or curbside pickup is a much better alternative.

I think a county-wide ban would put it to an end.....also make transporting scrap metal [[like firewood) across county lines illegal unless....again...you are licensed to do so.

**detroitbob66** · August-19-10, 11:57 PM

Originally Posted by wolverine

I still think only licensed contractors should be legally able to exchange scrap metal for money. Everyone else should get nothing. To me exchanging metal legally or illegally just shows you have nothing better to do with your life. Who the heck wastes time driving to a scrapyard to get $5-$15 when placing it in the recycle bin or curbside pickup is a much better alternative.

I think a county-wide ban would put it to an end.....also make transporting scrap metal [[like firewood) across county lines illegal unless....again...you are licensed to do so.

I could NOT agree more! This is getting so f-in crazy around here and it literally makes me sick. These a-hole scrappers need to be severely punished when they get caught and the scrap yards know what they are doing....its a bunch of B.S. and I plan on writing mayor Dave Bing! Thanks

**1KielsonDrive** · August-20-10, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by fryar

Do people really gotta eat that badly? I thought we had food stamps and such, and so all get to eat. It seems like this really couldn't be anything but shameless. Of all the things to scrap.

Never underestimate a cold, hungry person. Never overestimate the amount of food and lodging given to poor, hungry persons.

**papillonaquatique** · August-20-10, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by jtf1972

Maybe if the city started fining scrap companies for purchasing stolen wares? [[Not $100 either...)

Better yet how about if any scrap companies are caught with stolen wares that they are charged with the crime of looting themselves + fines for the repair and or restoration of the stolen property? That would end such rubbish in its tracks.

**DetroitPlanner** · August-20-10, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by fryar

Do people really gotta eat that badly? I thought we had food stamps and such, and so all get to eat. It seems like this really couldn't be anything but shameless. Of all the things to scrap.

If you don't have an address there is nowhere to send the Bridge Card.

**Searay215** · August-20-10, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by jtf1972

Maybe if the city started fining scrap companies for purchasing stolen wares? [[Not $100 either...)

Amen....I could not agree more...Heavy penalties and or jail time for taking in stuff like that. Its not like they don't know....come on.
Photo of street light covers stolen....

**EastsideAl** · August-20-10, 11:21 AM

That picture of the [[presumably) stolen monument is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. So, who stuck the orange traffic barrel in there? A city worker, or just someone with a morbid sense of humor? And did anyone think to alert some law enforcement?

Truly disgusting all the way around. I agree with everyone else here that the plague of scrapping that is literally stealing away our cityscape and our shared history must be stopped. Restrictions MUST be imposed as soon as possible on both scrap yards and those who sell to them. Even if it hurts some businesses, these businesses are parasites and they are involved in a trade that is quickly eating our city alive.

**313rd** · August-20-10, 11:32 AM

I think the best idea for scrapping, is to provide people with garbage bags and for every filled bag they return to the dump, we pay them. This would get the city cleaned up real quick.

DetroitDad · August-21-10, 03:40 AM

It took them forever to get the marble base on the West Obelisk on Woodward and Park.

**Whitehouse** · August-21-10, 07:03 AM

I think it's a matter of time before someone butchers Hazen Pingree....

Look what they did in the Netherlands to this Auguste Rodin's Le Penseur.

The statue in better days.

Pieces missing...

Hope this works. Here's a [[Dutch) news item about the statue after it was recoverd.
Good to know two men were arrested for the theft. The statue was found two days after the disappearance but evidently heavily damaged. It is now under restoration.

**papillonaquatique** · August-21-10, 07:40 AM

That is horrible! You would think that scrappers would stick to old homes and leave precious pieces of art alone. Who am I kidding? Old homes are in most cases works of art. They just don't care at all I guess. No sense of pride or purpose. What a shame. Hopefully something can be done to stop the theft of Detroit's history because that is exactly what they are doing. I can't understand why anyone would steal their own history out from under themselves!

**Huggybear** · August-21-10, 08:09 AM

Since this problem isn't going away soon, why not move anything bronze or brass into the DIA [[or into the care of some other responsible institution) and replace the outdoor stuff with plastic repros?

By the way, for this plaque, why do people speculate that this was some person stealing his own history? Vandalizing the Underground Railroad monument and not the nearby Labor Henge [[sheez, think of all the bronze they left on the table there...) suggests that it was a bunch of white guys from Macomb County.

Ok, just kidding. But in general, the scrapping industry doesn't exactly stay within the city limits. Go down to I-75 and Southfield Road and check out the scrap yard with the huge sign that says "Welcome, Urban Miners." Really.

**Zacha341** · August-21-10, 08:34 AM

Truly disgusting. Let me get this clear... so now in Detroit we can no longer even have our few nice items of turistification anymore? I mean what is it coming to here? Ahhh, ode to the mighty 'scrappers'!

Are times so tight that all is justified on the alter of poverty: "Got-sta to do what you got to do..." justification? I took a photo of that monument a few years back. Glad I did. What's next man hole covers...? Oh let's not even go there.

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

That picture of the [[presumably) stolen monument is one of the saddest things I have ever seen. So, who stuck the orange traffic barrel in there? A city worker, or just someone with a morbid sense of humor? And did anyone think to alert some law enforcement?

Truly disgusting all the way around. I agree with everyone else here that the plague of scrapping that is literally stealing away our cityscape and our shared history must be stopped. Restrictions MUST be imposed as soon as possible on both scrap yards and those who sell to them. Even if it hurts some businesses, these businesses are parasites and they are involved in a trade that is quickly eating our city alive.

**Zacha341** · August-21-10, 08:39 AM

Oh, yeah. I figured the largess of the scrapping industry is not all Detroit. And the foundries and physical metallurgy melt-down centers are even further yet removed. Must be some a big ole laugh for some as certain D memorabilia is sold off for pennies on the dollar.

Yeah, put in the plastic stuff... we in Detroit present you our "plastic" plaques and what all as we have a scrapping epidemic. Well I guess that what we got to do......

Originally Posted by Huggybear

Since this problem isn't going away soon, why not move anything bronze or brass into the DIA [[or into the care of some other responsible institution) and replace the outdoor stuff with plastic repros?

By the way, for this plaque, why do people speculate that this was some person stealing his own history? Vandalizing the Underground Railroad monument and not the nearby Labor Henge [[sheez, think of all the bronze they left on the table there...) suggests that it was a bunch of white guys from Macomb County.

Ok, just kidding. But in general, the scrapping industry doesn't exactly stay within the city limits. Go down to I-75 and Southfield Road and check out the scrap yard with the huge sign that says "Welcome, Urban Miners." Really.

**Zacha341** · August-21-10, 08:45 AM

Yep, 'systematic' scrapping at its finest. I hope these removed sections are not compromising the structures of these street lights. Of course the 'scrappers' don't care if it falls on citizens. The hospital is close by last I checked......

Originally Posted by Searay215

Amen....I could not agree more...Heavy penalties and or jail time for taking in stuff like that. Its not like they don't know....come on.
Photo of street light covers stolen....

**Brock7** · August-21-10, 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

What's next man hole covers...? Oh let's not even go there.

I first noticed a few years ago as I was walking down Mack to St. Antoine from Gratiot that there were shiny new bolts on some of them - I don't think they had bolts originally.

**Zacha341** · August-21-10, 09:24 AM

It's just nuts! Maybe they'll try to haul this metal object off next?

Originally Posted by Brock7

I first noticed a few years ago as I was walking down Mack to St. Antoine from Gratiot that there were shiny new bolts on some of them - I don't think they had bolts originally.

**Detroit Stylin** · August-21-10, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

If you don't have an address there is nowhere to send the Bridge Card.

If you are in the Mission or NSO then you can use that address....

**Huggybear** · August-21-10, 02:52 PM

The Denby Memorial is not something that you can haul off in a shopping cart. The Hurlbut Gate metal work was apparently stolen by chaining it to a pickup and ripping it out of the Hurlbut Gate. And a homeless person didn't carry the bronze turtles from the Scott Fountain, one at a time, over the bridge with nobody seeing it. Oh, yes, did I forget to mention that homeless people weren't dragging away huge copper sections of the Lee Plaza? And lemme guess - they got all of that materiel up to Chene and I-94 [[or farther away)? All of this is clearly the work of people with vehicles.

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

If you don't have an address there is nowhere to send the Bridge Card.

**Huggybear** · August-21-10, 02:56 PM

You wouldn't make monuments out of solid gold because it would be an irresistible target of theft. Albert Kahn told the Fisher Brothers to abandon their idea of solid gold bathroom fixtures almost 90 years ago, when scrapping was unknown. Now that brass, bronze and aluminum are to scrappers what gold was to the populace of the 1920s, does it make any sense to leave stuff like that sitting out? Archaeological looting is what led a lot of European museums to take the originals indoors. Maybe that's the point we've reached.

Originally Posted by Zacha341

Oh, yeah. I figured the largess of the scrapping industry is not all Detroit. And the foundries and physical metallurgy melt-down centers are even further yet removed. Must be some a big ole laugh for some as certain D memorabilia is sold off for pennies on the dollar.

Yeah, put in the plastic stuff... we in Detroit present you our "plastic" plaques and what all as we have a scrapping epidemic. Well I guess that what we got to do......

**Zacha341** · August-21-10, 04:02 PM

Excellent points HB! hungry and homeless are not doing this larger mass scrapping. Yep, where are at the point of plastic or glass inlays for memorials. Maybe we can have them done in China so they can be toxic and lead embedded [[just joking).

Anyway, there's another metal plaque across from the monument along a wall... near the monument... it has the state of Michigan map pointing out areas of the underground railroad or something on it I believe? There was some controversy because a city or county was misspelled, and it had to be corrected. I suppose we should remove that before it's scrapped....

Make it glass inlay like the items down at the far end of the river walk by the carousel.

Originally Posted by Huggybear

You wouldn't make monuments out of solid gold because it would be an irresistible target of theft. Albert Kahn told the Fisher Brothers to abandon their idea of solid gold bathroom fixtures almost 90 years ago, when scrapping was unknown. Now that brass, bronze and aluminum are to scrappers what gold was to the populace of the 1920s, does it make any sense to leave stuff like that sitting out? Archaeological looting is what led a lot of European museums to take the originals indoors. Maybe that's the point we've reached.