Southfield

     There is a spirit in greater Detroit that may be quintessentially American.   It is a spirit that that looks blindly forward and even more blindly backward -- like the restless frontier folk of the nation's past, always moving west in search of more "elbow room".

     It is the meeting of existentialism and capitalism -- not just the bottom line this year, but the bottom line at this ongoing flowing instant.

     Fueled by tax laws that favor new development, the process can now be observed in suburban structures that were built to replace the abandoned structures of downtown Detroit. 

     Once again we meet the cycle of decline and abandonment in a new generation.

     Yet these structures, built with considerably less craft and skill, now pass silently away without a glance by even the most ardent preservationists.