Crimmins photo project

Encouraging Development

Monday, June 09, 2008

Encouraging Development

We have some new photos today! They are provided by our friend Uncle Buck and he took them in the great state of Maine. I was trying to get an essay done in time to get outside and get some work done before it got too hot but thanks to Uncle B. I can beat the heat and come back in and write in deluxe comfort provided by an electrical fan.

I hope Buck will provide some context for the photos in the comment section.

And there is some confusion about filedropper--  DO NOT join for money. Just use the free service if you want to send along photos. And considering how few photos I've gotten, why not just send them to me via e-mail? That's what Buck did and we all benefit from it.


bfcrim
AT
barrycrimmins
DOT
COM

Thanks Buck, this is just what we were looking for! My favorite is the motel that's being turned into a storage facility. Americans can no longer afford to live in buildings but that doesn't mean our piles of worthless junk should have to suffer!

And wow, they get to use tarps as doors in Maine. Around here we mostly use them for roofs.

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But wait, look a few shots down. That house appears to have a duct tape roof!

Coming soon -- some great photos from my friend Barb in Detroit. And of course all of the rest of the pictures I know you'll be sending.

Barry, the day laborer
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ADD COMMENT

ScoopernicusThursday, June 12th 2008 9:59PM

Looks like you got some WICKED fixer uppers theah deah.  As a life long Maine Native, such sights are all to common in my beloved home state.  Unfortunately they have been all too common sights since I was a kid in the 1970's.  Aside from beautiful views, Maine is more then unusually bereft of mineral or agricultural resources, and lacks a useful proximity to said resources to attract manufacturing, so alas, the slow, gentle tailspin will continue I fear indefinitely.

Libera Anglia Nova!

uncle buckMonday, June 9th 2008 4:10PM

Glad to oblige!
You're spot on.
That is indeed a motel on our Route 1 thoroughfare being turned into self-storage units.
Perhaps some of the folks being evicted from their properties can squat in them?
The last remaining blue-collar business in these parts - a shoe manufacturer - closed its doors in 2002. Since then, a growing number of modest, older homes have fallen into disrepair. Lately, some of these have turned into abandoned homes - many owing years of property taxes. (You can barely make out the "No Trespassing/Private Property" signs on the boarded-up doors.)
On the flip side - and I hope to post these as soon as I give filedropper another try - there is a plethora of new, unoccupied construction. I guess the money is in the buying of old structures, tearing them down, and building new facilities that then go begging for tenants. Silly me - I thought the value was in the space to be leased!
That's why my mountain bike is quickly becoming my preferred method of transit.
I never have, and guess I never will, think like a sharpie, or a speculator. (Up here we have a variety of names we call these types "from away", but that's another story.)
Thanks, BC, for posting these. They look better on the big screen!
Rock on...