Andrew Moore (1) (1957–)

Being a visual chronicle of urban decay as seen through the eyes of a more than capable photographer roaming the shrunken city of Detroit. Although the photos are not tightly arranged, they begin by emphasizing abandoned or, occasionally, repurposed factories, proceed to public buildings such as dance halls, churches, libraries, and schools, and end with exterior views of derelict buildings and street scenes--to me, the most effective part of the book. When these took so long to appear, I was beginning to think that an opportunity had been missed. Several short essays are appended, and, for once in a photography book, are welcome guests which are well worth reading.… (más)

This is a book about Detroit that is both wretched and beauiful at the same time. Detroit is the largest rust-belt city that has lost more than half its population in the last 60 years (the others are Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Buffalo). All these cities have stretches of neighborhoods that have lost 95% of their population, but Detroit seems vaster. This is the wretchedness.

The beauty comes form the artfulness of the photographer, Andrew Moore, the ability to feel a poignancy when looking at some of the photographs. There is a sense of hope in some of them, that with a little bit of effort, some of the buildings could be reclaimed, such as the Polish Yacht Club and the University Club. There is even a picture of the interior shot of the Guardian Building downtown, which I believe is still funcioning is all its Art Deco grandeur.

The scenes of the Michigan Central Depot are well known. I remember visitng there when Amtrak still used the bottom floor. For a while in the 1970's there was some effort to keep it up. However, the number of Amtrak trains to Chicago have never numbered more than three round trips a day. There was a connection to Toledo that ran once a day in each direction, as well as a commuter train to Ann Arbor. The MC Depot was in a distinctly out-of-the-way location, so even in the 1920's one had to make special efforts for this place which doubled as an office building fo the Michigan Central Railroad. When that railroad was fully integrated inot the New York Central system before the building finished, there was never a need for the vast office space. The other problem with this place as a rail station was that ther really active coommuter rail ran on the Grand Trunk Western (a subsidiary of the Canadian National) and its main depot was on Brush Street in the actual downtown. There was a third station that got abandoned in 1971 when Amtrak came into being, and trains to Grand Rapids and to Ohio and West Virginia destination were abandoned. The Brush Street Depot was torn down to make way for the Renaissance Center opening around 1977, and the Fort Street Union Depot on the eastern side of downtown was torn down to make way for the new campus of Wayne County Community College.

Philip Levine writes a nice encapsulation of the book towards the end, called Nobody's Detroit. He mentions (as well as Andrew Moore in another short essay, the motto Detroit took on after a big 1805 fire, Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: " We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes." This is a grand hope now that the city has gone into full-fledged bankruptcy.… (más)