Hayward

Flint can't attract anyone at this point. It's impossible unless you have jobs to bring them to. Even so, if families are coming to the Genesee Co area they are moving to suburban communities, or if you are attracting the young or "urban oriented" for lack of better words, they'd move downtown. As I said before, you can't save swaths of vacant housing in Flint. Even the best block clubs, neighborhood watches, vacant property plans etc, will see the scrappers slip through the cracks and rip these homes apart. Honestly, there's a lot of housing stock in Flint that wouldn't be missed if demolished. It's not like you are seeing beautiful brick rows, or Victorian mansions being flattened. Alot of what could be rebuilt could be done better, or even more densely if Flint chose. This program isn't following some arbitrary framework of pick and choose what gets demolished just because of alot of vacancies. They do consider historical importance of neighborhoods, proximity to successful activity areas, type of building stock, etc that would satisfy people on all sorts of levels from planners to preservationists. For example, the land bank was very successful at getting the old Durant Hotel renovated into student housing despite that the public and city had zero confidence in it getting rehabbed, being on the market for probably 30 years in absolutely horrible condition. The easy solution would be tear it down, but they actually sought out a solution that was workable. I think the same strategy would be applied to neighborhoods as well.

Abandoned Detroit factory at the 75/94 Interchange. It has been closed since the early 80's I think. The bottom photo shows how some of the floors collapsed. It's weird, because my first visit we would look up and see the steel beams bowing downward substantially. I had wondered when the floors would finally begin collapsing. The city has tried to seal the building numerous times, fearing being sued by careless urban explorers who might fall through the floor, but the homeless tear them back down and establish residence in the lower level. It's typical for most people to leave this place with a pounding headache. Not sure what's in the air, but oh well.....

Hell yeah I do! It effed up my old Compaq Presario from 1994! Windows Explorer showed all the dates as 8888. I've never recovered since......

Sorry, the horrible Kentucky smiley tags will never be forgotten. I'll always laugh about it.

Flint has begun to accept what it can't stop, and that's the absence of manufacturing and the people that supported it. Their new unofficial slogan is "from car town to college town" where U of M has made a huge presence downtown. I hope that new types of industry will grow off of that providing Flint citizens with new jobs. But it's a given that swaths of neighborhoods will have to be knocked down. There isn't anything you can do to save them until something better comes along. They are almost entirely constructed of wood, and need regular weekly maintenance to at least look presentable. Most absentee owners and landlords can't do this, and as a result they get scrapped.

Bah... I don't think I like my new work schedule as much as I thought. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 1:00 pm - 1:00 am so I can have 4 day weekends. It's 5:15 right now and I'm still up. I got real tired at the end of the day and one of my friends came in and said something ridiculous and I spewed Vernor's all over the keyboard. What a huge mess it was to clean up. My boss must think I'm crazy.

Ah, well that helps things alot with the mouse. Thanks!

What a great investment I have made. I've really warmed up to using MacOS. It was easy to catch on and all my devices integrated well. I also purchased Fusion so that I wouldn't have to run Microsoft Vista of bootcamp. Instead I click the VMWare Icon and Vista Pops up in a large window and loads VERY QUICKLY! If I want, I can also click full screen so it fills the whole monitor like a normal PC. I've installed AutoCAD 2010, 3ds Max 9, and ArcGIS 9.3. These windows products are extremely demanding for those who don't know, but the mac is running them flawlessly in Fusion. I love toggling back and forth between AutoCAD in Vista and Photoshop in MacOS, with just a click of a button, and no waiting time. In fact, I rarely wait at all with this machine, everything is very fast. I've opened some pretty demanding files, including a massive 3d model that has failed to open on every PC. Well, it opened on my mac, which pretty much cemented my approval. Tomorrow I will buy the correct VGA cord to hook up to my dell monitor. I bought the wrong one last week. The only complaint I have is that the might mouse moves the cross hairs in autocad a bit slower than normal. I hooked up my wireless microsoft mouse and that completely fixed the problem. Not really a big deal since I don't use CAD all that much anymore. I didn't have this problem at all in 3ds. However, I might leave the MS mouse in for awhile since it allows me to right click...that is until I get used to using the might mouse. But still, at least I was able to resolve the issue by just using a native windows mouse for a windows program. To top it off, the 24 inch display just blows me away. I've appreciated my photography in a whole new way. I really recommend this computer to anybody looking to purchase one in the future.

I personally don't carry weapon anywhere I go in Detroit, and never intend to, but I don't find it unreasonable to be carrying one. There's been some incidents downtown within the last few years where people had guns stuck in their face demanding their car or money. One incident happened directly in front of the police station. The victim usually won (having a gun). But why do you plan to walk around Detroit at night?....why not during the day where there's other people around.

Yeah I remember my fraternity initation. It was sloppy. The brothers were masked but we could still easily identify them when we were "kidnapped" They drove dorm to dorm picking us up in a van. They then tried to confuse us by driving up and down on all different levels of a parking structure. We were then taken to a "secret" location which was clearly the game room in the basement of the fraternity house. The plan further fell apart with the introduction of "scary sounds" like....someboday vacuuming the floor above and jumping up and down. How quaint, although I'll take that ritual compared to the hazing activities you hear about the news every once and awhile.

I think everyone was pretty well behaved. There weren't any articles of MSU riot behavior. Though..uhm... not a whole lot left to burn.

It's typed into my planning paper on light rail and traffic congestion. Nah just playin. I decided to be bad right back. I just hauled back a steaming carton of Panda Express into the lab. I'll have this place smelling like sweet and sour in no time....that is my food...I'll try to control my digestive system.

Yeah, I'm big on Adobe products which seem to make some quantum leaps every couple years. My Dell bought in October of 2005 seem to run CS4 just fine. I even tested it with a massive complicated document in InDesgin, then opened illustrator at the same time. Keep in mind, processors were no where near what they were at this time. I knew performace could be better, but I'd expect any new machine at this point for the amount I'm spending to run somethign better than CS4. I have a trend of buying brand new electronics (camera, computer, mp3) every four years, so by the time I'd notice slow downs on this new computer, I'm ready for another. I will be using the progams the Mac fans are always trumpeting about such as the Adobe Suite. I also do intensive sketchup work and may use autocad from time to time. I don't play pc games at all......which should satisfy me as far as not demanding the most.

Hey, you want to know something about stupid people? Stupid people are the ones that talk on cell phones loud at a public computing center within the library. I'm fine with mild conversation, but when someone yacks on the phone loudly while everyone is silent, that's really annoying, especially when we are essentially within a glassed in box and there's a public hallway outside to have the conversation. What makes this person stupid? Even while I type my paper, I now know more about this person from what I simply can't ignore. He has a dispute with the power and gas company. Apparently his housemates are upset because the bill didn't get paid and they all gave him their share, yet the statement shows it as unpaid. He loudly shared his: Full Name and Home Address Social Security Number Credit Card Number REPEATED TWICE! Expiration Date, and Security Code. What an idiot. All it takes is one nasty person to do a little online shopping, but maybe this dude deserves it.

No, it was back in November. I don't like the bridge and tunnel crossing in Detroit.....they take too long, but Chris felt that we must. Unfortunately we then had to deal with all the crappy drunk driving loudmouths in traffic coming back which slows down customs to a crawl.

Coolio, meet blind old drunk. Blind old drunk, meet Coolio. Customs Agent: "Hi how are you all this evening?" ColDayMan: "Absolutely terrible!!!" Customs Agent: "...Uh.....wha..?" ColDayMan: "This old ass man hit my car!" Customs Agent: "-speechless-" A shame we didn't request the security video from the Bridge Company. The old man behind us just kept inching and inching behind us.

Uh oh, looks like security on our Canadian US borders is weak..... LOLOL http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19137118/detail.html#-

I ran ArcGIS9.3 on a Mac here at school and it seemed to work just fine....though it's networked on a centralized server. I'm not sure how demanding that program really is....then again, I also ran it on my five year old computer and it ran fine as well. I really can't tell the difference. I doubt I may install ArcGIS again though. I'm graduating in two weeks, and the only time I could ever imagine using it at home was for homework. I know people who use it at work everyday and can't wait to get away from it. Even if I want to do a side project, U of M has remote desktop access where I can login into a PC and separate window fills the screen. Good thing people are really thinking of these things. I want to make sure everything small things is covered. Last night I made sure that my Dell External Monitor could be connected without problems. I still plan to buy it later this week. The OS really isn't important to me. I have software for both OS's and I plan to install them on both Windows and Mac, since I never use hard drive space to store anything but software. The real test is running AutoCAD 2009. From what I heard, it runs fine on Vista installed on a Mac. I thought about building a PC, but I really ended up overdoing it when it came to selecting what I'd want. I've decided that I'm not in the market for the biggest and best beast like I was in the past. I'm tired of towers, wires, and big exhaust fans. I've really been trying to simplify what I own and an all-in-one really catches my design eye. I looked at PC all in ones, but nearly all the ratings were 1 out 5 with people saying "Never by this product because of..." My parents own an Imac, and for some reason, I just really feel the quality in them I know a laptop from both worlds offers the simplicity and power, but I don't picture myself moving around as much anymore. I hardly even take my laptop (when it was working) to class anymore. It's really great on trips, but I think when I get a job, I'll buy a nice, but inexpensive model so I can edit photos and check the internet, but that's about it.

Nice light tones in that photo sherman Here's a wonderful abandonment not far from downtown Chicago. The Damen silos sit on a complicated site next to the Eisenhower Expwy , the Chicago Canal, and an elevated portion of Damen Ave. It's owned by the state of IL, and the future of the site is uncertain. We all of course know of a few innovative rehab opportunities, but one creative approach done elsewhere in Illinois was a climbing gym. Obviously, in a recreation oriented city of over 2 million people such a conversion would seem successful. Every year, this structure seems more out of the place as its surroundings fill in with shopping centers and eventually more housing. Still, it's interesting and as of right now, the views from the top are terrific of downtown

Portland looks a lot taller than I remember it. I was there in 2002 with the fam for about 6 hours, and we really only stayed near the harbor.

Oh, good point. Continuing my last name is a good idea.

I'd like to have two kids, maybe 3, but it won't be till my 30's I'm 24, and just dating on and off. Even when I get hitched, I want to enjoy life traveling and going places with my wife before we settle down. "It's getting rarer every year to be on your own with adequate health coverage and no debt " I can relate to that C-Dawg. I pay for my healthcare out of pocket. Having healthcare job or no job is a requirement. I know so many people who go without it, but continue to spend elsewhere. What a stupid decision. When I had a kidney stone, it was like $8000 in medical bills. My insurance covered it all, no deductible.

Welll after asking questions from all types of people: IT Techs, architecture students using macs to run windows programs, Dell desktop users, user reviews, and lengthy discussions with people at Best Buy and apple stores, I have made final decision. I'm going to get the new 24" imac. The package includes wireless keyboard and mouse + 3 year extended apple care warranty. After discounts it's $,1685 (which includes tax). All need to do is buy a VGA adaptor to connect to my Dell external monitor, taking the final price to $1,700 Excited but anxious....I was really supposed to use this $$$ to pay off my student loans :-P Oh well, I have 9 months to worry about my first payment.

I love the buildings shown, and how they managed to save some history.

I doubt they take their job seriously...it's really because they are pissed that they are about to lose their job. Good news for them is there are plenty of openings everywhere for a-hole rent-a-cops. Seriously though, I don't even see the big deal. Malls are such quasi-public places, I don't see any reason for private owners to prohibit it in the concourses and food courts. Then again, I question whether most malls even care, because they are too busy to bother with the issue. Quick question, does Cincinnati have an enclosed mall that features local businesses, independent stores, etc? Up in Detroit, we have a mall called Northland. It's anchored by a Target and Macy's, but most of the shops are owned by Detroit area residents. There's a couple chains like Finish Line, Footlocker and some restaurants, but it's got a very different feel to it. A lot of people outside the city called it a "dead mall" because it doesn't contain first tier tenants. However, it has good foot traffic, the mall actually has few vacancies, and the sales per square foot actually beat out or are at least comparable to most typical regional shopping centers. Under new management I wonder if this place is capable of following a similar lead to Northland of Southfield? Keep in mind, they'd have to drop rents to encourage local business owners on tight budgets to lease.