You've got a big logomotive plant in a town of 5000 people. The plant closes. The plant sits empty and becomes a commuter town. To renovate the plant for another purpose is expensive, and it is far from larger towns where there is a need for such facilities. It sits empty, decays. Scavengers steel the structural metal and sell it to scrap metal dealers. Eventually the building becomes unsalvageable.
These are the kinds of things that I don't understand. I know that there are abandoned buildings all over the world, but that kind of decay seems odd to me for a 20th C/21st C. 1st World country. You'd think the city would regard such ruins as a public hazard. You hear of some large company (Boeing? Ford? I don't remember) buying an old car to bring it back, but is's a private company doing it out of a sense of civic duty and nostalgia for American industry.
Once a building is "abandonned" it is subject to weather and scavangers (thieves)
scavangers out to steal anything of value, but especially metals to sell as scrap,
do an incredible amount of damage , because, well , they don't care.
Why don't locals keep buildings maintained? basically it comes down to a two basic things
corporations and money
1) corporations have no morality or responsibility. they have only one rule: maximize profits for shareholders.
2) it's cheaper for a corporation to abandon it's facility, write it off , and/or declare bankruptcy
thus avoiding any liability. After all, the WHOLE POINT of a corporation is to a) raise capital b)minimize or entirely avoid liabilty.
3) no money == no maintenance == water intrusion == collapse in ~ 20 years.
4) ONCE THE CORPORATION ABANDONS THE COMMUNITY, the community no longer has any money to take care
of existing buildings and infrastructure.
a city may be able to come back - detroit is trying
follow the time-progressive slideshow of detroit suburbs for suburban decay
https://weather.com/travel/news/eerie-before-after-images-urban-decay-detroit#2french photographers documenting the detroit urban decay in only 25 years
http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroitand the decay of the automotive plants
decay of the Packard Plant thru the years
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/01/23/packard-plant-bridge-collapse-detroit/2660893002/and here's a lovely montage (courtesey the evil Herr Google who steals all our data)
https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&tbs=qdr:y&q=detroit+factory+ruins&tbm=isch&source=lnt&client=firefox-b-1-ab&ved=2ahUKEwjOk4T-pvvgAhUn9IMKHfEfBLIQsAR6BAgAEAE&biw=1366&bih=611but some "company towns" disappear entirely
here are some examples in the US, mining, lumber, steel mills, paper mills, you name it:
https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/13-all-but-forgotten-company-towns-around-the-country-52301#mcdonald-ohio-carnegie-steel-cohere's 25 Towns Devastated by Losing a Single Company
https://blog.cheapism.com/company-towns-that-died/here's some from around the world
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/most-stunning-abandoned-towns-around-worldgreed and entropy know no bounds .
prf mvl
