A 25 Mile Bike Ride Around Richmond, Va; next eleven posts
I think a good portion of the pleasing aesthetic this buidling emits is because of it's marked contrast to the surrounding environment, which is dismal. Three people here were waiting for the bus along the cracked and potted sidewalk of Jefferson Davis Highway.
A few blocks north of the Model Tobacco building the abandonment continues. There are ten blocks between this point on Jefferson Davis Highway and it's intersection with Hull Street; that intersection is the largest in the south side of Richmond. On these ten blocks, nearly every building on this side of the road is abandoned, whether residential or commercial.
Looking back towards tobacco storage, the Model Tobacco building, and woman in her twenties walking down the street eating a chocolate crunch bar. This is a six lane highway.
posted by - at 12/12/2006
3 Comments:
I know where all of these places are... Have you been to Petersburg? It's not much better, which saddens me.
It seems that everyone is so concerned about protecting "The Civil War" and "history", but no one wants to participate in its upkeep, or tear it down so that better things can come into the area and help build the economy.
It's sad.
I've been to Petersburg, in fact, right now I'm working on a 4ft x 80 ft. pastel drawing that shows what the city actually looks like, rather than depicting ten civil war houses that have been nicely restored.
I also wrote an article about a tragic house fire that occured in Petersburg: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/pete-f01.shtml
Sometime soon I will have plenty of pictures from down there as well, in addition to this drawing.
That's great, I'll keep an eye out for when you've got it finished, if/when you post it.
It's always annoyed me that everyone looks at the shiny restored houses/building, but never what's around/behind them.
Of course, everyone then tells me I'm
"unAmerican" for not seeing things in terms of restored Civil War houses and suburbs with Homeowner's Associations and matching green mailboxes.
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