Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/02/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Philippe, I can't speak to the rest of the world; the N. American continent is a special case. It was never heavily populated and after the Eurasian diseases were brought over by the Spanish and Portuguese it became even more spacious. During the 16-19th centuries many millions of land poor and oppressed people came to the continent. They spread out over the landscape with unbounded optimism however misplaced: much of the prairie and mountain states just can not support a large population over extended periods. Combined with the decreased labor needs of agriculture and the allure of urban plenty the landscape has been depopulated. N. America is gigantic compared to Europe so it is very inconvenient to live in a village as it may be 300km from anything remotely like a city. So, if you drive around away from the coasts you find the situation that Sonny was verbally describing and Ric is visually describing. Another point is that building for long time periods seems difficult for Americans. Having been in the construction business I can completely understand the pain of sufficient demolition to update energy needs and mechanical needs. Please be aware that large parts of the interior can swing from 105F down to -20F during a year. Buildings built before 1930 might have a pretty simplistic heating system but no means to cool the structure. After 1960 you started to see forced air systems introduced to cool structures. In the NE this was difficult as efficient heating was warm water in the floor which made it difficult to efficiently cool the structure. You grasp the concept that it seems easier to completely tear down a structure and rebuild to modern efficiency standards. It doesn't help that private homes have grown in size for the middle class or at least the desire for. Another factor is that in the interior land is still relatively inexpensive so abandoning a structure and rebuilding seems like a good idea: the loss of an income producing parcel of land is minimal compared to rebuilding a structure. Additionally, you have to factor that wood has been very inexpensive and plentiful so our structures have tended to be more lightly built than in Europe for example. Lightly built means less cost to move on. But, if you watch U.S. urban landscapes even large commercial structures are literally blown up and rebuilt, or abandoned like the auto plants in Detroit. I have seen photo tours of abandoned hospitals etc. in Belgium so there is some of that in your part of the world. Last to mention is psychology. N. America has had few problems moving to very large farming units growing single crops on many hectare units. Even coastal California dedicates hectare sized plots to strawberries or onions or other field crops. You will find organic fields next to traditional fields. In the midwest or central Canadian fields you will find literally kilometers of monoculture. Flying over the midwest is enlightening to see hours of flight time seeing corn if you start on the eastern seaboard. Somewhere near the center of the country you transition to wheat fields that are square blocks at first but transition to circular fields of green somewhere west of Kansas City or LIncoln Nebraska. Even flying a southern route you see the same thing(substitute cotton and rice) but with intermittent swaths of grassland. These fields don't require large labor inputs with mechanical help. Planting season you will see roving bands of machines moving with the weather; the same with harvest. So, a landowner controlling many thousands of hectares with some need for an eye on the crops to possibly turn on the irrigation and possibly request some pesticide application if a swarm of locusts descend. It is no wonder that you find abandoned structures as there is no need for the infrastructure. We are experiencing a resurgence of small farming units dedicated to true sustainable organic farming. Amazon now owns Whole Foods that dedicates a reasonable portion to buying from a single entity in any food group that provides sustainable organic foods. A good many of people that I know have contracted for weekly deliveries of said foodstuffs so that the farmer has a guaranteed income. Therefore I predict that after Covid you will see an increase in people going back to the land, this would also be a good suggestion for the lost workers in outdated industries whose psychology doesn't work well with coding. The land in West Virginia can be ideal for a small farm producing high value food that is also close enough to population centers that transportation isn't a problem for locavors.. High value foods would obviously include purely organic vegetables, cheeses, animal products that are raised with care and love. Some groups are doing quite well raising flowers in the pacific NW on the islands off Seattle or Vancuver. Sorry for the very long answer for a good question. On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 9:07 AM Philippe via LUG <lug at leica-users.org> wrote: > That?s what always strikes me too. Nothing seems to have been built to > last, and the, albeit selective, views convey the, probably false for now, > impression that the US is turning into a massive landfill ... > > So queer. > > But I DO like these photos, of course. > > > Keep them coming :-) > > Amities > > Philippe the scavenger ;-) > > > > > Le 8 f?vr. 2021 ? 04:04, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG < > lug at leica-users.org> a ?crit : > > > > Why are there so many derelict and abandoned buildings in your neck of > the > > woods? In India, these would promptly be taken over by the destitute and > > homeless without a second thought! > > > > Cheers > > Jayanand > > > > On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 7:47 AM CartersXRd via LUG <lug at > > leica-users.org> > > wrote: > > > >> Ashes to ashes... > >> https://2021.cartersxrd.net/2021.02.07.html > >> > >> > >> Ric Carter > >> www.home.CartersXRd.net > >> http://www.facebook.com/ric.carter > >> > >> -the world?s mosst careless typist- > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Leica Users Group. > >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Don don.dory at gmail.com