[Leica] Alone...

Mon Feb 8 08:11:13 PST 2021

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 févr. 2021 à 04:04, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG <
> lug at leica-users.org> a écrit :
> >
> > 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-
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Don
don.dory at gmail.com