  Ednaturnblad Member Username: Ednaturnblad Post Number: 29 Registered: 09-2006 |
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20080227/S CHOOLS/802270376/1408/LOCAL In today's News. What a shame - I don't know if there were any realistic plans of using these buildings, but once again they have been stripped into demolition. When people from other parts of the world ask me why our city never seems to escape the same old problems, my response is that we have a lot of people who have lost all sense of pride and all sense of shame. | ||
Buyamerican Member Username: Buyamerican Post Number: 431 Registered: 02-2007 |
DPS left the schools unsecured and looters were able to access the buildings freely. Reams of paper that could have been used in the schools that remained open were stolen. Desks, chairs, copiers, expensive electronic equipment, and then the buildings began to be stripped of all copper, steel, toilets, etc. DPS knew this was happening for months and never did a thing to prevent the total demolition of the inside of these buildings, some of them had historical value. What I do not understand is, why hasn't there been some sort of accountability to the heads of DPS. Why isn't something done to get these people out of the system and get qualified people who CARE about DPS? This has been an unforgivable loss of assets to the children in Detroit and someone should be held accountable for it. What's going on with the NEW president who was recruited from down South? Why hasn't she taken the reins and pulled them in? This is typical of Detroit. All of the administrators, from the City of Detroit government, DPS, all officials who are either elected or appointed, seem to feel they have a free pass to steal from the taxpayers....the taxpayers keep having their noses rubbed in the crap they all dish out. | ||
Bdglsmn Member Username: Bdglsmn Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2008 |
DPS issued a request for bid to secure the vacant facilities about a year ago. I didn't follow up to see who was awarded the contract but just from driving around the city, and looking at the empty DPS buildings, it appears that no one was awarded the contract. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1708 Registered: 02-2006 |
Wonder if they "wanted" them stripped and useless so charter schools wouldn't want to buy them and compete with DPS. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5413 Registered: 10-2004 |
The current superintendent is proving to be just as incompetent as the others before her. Previously closed buildings were broken into. So why would the others be spared from looting and vandalism? Absolutely, no reason. So, she allows all that shit to stay around--like the books and supplies at their other former schools and depots--to be taken or destroyed. All she needed to do was to allow the schools to take what they could use, fully knowing that otherwise, that option wouldn't be available after all those items are stolen or ruined. This vandalism and theft have occurred before, BTW. The normal reaction seems to be, "Oh,well!" This is only allowed to happen in arm-pit types of communities. Elsewhere, heads would have rolled, but not here. No way. Based upon their debts alone, both the city of Detroit and DPS need to come under receivership. However, there are several other reasons. | ||
Diehard Member Username: Diehard Post Number: 349 Registered: 03-2005 |
GO. AFTER. THE. SCRAPYARDS. GO. AFTER. THE. SCRAPYARDS. GO. AFTER. THE. SCRAPYARDS. Make them pay BY CHECK, with a 30-day waiting period. Make them fingerprint everyone who comes in with a truckful of copper. Quit letting them wink and buy obviously stolen metal. Funny how nobody seems to care when it's happening to vacant homes and privately owned buildings, but now that school buildings are getting hit, they're all over it. | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 152 Registered: 11-2007 |
Detroit is always two steps ahead. Ever notice that? | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5419 Registered: 10-2004 |
Wayne Co. sheriff deputies often park on Lonyo or Central when they have warrants to serve. There are scrap yards there. My next-door neighbor's daughter runs the office at a SWD scrap yard. Her yard does not accept that stuff because it's small peanuts to them, considering all the hassle after getting caught. Besides, they don't want those misfits hanging around there. | ||
Pgn421 Member Username: Pgn421 Post Number: 448 Registered: 02-2005 |
Where is DPS security? | ||
Detroitpetanque Member Username: Detroitpetanque Post Number: 75 Registered: 09-2006 |
You're telling me that they can't have motion detectors at these 50 buildings wired to the police department? Let's say it's 5 motion detectors per building, at a cost of $100 per month per building, that's $5,000 a year. Scrappers set off/disable motion detector, the cellular call is made to the police station, the police show up, problem solved. Heck, at $1,000 Cash for each offender... it could be a profitable business! | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 748 Registered: 04-2006 |
actually, hiding operational silent motion detectors and cameras in these buildings would be an AMAZING idea... in all abandoned buildings... i'm an urban explorer, and I think it's a fantastic idea... people SHOULDN'T be able to go in these buildings... - Andy | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1217 Registered: 06-2006 |
Our cameras and motion detectors don't work in operational buildings, why would they work in the buildings that are closed? Teachers offered to go pick up desks, books, materials from the closed buildings so that we could use them in our classrooms. DPS said NO! If we were caught in the buildings, we could be fired. That was word that came to us. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1286 Registered: 07-2007 |
Better yet just put 500,000 volts of fenced wiring in them so you will meet with instant death. | ||
Wilus1mj Member Username: Wilus1mj Post Number: 247 Registered: 05-2005 |
Tear the buildings down and have the city sell the scrap metal themselves. I agree you have to target the scrap metal businesses too. | ||
Zephyrprocess Member Username: Zephyrprocess Post Number: 593 Registered: 08-2006 |
quote: Funny how I can't seem to remember all the stories about scrappers that I've been hearing for the last couple years. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 403 Registered: 09-2007 |
Focusing on the Junk Yards is indeed where emphasis needs to be placed...considering they're the ones who are providing a opportunity/venue through which thieves can fence their metal....AND....in many instances, low-life, stinking, rat-bastard junk yard employees/agents ARE DOING the actual after-hours plundering of vacant homes & buildings......You Can Bet the Farm on That. | ||
Gene Member Username: Gene Post Number: 71 Registered: 10-2006 |
Yea blame the junkyards??? Sure is amazing that the scrappers will put themselves in danger, work hard under adverse conditions to steal someone else's property. Too bad that someone cant find a way to channel that energy and work ethic into something positive, like an education or real job? (Bush haters chime in here.) So as always lets blame someone else. | ||
Broken_main Member Username: Broken_main Post Number: 1460 Registered: 06-2005 |
First of all, the District handed out the contract to Aramark to empty the the vacated buildings. The district should take the initiative to check the contractor that THEY hired. This is just the same old same ole with this district. Accountability means nothing to these administrators. My children attend DPS and there aren't even enough books to go around. When they were cleaning out Mackenzie High School last summer, there were dumpsters filled with textbooks, computers, and cases of papers. This is ridiculous. We, the people of the city, really need to take part in the education of our youth. Then things like this could be kept to a minimum. I'm not talking about parents of DPS, i am talking about the citizens. every now and then go to one of these board meetings and voice our concerns. Crap like this just bothers me. I happen to be a very active parent when it concerns my children's education within the DPS. I am a firm believer that an educated community is a good community. I always encourage other residents tobe a part of DPS even if they don't have any children in the DPS. To take it a step further, even if they don't have children. On another note, working here for the Water Dept(Huber), I get a firsthand experience with these scrappers who cut down a section of phone line just for the copper. Happens over here, in a very desolate area, blocked of neighborhoods, people dumping, rats and a newly vacated school. Just to let you know, everytime those phone lines get cut(which happen at least once every 2 months) It makes running the water system very difficult because we depend heavily on the phone system to send commands to our pumping stations. The last guy that cut the line actually got hit while cutting the line. He was out in the middle of St. Cyril pulling the line while his partner was cutting the other end. I had just left work and saw the ambulance take him to Receiving. His buddy took the copper out of his hand and left him there for dead. Go figure. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1319 Registered: 07-2007 |
Is Aramark still partially under Mob control? | ||
Diehard Member Username: Diehard Post Number: 359 Registered: 03-2005 |
The last guy that cut the line actually got hit while cutting the line. He was out in the middle of St. Cyril pulling the line while his partner was cutting the other end. I had just left work and saw the ambulance take him to Receiving. His buddy took the copper out of his hand and left him there for dead. Go figure. Wow. Just wow. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1220 Registered: 06-2006 |
Like I said, teachers offered to go to the vacated buildings (on our own time with our own vehicles, with DPS present) to get supplies and materials, textbooks, etc. Nope is the answer we got to our request. I don't have enough desks, books, or anything else to go around. I do, however, have plenty of kids. | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 4805 Registered: 10-2003 |
If enough of you got together, wore ski masks and formed a raiding party... | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1221 Registered: 06-2006 |
Hehe, we thought about it... | ||
Noggin Member Username: Noggin Post Number: 104 Registered: 09-2004 |
Why install motion detectors when the cops dont show up for violent crimes? It would be a waste of $5000. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1222 Registered: 06-2006 |
Schools all have motion detectors (installed about 8 years ago), they don't work...neither do the cameras in the halls (they work, they just don't record onto anything). | ||
Broken_main Member Username: Broken_main Post Number: 1470 Registered: 06-2005 |
Detroitteacher...where do you teach? I am sure I have seen it here before. I need to ask you something. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 1223 Registered: 06-2006 |
Cooley...you can email me at tmcooleyweb at aol dot com. | ||
Bulletmagnet Member Username: Bulletmagnet Post Number: 1009 Registered: 01-2007 |
This is a shame on so many levels. Let’s face it: most of Detroit is filled with buildings that are wide open. We see postings of sojourns into them here at DY on a regular basis. Any one can waltz in and help themselves to whatever they want. Thankfully, many only take photos to preserve the last vestiges of a fading past glory. Others are like ship worms on a sunken vessel, slowly eating away at the remains of the Cities past pride. We are all frustrated by this, some more then others judging by their posts. What to do? This brings us right back to the basic problems of leadership in Detroit. I don’t have a silver bullet, but if I did, my aim is true. The following link was posted here yesterday, and sadly says it better then any of us ever could: http://www.theonion.com/conten t/node/46937 | ||
Mauser765 Member Username: Mauser765 Post Number: 2558 Registered: 01-2004 |
"Heck, at $1,000 Cash for each offender." Yeah, but the DPD are not in any hurry to be charging into all these huge abandoned buildings looking for a scrapper, homeless person etc. You want them staking out buildings that the owners left open to theft, or do you want them patrolling and responding to issues like Jams suffered recently ? How many years has Wilbur Wright been left completely open ? Cass Tech is not as blown open as Wilbur Wright, but you sure can walk right in. The Roosevelt Warehouse (former postal warehouse) still has mountains of microfilm spool records of Detroit school children going back 50 years. Many of the records pertain to physical and mental health issues, complete with social security numbers. How many years has all that crap been left open and sitting ? I cant even count how many school buildings are left open currently. What is upsetting is that many of the really bad ones were just shut down recently. Its a bigger issue than scrappers. For whatever reason, these places are abandoned with everything left inside where it was on the last day of operation. Its like the people just get in their cars and drive away. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 664 Registered: 05-2004 |
Honestly, is anyone surprised by this? It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this might happen with all the other places in town hit by scavengers. | ||
Dougw Member Username: Dougw Post Number: 2074 Registered: 11-2003 |
quote: Still, a working motion detector/alarm system with a connection to the DPD is the only realistic way to protect these buildings. I agree that a dedicated DPD stakeout would be a waste, but they don't need a stakeout, they only need to respond if the detectors are triggered, which is relatively efficient. I've installed motion detectors in vacant buildings, and they work, it's not rocket science. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5462 Registered: 10-2004 |
Still, the DPD would be expected to respond rapidly to any alarms and detectors. **Fat chance!** I have personally witnessed three hit-and-run accidents at the very same traffic-light intersection in SWD where the police were called but NEVER came. | ||
Mauser765 Member Username: Mauser765 Post Number: 2563 Registered: 01-2004 |
I dont mean they should stake out the buildings, I mean that they sure as HELL aint charging into one of these places to chase them down. Too many halls, rooms, different levels, multiple entries. No doubt they would sit outside and wait for them to emerge. If you own a property it is your responsibility to secure it, and if need be, pay for a security guard. The DPD are not 'rent a cops' for delinquent property owners to use to arrest tresspassers on their unsecured property. That would have to be the lowest possible priority for them. |
