Abandoned Dogs Roam Detroit in Packs as Humans Dwindle

[Pappa]

"...in a basement that flooded when thieves ripped out water pipes"

I find that sentence to be the most chilling in that snippet. Stealing live water pipes

It's not uncommon to hear about criminals stealing live electricity cables here. Copper prices make it a very profitable crime.

[piscator]

There was a story about an Atlanta real estate dealer who used vacant homes as marijuana grow rooms. They were caught stealing electricity in over a dozen locations.

[Seth]

"...in a basement that flooded when thieves ripped out water pipes"

I find that sentence to be the most chilling in that snippet. Stealing live water pipes

It's not uncommon to hear about criminals stealing live electricity cables here. Copper prices make it a very profitable crime.

...and an incredibly dangerous one. We've had a couple of live-wire thieves fried doing that. Most of the time they steal from new installations that haven't been powered up yet. They installed a series of streetlights on an interstate exit ramp here last year and it didn't get lit up for six months because every time they put in the wire someone would steal it before they even had the chance to wire it up, much less energize it. They finally managed to do it by sending out a huge crew to lay, wire and energize all the lights in one shift.

As for Detroit, I think "recycling" copper wire and pipe (at like $3.00 a pound) from abandoned and decrepit buildings is a great idea. If the building owner isn't willing to maintain and secure their buildings or recycle and demolish them himself, I don't have much problem with people extracting the valuable metals. It just makes eventual demolition by the city that much cheaper and easier.

I think most cities are far too lenient when it comes to decaying and dangerous abandoned buildings that produce exported harms like crime, pests and danger of collapse. I think it's up to the owner to prevent his building from becoming a public nuisance from exported harms and if he doesn't, it's up to the community to fix the problem by demolishing the structure and selling the land to cover the costs of demolition. I specifically note that if there are no exported harms (not aesthetic concerns) then it's nobody's business but the landowner's what he does with it.

[piscator]

Most foreclosed property in Detroit is in receivership. The bad debt was securitized by Goldman Sachs and sold to Iceland and Greece back before 2008 as MBS derivatives.

[cronus]

Back to the topic of the dogs....civilization collapse is a given, afterall, now almost all the cheap oils gone.

[Seth]

Most foreclosed property in Detroit is in receivership. The bad debt was securitized by Goldman Sachs and sold to Iceland and Greece back before 2008 as MBS derivatives.

Meh. If Iceland and Greece own it they are responsible for maintaining it. Being an absentee landlord is no excuse.