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Drone Films Detroit's Abandoned Buildings, Painting Apocalyptic Image

A three-minute movie of Detroit’s deserted locations taken by cinematographer John Morton shows how the largest municipal bankruptcy case in US history really affected the city that once was the world’s automotive capital. The Packard Automotive Plant, the Eastown Theater and the Fisher Body Plant are seen as a complete wreck in the grey light of sad view.
Drone Footage with Detroit’s Abandoned Locations Make You Feel in Zombieland 1 photo
Photo: Screenshots from John Martone on Vimeo
In 1903 Ford created the first bricks of what later would turn into one of the world’s biggest auto makers in industry, the Ford Motor Company. Ford’s manufacturing - and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard and Walter Chrysler- reinforced Detroit’s status as the world’s automotive capital.

Not only did this mean the car making industry would have its first big companies, but the rules of work themselves would be created, later to change the entire world. With the factories came high-profile labor unions which initiated strikes and other tactics in support of such things as the 8-hour day/40-hour work week, healthcare benefits, pensions, increased wages and improved working conditions.

Detroit’s auto industry was an important element of the American “Arsenal of Democracy” supporting the Allied powers during World War II. However, the blooming went on only until the economic growth would eventually slow down and later decrease substantially. Between 2000 and 2010 the city’s population fell by 25%, changing its ranking from the nation’s 10th largest city to the 18th.

Serious decline, followed by the city's bankruptcy

In 2010, the city had a more than 60% drop down from a peak population of over 1.8 million at the 1950 census, indicating a serious and long-running decline of Detroit’s economic strength. This would, three years later, lead to the city’s’ financial emergency in March 2013. It was declared bankrupt by Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the Bankruptcy Court of the Easter District of Michigan on December 3, last year, who cited its $18.5 billion debt and declared that negotiations with its thousands of creditors were unfeasible.

After the city’s bankruptcy plan was approved this November, the city officially began the process of exiting its current economical status, but as we can see in the video bellow the wounds are pretty big. For instance, the Packard Automotive Plant, with a floor area of 3,5 million sq ft (330,000 sq m) that now looks like an apocalyptical scene once was the place where luxury Packard cars were produced.

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