Outside The Box

What I see when I look at that picture, is 100 or so people out of work. done, finished. Probably 5-10 managers that have been with the company 5-10 years. 80 clerks, some IT guys, cleaners and a few other sundry folks. gone. no job. and since no union– no support, no help, no options. done.

Capitalism.
Unplugged.

desolate and bleak. there’s no green growing on those trees. They should tear it all down and plant a meadow.

I’ve seen the future, baby, and it looks like this.

I dunno…as bleak as this image seems – and it has counterparts throughout the country – perhaps we could solve several problems at once by taking vacant big-box stores and empty shopping mall storefronts and turn them into affordable/low-income housing. It would solve (or at least ameliorate) both the homeless/lack of affordable housing issue and repopulate the ugly, crime-magnet now-empty storefronts. To take a page from Victor F upthread, some of the remaining eyesores can be torn down and turned into parks.

besides the fact that this is recognizably a shuttered circuit city. the anonymity of the picture – the fact that this is anytown, USA on a clear winter day – is what stands out most for me. the waste of such a structure is also so clearly evident

A few people have hit on my first thought, which is.. what could be done with the space? Use some of the stimulus money to employ people to rip up the pavement and plant a community garden. Build a field of solar cells that could provide power to the community. Take the space back!! Parks, Trees, a farmers’ market..
This is an opportunity as much as it is a tragedy.
I’m sorry those people lost jobs. I am. But if we are going to shift to a new way of being.. let’s take advantage of the new open spaces we have available to us. Now.. what are we going to do with all that asphalt??!

Looks identical to the closed-down Circuit City up the street from me. I went there during the last month. It appeared everything had been marked up 40% and then a “Take 40% sticker” attached to it. No one was buying. Desperation all over.

A stripped mall…