Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

The many costs of desperation

Who's stealing all the copperLast weekend, a thief attempting to steal copper from the closed and to-be-renovated Wheatley School, was eloctrocuted. See "Man Killed Trying to Steal Electric Wire."

But this is a problem elsewhere, and it's a problem of economic desperation. I have seen evidence of this kind of over the years. One guy was bicycle-based and had a cart connected to his bike that he used to haul his findings, presumably to a scrapyard in SE DC.

The Detroit News reports about this today, in "Who's stealing all the copper? Thieves get bolder as metal prices skyrocket." According to the article, items stolen from sites under renovation can put the end to the project, because extra money doesn't usually exist to replace stolen items such as boilers, wire, and other infrastructure. This is one of the many costs and difficulties of rehabilitating under-invested areas.
Scrap metal is hauled into a recycling yard near Central and Vernon in DetroitDaniel Mears / The Detroit News. Scrap metal is hauled into a recycling yard near Central and Vernon in Detroit. The price for copper has skyrocketed in recent years. This month, copper has sold for about $3.30 a pound on average, while three years ago, a pound fetched about 70 cents.

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