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Detroit's Abandoned Car Wash & Detail Shop Pics

Pro-Techt

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Many aren't aware that Detroit is plagued with not only abandoned homes & commercial buildings, but also an extraordinary amount of Car Wash & Detail Centers. More than any other city in the world! My guesstimate would be that well over 100 currently exist. Most who live in the suburbs of Detroit don't have the pleasure (displeasure to many) of seeing these unique sites and that is why I've decided to pass along some pictures for people to digest. Because the city I live in (Grosse Pointe) is basically surrounded by Detroit, I have decided to take different routes to and from work when possible to capture some pictures and share. The message that this shares may be interpreted quite different to each person and that is totally understandable. I personally find in disparaging that so many businesses of this industry never had a chance to fulfill its dream resulting in closure. I am looking forward to hearing people's thoughts on these and will continue to update this thread when possible with more pictures. Enjoy!












 

Waxman

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Wow. Most of those places are really poor looking. Oh well.
 

mjwalsh

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Pro-Techt,

Thanks for the pics. Collectively, the pics resemble a devastated war zone to some extent. It clearly points to the need to not take our livelihoods too much for granted & that there are vulnerabilities & fragilities for our industry. Any aspect that is an impediment to us in our towns & cities must be considered seriously. It is a lose-lose for not just this city but for our country in general ... in terms of not being in as strong of a position of strength. This in turn makes it less likely to be able to help with urgent needs in the rest of the world also.

I vividly remember being a young business owner of 28 years old who traveled to Detroit for the 1980 ICA convention mainly to scout out deicer systems from Herm Deal of Huron Valley Sales who had a booth at Cobo Hall with the other exhibitors. Herm's right hand man took me under his wing somewhat ... saved me money by having me take a bus rather than a taxi a distance away to see one of their installed deicer systems first hand. He called the attendant at the car wash to make sure he was there to show me ... when I got there a large 40ish very Black African American ... graciously opened the heavily fortified ER door to show me the actual real life installation & how it branched out from the ER to the concrete. I remember staying with my suitcase on close to the highest floor of one of the three very recently (1980) built Renaissance Center' Hotel Towers. I walked with a temporary limp because I had unexpectedly very badly sprained an ankle the day before of the airplane flight from Bismarck.

Not that any of us should get overly emotional about the devastation shown by the skillfully taken pictures that was only a fraction of the 100 mentioned by you of that area. Whether it be in a more rural setting or a large city ... we should all not have a defeatist attitude against government corruption that makes ours & other industries overall ... less viable.

I remember seeing & being in Specialty Equipment's (Minneapolis Area) thriving facility (tons of employees) back in 1987 & then seeing it almost completely abandoned with weeds overcoming their outer property etc. during a laundry industry related visit back in 2011. So it is not just our facilities ... but also manufacturing & other settings both rural & city that can be hurt by allowing the wrong people to get in positions of too much political power.

mike walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html
 

rph9168

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You were right to be careful back at the Convention in Detroit. I was also there and remember one of the exhibitors was robbed at gunpoint right outside the hotel in broad daylight. I am not trying to hijack this thread but it is hard not to get political and mention that the Democrats and the Unions have controlled Detroit since the early 40's. You can find much the same in Chicago, another Democratic and Union controlled town, but not quite to that extent. They entice the people to vote for them while the Unions give them strong financial support so they can control what goes on in the city to their own best interest. It is a very sad political commentary.
 

Pro-Techt

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I've gotten quite a bit of exposure with this project so I decided to keep looking for interesting car wash/detail shop related businesses to take photos of within the city of Detroit. Here's some more to check out:












 

2facer

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So sad that a lot of them have to close down, but what could be the cause of this?
 
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