Vice article on illegal scrapping in Cleveland

I found this article interesting... Thought you guys might like it also.

Scrap or Die | VICE United States

Quote:

---

Due to the combination of the 2007 mortgage crisis and a roughly simultaneous rise in metal prices worldwide, scrapping has exploded in cities across America. And nowhere more so than in Cleveland, which has the highest number of reported metal thefts per capita in the country. As a result, Cleveland has become the sort of city where ten to 20 manhole covers go missing in one night and a toddler falls into one of the pits left behind; where people joke about getting electrocuted just walking down the street because the ground wire has been plucked from all the telephone poles; where copper statues downtown honoring important figures in American history have been replaced by composite ones painted to look like copper to deter thieves. The scrappers, in other words, are everywhere, boldly tearing away at the city’s infrastructure in broad daylight like vultures hovering over a pack of lemmings that followed one another over the edge of a cliff.

---

Being from the area it's sad to think this is how things are. I grew up in an area that was called the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. When I drive through the neighborhood I want to cry. So many nice houses trashed, gone, or on the way. My old neighborhood was ravaged my mortgage fraud then metal theft. It's sad but people got 80k+ mortgages for houses that are worth maybe 10k on a good day. I know they could have prevented it but they didn't. How could it be possible to get loans for that much? I don't get it. These were big banks too!

I found the parts about the large scale illegal scrapping interesting. Where I'm from you have some small copper thefts but it makes sense that you could have large "companys" stripping whole buildings illegally. I guess I was just not aware of the scale things are happening in some areas. I hope you folks in these regions can use this to build up your own legitimate networks and companies

By writing it this way:

"Due to the combination of the 2007 mortgage crisis and a roughly simultaneous rise in metal prices worldwide, scrapping has exploded in cities across America. And nowhere more so than in Cleveland, which has the highest number of reported metal thefts per capita in the country."

...the author is making "scrapping" synonymous with "metal theft."

our image is bad enough!

>:l

You think someone would buying up these abandoned properties and making some bank off of them before they raided

No one in there right mind would buy property in those areas even with the low prices. I grew up in the slavic village area. It was once a working class area with affordable housing with factories and mills near by. My grandfather, father, uncles all worked in the steel mills right out of high school then bought houses in the area. Once the steel mills started shutting down is when the whole mess started. People go where the work is. You can actually buy a house now in that area for 1k, but the house is completely gutted. I would be lying if I said I never think about buying one or two. The councilman mentioned in the article (Brancetlli) is the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen. This guy got a free house from a so-called non-profit group, then he gets a 80k+ mortgage on the house. The house is not worth 20k!

As you can tell this subject hits very close to home for me. This was a area where I could go on any street and a family member lived on the street. Once a beautiful neighborhood with caring neighbors, strong cultural ties, to now a area that looks like a third world country who's residents could care less what happens. My mom use to tell me stories about how when she was walking home from school, if she stepped on the neighbors lawn she would get beaten by her mom (1930's-40's). The whole situation disgusts me so much I feel sick to my stomach!

As for this fine young douche bag who wrote that article. He doesn't have a freaking clue why those areas ended up the way they did. It wasn't just the housing crisis, it had more to do with jobs then anything else. IMHO if they still had the mills going the area wouldn't have ended up how it did. I know his type suburbanite turned urbanite who gets his jollies off going into poor areas and forcing out residents of that area. They move in, "renovating" the homes and buildings which raises the rent for poor grandma who's living off ssi. They say they're gentrifying the area that's bull. They're displacing the poor so they can create their own neighborhoods inside the city.

Rant over.

This is why we need to send out a good message like this one... http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-l...r-new-box.html

The 30 & 40s is over. This isn't even the same country as it was back then. Things have changed in the USA since around the second world war, when we actually won our last war (of any note). Back then people cared about their neighbors, at least a lot better than they do now, and it wasn't just the next door neighbors either. Now it's "i'm gettin mine, an i'm gettin mine now!", and "f**k em!, hell with em!", etc etc". It's all about "me" and "mine" ,and "you'd better leave me alone". Nobody gives a damm about anybody else, and if you think I'm kiddin just step out in the street in front of one of em.
I remember reading an old book somewhere about it, not sure what it was called, or if they even have em any more. Used to see em most everywhere, maybe it was "discontinued" or maybe banned or whatever. Reading that old book was like reading todays headlines, and I'm sure it must have been a hundred years old, maybe even a thousand or more, but it sure had some good stuff in it. Maybe they threw them all away, I dunno, too bad they're not still around. Someone told me people used to live by that book, but I haven't seen much of it in my lifetime, seems to just keep getting worse and worse.
This just ain't the same country anymore though, not sure exactly why

How you figure bear ? People, hell even this whole country, live far beyond their means! The whole sub prime mess was very similar to the stock market crash. Banks lending money they didn't have, just leverage on overvalued homes, to people that couldn't pay back. Sounds like a good receipe for disaster. Think about it for a minute, if the banks actually had to cover all the loans, why did Freddie and fanny need bailed out !

How do I figure what Tater? I just watch the news sometimes, try to see what's going on, and it usually isn't very pretty, no matter what location or level. Local, national, or worldwide, it's a mess that just seems to keep growing. Beyond our means is an understatement I suppose.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

The 30 & 40s is over. This isn't even the same country as it was back then. Things have changed in the USA since around the second world war, when we actually won our last war (of any note). Back then people cared about their neighbors, at least a lot better than they do now, and it wasn't just the next door neighbors either. Now it's "i'm gettin mine, an i'm gettin mine now!", and "f**k em!, hell with em!", etc etc". It's all about "me" and "mine" ,and "you'd better leave me alone". Nobody gives a damm about anybody else, and if you think I'm kiddin just step out in the street in front of one of em.
I remember reading an old book somewhere about it, not sure what it was called, or if they even have em any more. Used to see em most everywhere, maybe it was "discontinued" or maybe banned or whatever. Reading that old book was like reading todays headlines, and I'm sure it must have been a hundred years old, maybe even a thousand or more, but it sure had some good stuff in it. Maybe they threw them all away, I dunno, too bad they're not still around. Someone told me people used to live by that book, but I haven't seen much of it in my lifetime, seems to just keep getting worse and worse.
This just ain't the same country anymore though, not sure exactly why

---

Animal Farm ?
Animal Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by scrapping

As for this fine young douche bag who wrote that article. He doesn't have a freaking clue why those areas ended up the way they did. It wasn't just the housing crisis, it had more to do with jobs then anything else. IMHO if they still had the mills going the area wouldn't have ended up how it did. I know his type suburbanite turned urbanite who gets his jollies off going into poor areas and forcing out residents of that area. They move in, "renovating" the homes and buildings which raises the rent for poor grandma who's living off ssi. They say they're gentrifying the area that's bull. They're displacing the poor so they can create their own neighborhoods inside the city.

Rant over.

---

Eh, he's a hipster dbag who doesn't know any better.

You are right though. I worked a sportsman show in Cleveland back in 2001 and it was a depressed craphole then, too. ;)

Ok, maybe not a complete craphole but it was certainly depressed thanks to the mad dash of manufacturing out of the city. And people were definitely not spending money that year.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ewasted

Animal Farm ?
Animal Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

---

Hey, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ewasted

Animal Farm ?
Animal Farm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

---

Maybe so, Mario,I dunno, sometime seem like one already. All I do know is the reason behind todays headlines was written in stone a long time ago

" America has been a exceptional country , but exceptionalism is not a distinction that is bestowed upon a country once that it gets to keep for life like an honorary degree, exceptionalism has to be earned everyday" - Thomas Freidman

I heard that quote awhile back . Americans are living far beyond our means its to far gone . we feel that our labor is worth so much compared to our competitors. our standard of living in this country is far to high. we feel like we cant work that type of job or we have to make $30 an hour. What happened in Cleveland happened in Detroit to , just like every POST manufacturing city in this country, where there USE TO BE manufacturing but isn't. The labor Unions and there members have destroyed this country, we all have. we all think we are worth so much.

Wow, I think I was more shocked by the fact they steal from one yard and resell to another!

Scandalous but not as ripping off aluminum siding in broad daylight ! What a complete mess, I really truly hate it for anyone that lives in these neighborhoods !

the news is over dramatic. Yes it does happen, but it's the same in every city.