I choose these towns at random, or I’m sent there by a matchbook or postcard. I’m not looking for despair.

But we do seem to have a lot of despair this year so far.

Well, perhaps that’s an outlier, and the town is really -

What in the wide world of sports is this

First of all, the spout. Couldn’t have it go straight down? Had to slash diagonally to meet the other? Second, what is that metal thing on the left, some sort of space-alien receiving gear? Or the remains of a dish, perhaps. Third, the pole in the middle, with the spot for flags, perhaps. Four, it’s all a wreck. Man.

The next pass of the google car took this. So it’s gone. You’re glad for everyone.

I have so many questions.

The great arch looks like it was a door for a big vehicle, like a fire truck, but it has that elevated sidewalk.

The whole thing is odd and off-putting.

Buffalo Billswest! It’s wild!

November 17, 1910! You know, November 17, 1910!

I’m starting to think everyone died and moved away.

Ah - looks as if there’s a before shot. The post-war downtown revitalizing sheet-metal facade sheathing.

OUMB, with those detached columns. Because columns mean bank and they mean security, but since we don’t believe in the old styles and forms anymore, we’ll give you ironic columns.

Big sheet metal facade next door.

And more sheet metal. Signs of a temporarily prosperous period in the post-war years, or an attempt to be one.

I repeat my stance against downtown murals.

Look at all the life and vitality and architectural charm that no longer exists! Gaze upon this weathered, abandoned picture!

Oh for GOD’S SAKE

Sometimes this modernization can bring a little pep and zest to an old downtown, but in this case it’s just hideous. The poor cornice was left intact, as if the building is drowning in kitsch but can keep its nose above water.

Rehab in progress, you hope:

Rehab in progress, you hope

Palimpsest, nearly every element unintelligible. Except possibly Coke.

Probably Coke. They were everywhere.

“Gimme a Bernadette Peters, everyone loves her”

Another example in my brief against murals. What if you just don’t like it, or think it’s very good? It just stays there for years annoying you. It’s always a jumble of “history” without context, old-timey things that are supposed to give you the nostalgia emotions, but rarely succeed.

The end point of modernity: having reached a perfect state, it can only decline and collapse. It cannot be refined or improved.

Looks as if they’re getting new sidewalks, though. That’ll do it. That and some planters.

See? Planters!

Annnnd I think that’s enough.