Buffalo, Then and Now (1902-2011)

Time has not served Buffalo well since. Fighting rapid population loss and economic stagnation, the city’s attempts to revitalize itself have resulted in swaths of surface parking and clusters of vapid office towers that impede on its radial street grid. We pulled sections from this 1902 map via the Library of Congress and compared it to current satellite imagery to see just how much has changed.

[Source: The Atlantic Cities]

Sadly, too many parking lots.

The Ghosts of World War II’s Past

Ghost of World Wars

Taking old World War II photos, Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov carefully photoshopped them over more recent shots to make the past come alive. Not only do we get to experience places like Prague, Vienna, and Moscow in ways we could have never imagined, more importantly, we are able to appreciate our shared history in a whole new and unbelievably meaningful way.

[Source: My Modern Metropolis] Excellent juxtaposition of images of structures from the World War era and present day.

Environmental Contamination at Kingston, TN

The extent of the spillage of an estimated 1 billion gallons of sludge containing years’ of waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-burning power plant over an area of 300 acres cannot be better described than these pictures taken by Dorothy Griffith.

The entire region is a brownfield and I wonder how many years, resources, and money will it take to clean it all up. I wonder if anyone will be held accountable.