all over this wasteland

Today, I’m doing one of those “so cool I can’t talk about it” projects, but before I go offline for several hours, I wanted to share this awesome link I came across while looking for stories to Propel:

Photos from the “Aborted Suburb” in Florida:

Founded in the 1960s, Rotonda Sands is about a mile in diameter and packed with golf courses and modest vacation homes -or at least, about 3/4 of its pie-shaped volume is. The rest is an undeveloped wasteland of half-completed houses and empty streets, documented in this creepy photo essay.

I love pictures like this from our modern day ghost towns. If you have some of your own, link them in comments and maybe I’ll do an update/roundup later today, when I get back from the “so cool I can’t talk about it” project.

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27 thoughts on “all over this wasteland”

  2. Ooh, “..can’t talk about it..” projects are the best.
    Have fun, break legs, etc., and we’ll wait patiently to hear all about it when you get back.
    #205

  3. I hope your new hush hush project is paramount issuing special edition dvds of select ST:TNG eps with you personally re-recording your lines only with snarky comments at the end.
    “What’s that captain? You want me to help calibrate teh tractor beam? Yeah well fuck you. I’ve got some bitches to teabag.”

  4. I’ve spent hours at Opacity.us viewing this urban explorer’s gorgeous photos of a ton of wonderful abandoned places around the world. Also makes great Ficlet inspiration 🙂

  5. I love these photos. There’s this old factory near our village. They used to make bricks in there, there’s still the big oven where they burnt them. We used to sneak in there as kids, I even once stepped into that oven and looked up through the chimney. They are starting to tear it down now, as it has gotten more dangerous (especially with the high chimney becoming instable). I always plan on going back to take pictures, but I can’t get myself to finally do it.
    Anyways http://www.abandoned-places.com is a site I enjoyed a lot. It’s Europe only as far as I can see, but there are some incredibly great pictures in there. I am fascinated by the Buda Marly set in particular.
    Thanks to everyone for sharing those links I never saw this abandoned satelite thing in Maryland. Incredible.

  6. I love photos like these as well. Forgotten NY is a great NYC specific place to get great abandoned/old photos and info, and there is also a great livejournal community called AbandonedPlaces.
    My favs have to be the pics of Chernobyl, but I lost the link…

  9. creepyabandonedchichis.blogspot.com
    A blog about errr… creepy abandoned ChiChi’s (The restaurant, not the euphemism)

  12. I used to live in Englewood — the town a bit north and west of Rotonda.
    The main road (776) that goes past Rotonda is to the north, so nobody ever sees the southern part of the development — good thing, eh? And the rest of Rotonda is excellent. Very good prices and pretty nice (if cookie cutter), but then again, it’s Florida.
    All over Charlotte county there are aborted developments. Gateways to subdivisions that never were, etc. In fact, down the main road I previously mentioned there are side roads to subdivisions with maybe 20 houses in 10 square miles.
    It gets better — they paved the county in a grid system, but didn’t lay down any utilities. Brilliant, eh? So there are people living 10 minutes away from any major roadways that have electricity and nothing else in the way of utilities. No cable, no city water, no nothing. And there are many, many roads that haven’t been maintained that go NOWHERE.
    I’ll have to try and get some pics.
    See you at PAX08.
    [ENFORCER] Nathaniel
    PC Freeplay Manager

  16. About 15 years ago I visited Beverly Shores, IN in the wintertime. I’d never seen a more desolate, lonely place in my life. My aunt wanted to take me there because many of the houses from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair were placed there and most had seen better days, if not outright ruin. I gather that now they are renovating many of them so the ruins may not be there any more, and that’s a good thing. But I remember the snow, and the silence, and the futuristic houses of doom…creepy! And the deer gangs that had taken over every yard were weird too. Deer that weren’t the least bit afraid of you and that traveled in great big herds through yards…that was for sure like something out of a movie.
    A quick glance doesn’t show me any good sites with pictures but this link has a few, including the “House of Tomorrow” which excited a lot of attention with its all-electric kitchen and dishwasher: http://www.northwestindiana.com/traveler_fair_homes.htm

  17. About 15 years ago I visited Beverly Shores, IN in the wintertime. I’d never seen a more desolate, lonely place in my life. My aunt wanted to take me there because many of the houses from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair were placed there and most had seen better days, if not outright ruin. I gather that now they are renovating many of them so the ruins may not be there any more, and that’s a good thing. But I remember the snow, and the silence, and the futuristic houses of doom…creepy! And the deer gangs that had taken over every yard were weird too. Deer that weren’t the least bit afraid of you and that traveled in great big herds through yards…that was for sure like something out of a movie.
    A quick glance doesn’t show me any good sites with pictures but this link has a few, including the “House of Tomorrow” which excited a lot of attention with its all-electric kitchen and dishwasher: http://www.northwestindiana.com/traveler_fair_homes.htm

  18. Wil. Holy shit.
    You’ve probably seen this already, but there’s some chance you haven’t, so I felt it necessary to show you.
    http://startrekofgodsandmen.net/
    AND IT’S ACTUALLY GOOD. I SWEAR TO GOD.
    Tim Russ! Nichelle Nichols! Walter Koenig! A host of other awesome Trek actors!
    Check it out. I’m RIVETED.

  19. Now, that’s just nifty. And I think we’re going to see alot more of this in the near future, thanks to the edge of collapse we seem to be teetering on.
    I live near State College, PA (Go PSU!), which has been undergoing quite the boom in the last few years. Working as an insulator, I saw quite a bit of the construction in the area, all of it expensive, and a good chunk of it shoddy. But, at that point, the homes were selling like crazy.
    Now, I bet, not so much. With the jarring reversal of the home market trend, and the obviously-impending market retreat to come, alot of the construction that was planned, and some that will start, will be halted as well.
    Pre-planned communities will suddenly become like this south Florida suburb, and the Central PA wildlife will be given the chance to take over again. Nittany Lions indeed!
    Something neat to look forward to as we move closer to calling The Great Depression the “Minor Inconvenience Compared To This Manic Depressive State The Bush Administration Has Put Us In TYVM KTHXBAI.” At least we’ll have a plethora of modern-day ghost towns to try and market to tourists, if anyone has any money left to spend on tourism at all…

  21. Heaven and Hell, I know them well
    But I haven’t yet made my choice
    I’m feeling dead ’cause I’m shouting loud
    And no one can hear my voice
    Walking the tightwire, can’t look down
    Strung out high, above you all
    Fateful wind blows through this land
    Howls my name, heralds my fall
    Mission U.K. Rulez!

  22. In case you haven’t heard, home foreclosures are littering the nation. Nevada being the #1 state of foreclosures and mortgage defaults in the US.
    There are parts of Clark County (surrounding Las Vegas), where dozens of newly built homes sit vacant.
    I know of two community golf courses that were intended to be supported by HOA fees, which now sit closed, dry, and essentially abandoned with few legally occupied homes in the area.
    An interesting underground society has developed around these abandoned communities.
    A legion of squatters, junkies, and mentally destitute souls have descended upon these “luxury homes”. Once an envisioned utopia, now an abandoned paradise for lost souls.
    The hired security chump readily turns a blind eye at the land that buyers forgot, not to mention the shady happenings that he witnesses on a daily basis. Would you confront these people for the generous $15/hr pay, with a recently expired can of pepper spray and a plastic Security badge endorsed by Ronald McDonald? Me neither.

  23. In case you haven’t heard, home foreclosures are littering the nation. Nevada being the #1 state of foreclosures and mortgage defaults in the US.
    There are parts of Clark County (surrounding Las Vegas), where dozens of newly built homes sit vacant.
    I know of two community golf courses that were intended to be supported by HOA fees, which now sit closed, dry, and essentially abandoned with few legally occupied homes in the area.
    An interesting underground society has developed around these abandoned communities.
    A legion of squatters, junkies, and mentally destitute souls have descended upon these “luxury homes”. Once an envisioned utopia, now an abandoned paradise for lost souls.
    The hired security chump readily turns a blind eye at the land that buyers forgot, not to mention the shady happenings that he witnesses on a daily basis. Would you confront these people for the generous $15/hr pay, with a recently expired can of pepper spray and a plastic Security badge endorsed by Ronald McDonald? Me neither.

  24. Urban decay can be scary and beautiful all at once. As a South Floridian. I see a lot of places that look this way. But I’ve seen creepier photos. I happen to collect 3D photography and someone recently created Unseen Ellis Island. They photographed the still decaying parts of the island and made it into 3D Viewmaster reels. (http://www.3dstereo.com/viewmaster/vbp-1956.html) These things are absolutely amazing! If anyone’s interested in learning more about collecting 3D, just let me know ([email protected])

  25. It’s amazing what you can find in the way of urban decay if you look around. I’ve located two such places in Boca Raton, Florida of all places. The first, which I named Post Apocalyptic Boca Raton, was almost completely overgrown except for a few streets and a couple of foundations left (and by now, as actually been developed into high-density town homes). The second location used to be Africa USA, a highly popular theme park in the 60s, but the Floridian Serengeti is now Floridian Condominiums. And yet, there are still a few more remnents of parks past in South Florida.

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