A selection of cuties seen at 2012 Detroit auto show.

Barely standing but still for sale, these one hundred left for dead houses in the economically ravaged city of Detroit are in desperate need of attention. Photographer and Detroit native Kevin Bauman took these photos over a ten-year period, and today the Mayor is offering homes for almost nothing, in order to reinvigorate the area. Time to move to Detroit?

In the late 19 century, Detroit had its own industrial revolution. Strategically located along the Great Lakes waterway, Detroit emerged as a transportation hub. In 1896, a thriving carriage trade prompted Henry Ford to build his first automobile in a rented workshop on Mack Avenue.
In 1903, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company and in 1913, Ford implemented a large-scale assembly line to manufacture the Model T automobile at his Highland Park plant. 
Detroit was even referred to as the Paris of the West for its architecture, and for Washington Boulevard, recently electrified by Thomas Edison.Ford's manufacturing—and those of automotive pioneers William C. Durant, the Dodge brothers, Packard, and Walter Chrysler—reinforced Detroit's status as the world's automotive capital.

Burned houses and ruins make about 40 % of the city of Detroit. There are over 33,000 unused or abandoned buildings here right now. Dave Bing, the Mayor of Detroit, is planning to demolish about 10,000 homes in the next three years. He got the money from the Federal Budget for this purpose. Actually, the economical level of life in this American city is not very high. The unemployment rate here is 50 %, according to Mr. Bing, while this number is approximately 10 % across the USA.