Empty house with boarded windows and boarded doors...

I explored the downtown area today in hope of better understanding it. The area that I was at is an area that fill with homeless shelters and ministries of some sorts. It is a pretty poor area of the city, situated just on the skirt of downtown. Where it is not right inside the city where rent is high and also not far enough away from downtown to be call suburb. It caught between the decision of living in downtown or far away from it by people with means and capitals. The people who got caught, as the word "caught" can defines their situation: they were forced to be where they are with their limited means and capitals.

I walked down this quiet street in the area even though it was such a sunny, beautiful day. Half the houses are empty with boarded windows and boarded doors. It was a street with a queer atmosphere to it. I continued to walk and explore the street and its queerness. A couple of the abandoned houses can be access from the outside with a broken door. It is broken, dark and smelly inside. I came across a man walking by and I asked him politely the reason for all these abandoned house. He told me that it is because the city government been buying out those houses so that they can build more fancy condos and apartments. In my head I wondered to myself,"If this in between place of the city and the suburb is going to be developed and become a part of the city, where the people who have no choices but to live there, where will they go? Where can they go if this in-between-place is gone?" I could not formulate an answer then and there. So i left with a heavy heart and a troubling minds.

I took one last look down this queer street and I cannot help but felt a bit lonely for myself as well for those houses and the lives that they contain. Suddenly, the sun shine of Africa once again seem so kind and inviting. I miss you, Africa.

Here is some pictures of those lonely building in its surrounding:

 

The part that we turn to let the water flows is taken away, to prevent farther usage?

Here is some pictures of an interior of an abandoned house. I was able to go in because the back door to the basement was broken.