Abandoned Schools In Detroit

 "What Abandoned Schools Can Teach Us" by Matthew Christopher is an article ostensibly about why public school systems are shrinking (although the author doesn't mention the most obvious cause which is that fewer people are having children, and those that do generally try to live outside decaying urban zones). But the author has illustrated the article with photographs he took in the 2000s and early 2010s of a few of the schools that had been abandoned in the Detroit area. I have included a couple he took of the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, but he also includes a few photographs showing scenes from the Thomas Edison High School and Schenley High School.

    From the perspective of a survivor of a SHTF event encountering this or a similar building, you will note that, notwithstanding the many windows, there is actually very little to be seen of the interior of the school from the outside. Someone standing inside, several feet back from a window would be invisible to someone outside looking at the building. Similarly there is a lot of foliage that could obscure anyone on the ground level. But the parking lot makes a large open area: anyone approaching on foot would have to cover that to approach the building.

    Inside, there is a mixture of light and deep shadow. The long corridor presents the possibility of encountering someone at a relatively long distance, if they are at the end of the hallway, or someone popping out of a doorway at much shorter distances.And who knows what--or who--might be in a locker.