Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Abandoned Fall-Out Shelter


Wonderful old brick warehouse, somewhere on Marin near the Hoboken border, past the Holland Tunnel entrance. Abandoned of course, probably waiting to be redeveloped into over-priced condos. God forbid we use it as a warehouse again, or a factory, you know, an actual economic enterprise that could employee people at decent wages. I suppose that’s an outmoded idea. The fallout shelter sign. You wonder how old the building is, but I also thought about how old that sign was, when that designation was determined. Was this building active during 9-11. Did civil authorities know about this building during that dark morning when the only certainty was we were under-attack? Is it still a fall-out shelter? It’s a forgotten stretch of wasteland over that way, North of the entrance to NYC, right before you’re in Hoboken proper. The cup of soda from a fast food franchise. I wonder if thoughts of cold war paranoia or the elimination of the industrial infrastructure of our economy ever crossed the mind of the person who drank a soda at this fallow building. Abandoned Fall-Out Shelter..maybe only for now.

4 comments: