Bright Sun Films 'Abandoned - Unfinished Bloomfield Park,' a tale of the real estate crash and Great Recession

After watching Bright Sun Films video about Redbox's bankruptcy and the decline of the DVD, I decided to check out more of Jake William's videos to see what else was worth watching and, boy, did I find one: Abandoned - Unfinished Bloomfield Park.

The 2008 recession halted construction projects around North America, some of which would never get going again. The Bloomfield Park, master planned community was one such project. It began as a dream to bring New Urbanism to Michigan and build a spectacular, multi billion community. But following a legal and financial mess, the project was put on hold and would ultimately fall into disrepair. Join me today as we look into this fascinating, failed construction project and what happened to it!

I drove past the decaying white elephant of Bloomfield Park twice a month during 2015-2017 when I attended union local meetings and merely thought it was an abandoned shopping center. I knew it was abandoned after the real estate crash and Great Recession, but I didn't know any of the rest of the history that Jake presented. If I had, I wouldn't have merely marveled at the waste, which was already apparent at the time, but alternated between anger and despair at what could have been but never would be — a New Urbanist community in Oakland County. What a lost opportunity! Even a lifestyle center, which Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty derides as a "heinous land use," would have been an improvement. Sigh. At least the land got redeveloped, even if it wasn't into something nearly as inspiring as the original plan.

I'll get to CityNerd and his thoughts about urbanism some other time. Right now I am thanking Jake for teaching me about a formerly abandoned place in my own backyard. It's always a good day when I learn something new and I learned a lot from this video. I hope my readers agree.