August 10, 1989 House Demolition, Part 2

2015.009.046 - detroithistorical.pastperfect...
U-Matic tape containing footage of the cleanup following the demolition of a house shown on tape 829 (2015.009.045), The tape begins with additional shots of the neighborhood, then the camera travels along with the trucks hauling the debris from the site along I-75 to the Wayne Disposal Incorporated landfill in Gibraltar, Michigan, before finally returns to the neighborhood for further shots.
The tape opens with the on-screen title "Demolition Footage Tapes 3 and 4." The interview with an unidentified man who lives adjacent to the blighted property continues from the previous tape. He explains that the building attracted "unsavory characters." There are several cuts in the recording of his interview, and the camera occasionally breaks away to capture other views of the neighborhood as he can be heard continuing to talk in the background. The segment ends as the sounds of heavy equipment drown out the voices of the man and the interviewer.
Next, the camera moves to the passenger seat of a moving dump truck, carrying debris from the demolition, and traveling along westbound I-75. The first shot occurs from before the Ferdinand Street pedestrian bridge and runs to the Livernois ramp, as the camera follows a passing Drakeford Incorporated dump truck traveling along the same route. The following shot begins with the dashboard and truck driver, before turning back toward the road and the other truck--the trucks are still traveling west on I-75, passing beneath the Waterman Street overpass. In subsequent a shot again beginning with the truck driver before panning to the road, the truck has proceeded to the stretch of I-75 above the Rouge River. A glimpse of the tanks of Marathon Petroleum's Detroit Refinery is captured in a shot out the window of the truck's mirrors. Next, the camera operator holds the camera out the window for some shots of the road including portions of the truck in the foreground. Back from within the cab, the camera captures the Drakeford truck through the window as it again passes near Dix Highway. Following shots shot the trucks near Northline Road, and eventually passing farmland.
Following brief gap in the recording, the footage resumes with the camera still in the passenger seat of the truck, but now stopped on a road near the "Welcome to Gibraltar" sign on the border of Gibraltar, Michigan. The trucks then continue along a two-lane rural residential road, and eventually into a rural area. Here the trucks turn into the Wayne Disposal Incorporated landfill. The drivers check in at a booth. The camera operator, now outside of the truck, films as the trucks empty the contents of their beds. where a bulldozer then pushes the debris into a pit. After several shots of the debris and trucks, the camera focuses on the Wayne Disposal Incorporated sign at the site.
The footage then returns to the original demolition site for scenes of the remaining rubble, other blighted properties, and of a bulldozer and dump truck smoothing over the lot with fill dirt. This section begins with footage of the rubble where the building's foundation was. A bulldozer is parked beside the pit. Subsequent shots, presumably in the vicinity of the demolition site show a two-story residential building missing its front steps, the rear of an apartment building viewed from across an alley, and the side of a brick residential building that appears to have been fire damaged leaving the wood beneath partially exposed. The bulldozer is featured next--first in a point of view shot from its driver's seat, then in a series of close-ups of its parts, and finally in footage of it in operation. Then a Drakeford trucks is shown approaching through the narrow alley behind the demolished home's lot, tagging a dumpster in the process. The truck maneuvers onto the lot, and deposits a bed-full of dirt, which the bulldozer then pushes into the hole where the foundation was. The camera briefly breaks from the work of the bulldozer to first show the truck leaving, and then a team of workers shoveling dirt which had spilled over onto the street and sidewalk. This recording ends following several additional minutes of footage of the bulldozer flattening the earth where the house previously stood.
Following the recording, a snippet of audio from "Detroit Means Business" remains, presumably from a prior recording.
The cassette is a UCA 3M 60 U-Matic tape with a hand written UCA label. The cassette is in a black plastic latching UCA 60 case. A hand written UCA label is on the front of the case. The case label shows the date "8-10-89".