Wow that was a gap....

Dear friends,

My apologies for the failure to update this blog.  The demands of making a living intervened in my intentions to return to Johannesburg to update the pictures...

However, I will get to this task in due course. I ask you for patience . . .

The Real Realist

Hooray! An Update Coming Soon!

Readers will be happy to hear that, after a hiatus of many years, an update to this blog is coming. We'll see what 7 or 8 years difference has made . . . . Stay tuned!

Updates to Site

Well, here I am, logged in again to this site after nearly a year. I was prompted to log in after finally remembering my password to my gmail account, and to my great surprise, found hundreds of emails waiting there for me, going back months and months.

If you have written to me, my apologies. I am going through all the emails and will answer each one in due course.

Amongst the emails I found a batch from some crank at IDASA, with a batch of pictures mainly from the lower Fox Street end of Johannesburg, near the old Anglo-American head office. With these pictures he was trying to persuade me that the city was actually wonderful and I was just a liar etc. etc.

Well, as anyone who is familiar with Johannesburg knows, of course the part of the city around the AAC offices and lower Fox Street is almost (but not quite) the same as it always was.

In fact, one could actually say that the whole city used to look a bit like that.

The fact that private enterprise has managed to more or less keep that one section like it was, merely emphasises the mess of the rest of the city!

Anyway, the one valuable thing that my IDASA crank friend did send me, was a picture of a 'rescued' building in Marshall Street. This, he said, was proof that the city was being rejuvenated.

My original picture looked like this: (taken in 2006)

According to my IDASA friend, the same corner now looks like this: a cheap restaurant, which nonetheless has a coat of paint:

Now I thought, let's give credit where credit is due, that is an improvement, even if that is a 'restaurant' in which I would not want to eat.

But then to my astonishment, the very next picture my IDASA friend sent me was this one, which is the building right next to the 'refurbished' eatery. You can see the end of the 'restaurant':

Oh dear, it seems as if the slum was not quite eradicated after all! Tough luck, IDASA sock-puppet, try again next time! Still, thanks for the effort.

These pictures above, by the way, should be clickable through to larger size and better definition. I will soon be starting to replace the pictures on the rest of the site in the same way, so that those of you who want better definition pictures will be able to get them without having to email me.

My apologies for taking so long in getting all your (hundreds and hundreds) of comments approved. They are all now done.

I intend to fully update this site with new pictures in 2009, so keep checking back!

Announcement

Hello Folks.
Sitting comfortably in exile, I have been away from this dashboard for a while. When I looked in, there were another few hundred comments waiting to be put up.
Amongst them were several requests for high quality images of these pictures, and requests to use them.
The answer is sure -- just email me at realistenator @ gmail.com and I will see what I can do.

I would like to do an update on the images (that is, if the electricity stays on in Jo'burg long enough to recharge my camera batteries) the next time I visit. Anyone who wants, in the meantime, to take any pictures and send them to me at the above email address, please do so and I will post them.

New Galleries Added!

Dear Readers

I have just added a whole batch of new images to this blog. There are far too many to fit on one page, as I have done till now, so I have split them up into their own pages.
Please visit them -- you won't be dissappointed -- and each page as a link back to this "Death of Johannesburg" Main Page so you can navigate back here and and have a look at the next set.

The new gallaries are:

Three Castles Building, Marshall Street
http://dojthreecastles.blogspot.com/

A Drive Down Anderson Street
http://dojanderson.blogspot.com/

The Cartlon Hotel
http://dojcarltonhotel.blogspot.com/

The View from the Gauteng Legislature
http://dojgauleg.blogspot.com

A Drive Down Jeppe Street
http://dojjeppestreet.blogspot.com/

The Johannesburg Bus Depot
http://dojbusdepot.blogspot.com

The Jewish Museum, The Great Synagogue and OK Bazaars
http://dojjewish.blogspot.com

Joubert Park – Then and Now
http://dojjouubertpark.blogspot.com/

A Drive Down Marshall Street
http://dojmarshallstreet.blogspot.com

Oppenheimer Park: The Vanishing Springbuck
http://dojoppenheimerpark.blogspot.com/

A Drive Down Troye Street
http://dojtroyestreet.blogspot.com

Death of Johannesburg – Eloff Street and Others
http://dojeloffstreet.blogspot.com

Von Wielligh Street and Others
http://dojvonwielligh.blogspot.com/

Comments back, Moderation in Place

Comments have been reactivated, but moderation back in place. Bear with me while I wade through everything and try and pull out the ones that have crossed the line.

This is What Remains of the Wits Drill Hall….

When the Queen of England visited South Africa in 1947, the official reception for her was held at the Wits Drill Hall, 95 Anderson Street.

For decades, the Wits Drill Hall was a famous venue and even a tourist attraction in central Johannesburg.

Councillor Carol Milner, Ward 66, City of Joburg has sent me the following pictures and commentary: "95 Anderson Str, Joburg CBD has been like this for a at least a year. We have told the Council and told us that they will be using it for Emergency Services but it's still standing (or barely)."

Welcome to Bree Street, Johannesburg, Where Gold (Used) to Lie in the Street, Now, it's Just Rubbish

Bree Street is one of the main thoroughfares running through the city centre of Johannesburg, from east to west. It runs right through the CBD, and used to be one of the major economic centres, as well as being a residential area.

Today, as you can see, it is a slum, another shattered, filthy, ruined monument to the "New South Africa." Pictures courtesy of MZ, who made this hell run down Bree Street. Thanks MZ - send more (and that goes for any reader anywhere else as well).

Comments

Greetings readers.
I have been asked a few times now what my idea is with setting comments to moderation status, instead of allowing a free for all.
There are three basic reasons:
1. I want to keep racial epithets out of it. You can refer to race as much as you want, but there is no need to resort to racial epithets -- it lowers your argument level.
2. Please don't try and advertise web sites in your posts. It's not that I don't like anybody else's site, it's just that it's a dangerous precedent to set, and opens up all sorts of problems further down the line, when things appear on web sites over which I have no control.
3. Don't insult me. It's my blog, and I won't allow it, as simple as that. You can say I am wrong, whatever, but your post instantly goes down the drain if you resort to insults. You can resubmit without the insult if you want.
If there are any comments which have made it through which go against these rules, let me know. I have tried to catch all of them, but there are now nearly 1,000 and I may have missed some.