Cabinet Position

I usually try to stay away from going back to the same place over and over again, but when a new one appears and it's this easy to get to, it inevitably happens... in the past two weeks I've been in this damn hospital four times. Ordinarily every time I explore gets its own page, but that would just get too repetitious, so here goes... TRIP 1 - January 31 I didn't think I'd even bother to go that night, one of my friends was taking his pledge class into the creepy old hospital. Now, these places don't get haunted…

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Groundhog Day (Again)

The subway seems like it always was and always will be here. It's been abandoned for 55 years now, and while a piece here and there gets filled in sometimes, it's unlikely to ever see another train, or really any reuse other than the de facto graffiti gallery it's become. Every year since 1994, the Concrete Discussion Group has come here on or near Groundhog day to explore the tunnel and eat Dinosaur Barbeque. This year was the 20th, and, I'm starting to think, last time we celebrate the eventual end of winter and start of another exploring season. There…

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These Hollowed Halls

Nothing too exciting, but it seems like forever since I've been exploring. Just another trip to old rotten Iola, that gets just that much older and rotten-er every year... and always manages to escape the next threat of demolition Someone tore down the centerpiece of the Map Room. If I had any way to bring it home it would probably be on my wall now! It's off...

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Flying Fish Hospital

Genesee Hospital closed in 2000, and most of it was either demolished into a vacant lot, or renovated into offices, medical and otherwise. One building in between escaped either fate, and is sitting there wide open. It seems there was some effort to scrap and demolish it already, as almost all signs of being a hospital are gone, but for the time being it's still that rarity of an accessible new building right in Rochester. At some point I need to go back here during the day but it just gets dark too damn early here... This "tunnel" is on…

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Housing Is A Human Right

Almost a year after Occupy Rochester fell apart, we're at it again! Marching to City Hall to address the problems with housing in this city, and let them know how defective of an institution it is. Did you know that Rochester has more abandoned, foreclosed or simply unoccupied houses, than it has ever had homeless people? What about that Rochester has slum lords, and the city does nothing about it, even though they hold onto abandoned and underutilized properties as investment, evict rent-paying tenants, and try to sell the houses for a profit? Or that it is illegal in parts…

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Chaote’s Lair

The former General/Veteran Foods factory is probably the place with the most dramatic, fastest decay I've ever seen. Through a combination of fire, water, vandals, mold and looting, it has gone from 'active' (occupied as a residence and studio by an eccentric art professor) as recently as 2009, to squatted in 2010, to abandoned in 2011, to thoroughly trashed in 2012. This is particularly shameful considering how much was left behind here, by the artist and the unknown past occupants; there was an entire library with a few thousand books, a collection of magazines and photo albums, furniture, toys, computer…

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