Abandonment

[Mark Mandel]

Google claims about 239000 hits for "abandonments". Among the first hundred,
I found these 10 relevant (numbered added for reference). Eight clearly use
the word "abandonment" in a concrete sense, "abandoned building or site",
especially as an object of photography or exploration. #s 5 and 8 show
possible semantic drift from the abstract to the concrete.

#2 is the website Philip originally referenced. #3, from the same website,
has "hide plain site" for "hide in plain sight", maybe an eggcorn.

#5 is mostly in the sense of "act of abandoning", as are most of the hits,
but the clause "road right-of-way abandonments that contain utility
facilities ..." edges toward a reference to the property or space being
abandoned. #8 has a similar drift.

And #10 defines "urbex", which appears on some of the weburbanist.com pages.



1 www.flickr.com/groups/urbanexploration/

2 weburbanist.com/category/abandonments/

3
http://weburbanist.com/2007/09/15/urbex-camouflage-disguising-or-hiding-during-urban-explorations/
The ability to hide plain site can be a real advantage when exploring urban
abandonments.

4 http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561887660hCcPCm

5
http://www.yolocounty.org/org/PPW/planning/General_Documents/apps/Road%20abandonment.pdf
For public utility abandonments, or road right-of-way abandonments that
contain utility facilities, County
staff recommend that the applicant contact all special districts and public
utilities that have an interest in
the easement/right-of-way and obtain a letter from them stating that they do
not object to the
abandonment.

6 http://www.metafilter.com/65265/Urban-Abandonments

7 www.livejournal.com/interests.bml?int=abandonments

8 http://www.mixonsite.com/filltunnels.htm
MixOnSite - Cellular Concrete, Grouting, Underpinning, Tieback & Earth
Retention Specialists
The deterioration of a structure or pipeline abandoned in place (without
filling) may lead to ground subsidence. Ground subsidence creates the
potential for water erosion, may impact the future land use and pose a
safety hazard. It is extremely important these lines or structures be filled
if they are located beneath a road, railway or other areas sensitive to
subsidence.

9 http://www.roadgypsy.com/photo_gallery_ghost_towns_by_bike.htm

10 www.answers.com/topic/urban-exploration
[CONTENT FROM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration]
Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the
normally unseen or off-limits parts of human civilization. Urban exploration
is also commonly referred to as infiltration, although some people consider
infiltration to be more closely associated with the exploration of active or
inhabited sites. In the USA, it may also be referred to as "draining" (when
exploring drains) "urban spelunking", and "urban caving", "vadding",
"trolling", "building hacking", "reality hacking" or "roof and tunnel
hacking".
...
Abandonments
Ventures into abandoned structures are perhaps the most common example of
urban exploration. Abandoned sites are generally entered first by locals,
and often sport large amounts of graffiti and acts of vandalism.

Mark Mandel

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