Red Mark of Death

You mean all of Buffalo hasn't been condemned yet?

I went down to New Orleans after Katrina hit and they has similar x's on the houses. Look at the orange one here:

http://static.flickr.com/26/63784449_ac1b18e190.jpg

The top of the x means the date the national guard checked if anyone was still inside the house. The space at the right of the x means the initial of the guard who checked it. The bottom space means if they found anybody, dead or alive. And the left space is the code that they have for dangers in the house, like missing floors etc.

I think the purple x was made by the DEA...

Oops, I meant the left space is for the initials of the guard, and the right space was the code for dangers. The initials to the right are NE in the right, which means no entry...

Hey- just an FYI those marks are primarily for the fire dept to use. The number is the street address, the blank red box means it's vacant, so we know there's less likelyhood of anyone being inside minus squatters. One hash mark through the box means it's hazardous inside and use extreme caution- make entry only if necessary i.e. witnesses are reporting someone trapped inside. Two hashes or the "x" means that it's vacant, been emptied of anything of value and structurally extremely hazardous, and should not be entered at all. Basically that way we don't risk anyone's life searching a building that's verified vacant, and of no value to save; we can set up an exterior operation. The red box with "x" is also called an "A.G.O." which stood for "All Goodies Out" and was what the building inspectors in NYC used to use to inform squatters and vandals that there was nothing worth looting in vacant buildings that were dangerous to enter. Then the fire dept started using the above system as it became unified- at least in NY and NJ I'm not sure about the rest of the US.

Americans seem to have a very different attitude to houses than in the UK. Yours seem built to last a certain length of time and then you scrap them and start again.
The house I'm in now is the newest I've ever lived in, and it's nearly forty years old. The others I've lived in range from 1950s, through 1930s back to 1850s. They're all still standing and no one has any plans to flatten them and start again.
I guess it means you don't get stuck with a housing stock that has poor insulation and is difficult to fit modern stuff into.

That seems to depend alot on where in the country you are. I've also never lived in a house built after 1950, but I'm in New York and in an area where architectural preservation appreciated. I'd imagine that if you go down to somewhere like Texas, where land is cheaper and there's alot of sprawl and tract development, the houses would seem not to be intended to last as long.

Some Americans are more appreciative of old architecture than others. I read of one couple who went to great lengths to restore an older bungalow to its former glory, only to have watch the next owners knock it down to build something else.

Seriously this is dorky compared to the "X" marks on homes. Check out the episode of Jericho that mentions them. Pretty heavy. Echhhh, somewhere in the first season, but I can't find which one.

Anyway the whole series is streamed on the CBS website to watch for free.

skip, we tend to destroy things in the US more often than in other countries, is true. We simply have far too many people trying to make a fast buck. (Wall St mess is very good example) The cities are run to the ground, crime everywhere, run down homes, and no one seems to see it for years. Then when they do take notice, it's tear it down! Demo must be biggest business here!
Tell Mayor Brown to save everyone the trouble of living in the shadow of a former great city...when you get that dozer ready for the aud just keep going until you see Niagara County!

Skipweasel, many of the houses in the US built after 1950 are not as sturdy as very old houses. I just left a house built in 1923 for a house built in 1905. Both are extremely well constructed, and will probably last another hundred years.

After the second World War, builders developed new methods for constructing modern affordable homes quickly for returning servicemen who started families and pursued the American Dream. Some of those will last a long time, many won't.

Painted with goat's blood. Very biblical. It makes me want to punch a reverend.

Part of the problem is the color coding program started in 1937 by the US gov that went to somewhere mid 60's. It created MASSIVE disinvestment in cities and concentrated poverty. Between that, the highway system and cars available to such a large percentage of the US population, the US policies that favored new builds over fixing up existing housing, and the way we pay for schools that creates horrible ones in inner cities (areas of the most disinvestment over the last many decades) that bars people with children who have options and would WANT to live in urban areas from doing so...we've spent a long time taking many US cities apart. With predictable results.