On Tuesday, May 27, several mainstream media outlets announced that major demolition of homes in Cashell Estates would take place beginning today, May 28. When mainstream media trucks showed up today, NO demolition took place, at least as of 3 PM.
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Channel 9 news just ran(at 11:20PM May 28) footage showing demolition of one of the three houses-unknown if this was done in the morning before other media trucks showed or on Friday before what appears to be the same machine "broke" and was "worked on" where it sat on a debris pile in a Washington Post photo from Friday
In addition, Audubon Naturalist Society protesters were shown on-site, presumably morning or noon. I was there about 3 PM and saw crews working only on that hill.
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As of now, it looks like three houses and a garage are down and the rest are still standing, protected by a mechanical failure or by a "mechanical failure" induced by media coverage.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post had run a story on how the "epidemic movie," ghost town aspect of Cashell Estates after eminent domain. In it, they claimed remaining residents are desperate to see the boarded-up, stolen homes demolished because of squatters and salvagers.
The Post is known to support the ICC, so "selective interviews" should not be ruled out. In the article, the Post showed an excavator sitting on a pile of debris that was once a family home-and the caption claimed it was BROKEN and being worked on as of Friday! Here's the thing-it is now Wednesday, and that excavator is STILL sitting on that same smashed debris pile-with no signs of any further mechanical repairs being attempted.
Is it really broken-or is the contractor's nerve broken instead, unwilling to smash down former family homes while TV cameras are rolling?
So far they have prevented any media outlet I have seen from getting a live-action shot of a house coming down under demolition. On Wednesday, May 28, ICC crews were using other, different equipment to work on the hill overlooking the Redland Road temporary bypass and ignoring the beseiged, abandoned homes of Cashell Estates altogether.
Perhaps ABC 7 and News Channel 8 have effectively put the monkeywrench to that supposedly broken excavator? I saw NO sign of the oil stains, scattered tools, open panels, and boxes of parts normally associated with mechanical repairs. At the very least you would think that if that machine was damaged by the house it was smashing it would have been towed off the pile by now so it could be repaired on flat ground and in the shade-not on unsteady ground in the full sun!
I have repaired many cars, bikes, and other mechanical things in my time and always when I have had to wait for parts I have left them as they were when the parts were ordered, so as to avoid additional reassembly and disassembly when they finally Do arrive. Besides, a call on Friday to Caterpiller(or whoever) could surely have put any moderate-side broken part on a plane to arrive by Saturday!
Immediately behind Cashell Estates is a beautiful patch of woods with an elegant but empty and doomed house standing in it-protected by a stream that cannot be put in culverts until July
Perhaps ABC 7 and News Channel 8 have effectively put the monkeywrench to that supposedly broken excavator? I saw NO sign of the oil stains, scattered tools, open panels, and boxes of parts normally associated with mechanical repairs. At the very least you would think that if that machine was damaged by the house it was smashing it would have been towed off the pile by now so in a culvert until July. Behind these woods is the community of Winter's Run, which will lose another home, two parcels of woods, and have their streets divided. After that, the ICC must dive into Rock Creek, and then cross open fields on its way to Muncaster Mill Road and a link-up with construction coming from Georgia Ave.
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I remain very curious about what happened Friday and today. Did supervisers order crews to finish the house they were on and then stop work each time media showed up? Were Friday's breakdown a hoax and the reassignment to bridge/hill work just another excuse to stop smashing homes before more news trucks could arrive?
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6:31Home Demolitionby bgreenbe1,417 views
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