Welome to Re-Greening Detroit
Source
This site is dedicated to Re-Greening and Urban Restoration Projects that are currently underway in the City of Detroit, Michigan. The Motor City presents a truly unique “area of urban opportunity” in which to undertake these worthwhile endeavors. Due to decades of population decline and the contraction of the American automobile industry, Detroit currently has more vacant land than any other city in the nation except post-Katrina New Orleans. It is estimated that 40 of the city's 139-square miles are vacant. That vacant land is nearly the size of San Francisco (47-square miles) or Boston (48-square miles). As of June 2009, nearly 20% of all Detroit addresses were vacant (Source).
It is highly unlikely that Detroit’s population will ever reach its peak levels again, yet the city’s geographic boundaries will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. While this situation is tragic, it also offers Detroiters an outstanding chance to reclaim (re-green) large areas of their city. I first became aware of re-Greening movement that was happening in Detroit while reading a recent Time Magazine article: “Detroit Tries to Get on a Road to Renewal”. This article described how small, grass-roots community groups were clearing vacant land and transforming former eyesores into vibrant community gardens. Detroiters currently have a unique opportunity to re-green large swaths of abandoned property by transforming them into community gardens and farms. This transformation is already well underway. There are currently more than 800 community gardens and farms (the most of any U.S. city) within the City of Detroit with many more planned for the near future. After a few days of using The Google to research the subject on the interwebs, I developed a sense that there was something truly remarkable happening in Motown. Coincidently, this new movement would make a perfect topic for a class project on urban landscapes. With my curiosity raised and a class project due in August, I decided to take a trip down I-94 to my hometown and visit a few of these gardens. On July 22nd I drove into the city to visit and photograph three re-greening projects:
* Georgia Street Community Garden
* North Cass Community Garden
* Romanowski Community Farm & Garden
I was inspired by what I saw and the people I spoke with. Resident caretakers and neighbors all took an obvious sense of pride in their community’s gardens. This was apparent by the way that they had been meticulously maintained. Everyone I met wanted to tell me about their garden or about which other ones I should visit in the area. In several cases, I had to cut-short my conversations so that I could get all three in before dark. I intend to visit more of these sites on my next visit back to “The D” and highly encourage you to do the same if you ever visit the area.
I hope this movement continues to grow in Detroit - This is a great thing for a city that has been so severely battered over the past half century.
Note: You can find more images of my Detroit visit in the Gallery Pages - KRS
