Watched this BBC documentary today, it was an interesting take on the rise and fall of Detroit. But it was so much more than that.

The ending was kind of upbeat. The city has plans to tear down about 30,000 abandoned houses and the hope is that all those unemployed people will become urban gardeners and start bartering.

This could be the future for many of us, not just people who live in Detroit.


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This was an interesting documentary. Thanks for posting it, as it reminds me that infrastructurewise, whither Detroit goes, so goes the country. If we can remake the city in a greening experiment, so can anyplace.

There was an article in the Detroit Free Press last week about this vigorous older woman in the D, not too far from where I've often thought a good size urban farm should be put up, who cadges vacant properties after their buildings are bulldozed and farms them. She just asks the city if she can homestead the acreages "temporarily," and whether from intransigence of bureaucracy or from a real desire to see good things happen where there is a wasteland, the people in Detroit's building authority just say, "OK, ma'am" and let her do it. She gives away to neighbors or shelters whatever of her harvest she doesn't consume, and insists on neighbors sending over their kids to help her work the farm, you know, to keep them out of trouble. I'm thinking of going over there to help her out this summer. And if not there, then one of the many such projects springing up all over Detroit. An old timer told me recently, 20 years, and it'll look like when the coureurs des bois first came upon the land in Indian days . . .

You two women are so intelligent. I'm constantly
amazed at the depth of the people posting at these Forums....WY

Shoot Tam, make sure you call me up when you go and my crew will be there with spades and hoes girl! We're not very far away and what I wouldn't give to see Detroit wearing a different face. This is the fruit belt after all, let's make it fruitful!

wow there is so much scrap there its staggering to the mind ...looking at all those huge buildings and the millions of bricks and metal ... whew .. hope some of it gets reclaimed that would be amazing!

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist