Wednesday, April 10, 2013I don't think so, not if the best I can do is mow the lawn and grow tomatoes. Tomatoes are really easy; all I have to do is weed, water, and get out of the way. Instead of writing about my mediocre attempts at gardening, I'll discuss a local publication's efforts to promote green efforts to improve Detroit.
Do you have a green thumb?
This month, HOUR Detroit features six articles describing progress Toward a Leaner, Greener Detroit. The introduction points out two important ideas that appear to contradict themselves, although they complement each other. First, the article notes that vacant land is simultaneously the city's biggest liability and biggest asset. It also observes that the efforts to address this paradox come mostly from individuals, businesses, and volunteer groups while city government watches from the sidelines.
While gridlock grips the halls populated by elected officials, progress grinds on largely because of the efforts of neighborhood block clubs, nonprofit organizations, private businesses, and everyday Detroiters laying claim to their own destinies. Thanks to the Detroit Future City plan, this patchwork of doers now has a unified vision to work toward.Follow over the jump for a guide to the other five articles that detail this vision and the people trying to make it come to life.
Part of the vision relies on turning the land — plagued today by high vacancy and blight — into the asset that it can become with a little imagination and a lot of sweat. Noting the inefficiency of the single-family homes that Detroit is known for, with their expensive, “over-scaled” infrastructures, the framework imagines a city of more diverse housing in “a canvas of green”: open green space, urban woodlands, ponds, streams, and urban farms and gardens. Naturally flowering meadows could eventually give way to forests. The plan envisions productive landscapes that clean the soil and air and help alleviate storm-water runoff, lessening the burden on Detroit’s aging sewer system. “Green buffers” of trees would hug the major highways, decreasing noise and traffic pollution to the surrounding neighborhoods.
