Imagining Detroit (Replacing uban decay with farms)

New York Times ^ | May 17, 2011 | MARK BITTMAN

[Brad from Tennessee]

Detroit was once called the Paris of the West, but at this point it’s more reminiscent of Venice. Like Venice, its demise has been imminent for some time, as crucial businesses and huge chunks of the population flee. * * * * Imagine blocks that once boasted 30 houses, now with three; imagine hundreds of such blocks. Imagine the green space created by the city’s heartbreaking but intelligent policy of removing burnt-out or fallen-down houses. Now look at the corner of one such street, where a young man who has used the city’s “adopt-a-lot” program (it costs nothing) to establish an orchard, a garden and a would-be community center on three lots, one with a standing house. (The land, like many of the gardens, belongs to the city and is “leased” for a year at a time. But no one seems especially concerned about the city repossessing.)A young man who adopts eight lots and has bought another three has an operation that grows every year and trains eager young people. A Capuchin monastery operates gardens spanning 24 lots. . .

(more at link)

[King Moonracer]

They could grow medicinal marijuana and poppies, since they are experts at using the produce.

[mvpel]

But, when folks stand up and actually DO something, when folks TRY to achieve and create, why do some folks feel the need to deride and mock?

When you are a medieval serf who achieves and creates on your master's estate, what have you really achieved and created? Nothing that can endure for longer than the whim of the corrupt feudal lord will permit.

Let just one of these farms become a thriving, profitable concern and let's just see how quickly the city's corrupt thieving bureaucrats revoke or encumber the "lease" on the land.

[count-your-change]

Let me tell you a story, one that should make any person who laments the high price of groceries cry from pain in the wallet.

My niece and her husband managed a huge citrus grove in the Southwest and I had the good fortune to be visiting when the oranges and grapefruit and lemons were ready to pick.
The husband, I’ll call him Joe< took me to field and told one the workers to pick a bushel of each fruit for me at no cost.
Was he stealing from the owner? No. Would he accept a token payment? Most certainly NO! Why?
Because the entire crop down to the very last lemon, orange and grapefruit most perfect was going to be left to rot.

I couldn’t believe it! But yes. Thousands of bushels of perfectly good fruit would drop to the ground and be left to rot AND it was illegal to give it away of sell it.

The owner had a quota and it was a very good year and what was on the trees was over quota. Let it rot. And it did.

So I dare say as long the growers in Detroit remain an insignificant novelty they’ll be left alone, if they actually start to accomplish something......well you said it just right.

Kafka couldn’t design a worse system of agricultural production.

[mvpel]

Looks like they’re only permitting rainbow and unicorn comments on the article - my comment is still awaiting moderation.

[bert]

The land has suffered from precipitation of industrial pollutants and the crops will be unfit to eat.

Like the salt poured on the Carthaginian ruins, precipitated pollutants have made the land that is Detroit unfit for humans for decades to come.

[Betis70]

>>I’ll love it even more if the gardens/orchards/farms are operated as private enterprises, rather than collectives. Yes, profit generating entities.

I hope so too. I like working on my garden and can see how it would teach younger urban people a lot of great values—you need to put in the preparation, remain vigilant against pests, and in the end you get a great tasting product which you can hopefully sell for a profit. Preparation, persistence, hard work.

[cripplecreek]

Sounds to me like the only thing that will be grown in Detroit is a need for billions of dollars in soil restoration money.

Those of us who live in Michigan know just how stupid this is. The state is covered with farmland now.

[nascarnation]

70+ year old houses, with lead paint, asbestos, all sorts of metals

Funny how so many of us who grew up and worked in places loaded with this "deadly" stuff are well into our 70s and 80s.

[cripplecreek]

The land has suffered from precipitation of industrial pollutants and the crops will be unfit to eat.

The people pushing this stupidity know damn well what they're doing. They don't intend to see any earned income from crops. The federal money they well get for soil restoration is where the real money is.

[Roninf5-1]

Detroit was once called the Paris of the West

Much more than that Detroit was once the wealthiest, most culturally dynamic Middle-class city in history. Its citizens were the best compensated workers in the world producing the best quality, most advanced products in the world. It was the industrial heart of America and in order to takedown America the Globalist had to destroy it.

They used a two prong attack. First they transferred the industry to Red China through a combination of onerous regulations and taxes, outrageous demands by the labor unions they control, and through subsidies and tax breaks to Corporations to move their operations.

Second the Globalists made it illegal for decent citizens to impose the values and standards of Western civilization upon the Communist agitated African-American population. Expecting blacks to act civilized and then punishing them when they didn't suddenly became "racist" and as we all know being a racist is worse than being a murderer or rapist. In addition to this license to go wild LBJ's Great Society federally subsidized the breakdown of Africa-American family and social cohesion. The result was that all the decent people, the ones that worked to build and make the city what it were practically forced to flee for their lives. Detroit was gone.

The Globalists have destroyed Detroit more thoroughly than they could have with an atomic bomb. No matter how much money is poured in there decent people can't and won't live there. There are no jobs and its current denizens are of an alien, uncivilized, violent culture. The Globalists are doing to all of America what they did to Detroit.

Hiroshima after the bomb

Hiroshima today

[Nowhere Man]

Recovering Detroit would require a 50 KT city buster ignition.

No one is willing to waste a good device there... Cost/benefit analysis and whatnot.

I an so evil in spirit that I welcome my death.

Reminds me of the old SimCity scenario where you have 10 years to get Detroit's crime under control. I tried everything but failed so I got mad and set the whole city, except for a small area, on fire. I then bulldozed all fire departments and police in the area to save cash. I had one smoking hellhole where many people left but the game said that I won since I brought down the crime rate. I told my father about it, we had a good laugh and he said, "I guess the Janet Reno approach does work." B-) BTW, that also reminds me of where the Mayor of Philly (Goode IIRC) use a firebomb to burn down the MOVE headquarters back in 1985.

[gimme1ibertee]

Poppies and pot plants.....:)

[Colofornian]

LDS Prophets warn us of the dangers facing America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehD390q9G3k

Isn't this "hijacking" a News/Activist thread about Detroit for pro Mormon purposes?

Is it only citing a Jack Mormon commenting that Harmon Killebrew was also a Jack Mormon worthy of removal from News/Activist threads? At least that comment was indeed pertinent to Harmon Killebrew. But pro Mormon comments that have nothing to do with the thread actually are retained on News/Activist threads?

[steve8714]

Cherries, apples, potatoes, hemp?

[Proud_USA_Republican]

The point I was trying to make wasn’t that you can’t farm in the state of Michigan. There are farms all over there.

But what I was getting at is that the soil is soo polluted, even in the areas were homes resided, to turn it into safe farm land would be a very expensive and longterm undertaking. Just burying everything under a few feet of soil isn’t going to fix this.

And don’t even get me started on the Detriot river/West coast Lake Erie situation. Shorefronts, beaches, and still large portions of the lake are still “no go” zones. Not so long ago, a large portion of the lake was considered “dead” and unable to support any aquatic life.

And while the 2001 establishment of the Detriot River Wildlife Refuge has helped, about the only thing it’s done is land acquisitions and basic garbage cleanup on the coastlines and islands around there so far. With soo much of the industry around there now shutdown, some wildlife is returning, but the man based and mother nature based cleanup would take decades.

While I think a longterm vision of turning this area into tree and plant farms is one of the better ideas, it will take deacades of careful planning to see started.

[ridesthemiles]

Toxic ground does NOT make a farm or garden....Never.

[magslinger]

MIping

If you wish to be added to or removed from the Michigan ping list, please post or FReepmail me.

[cripplecreek]

While I think a longterm vision of turning this area into tree and plant farms is one of the better ideas, it will take deacades of careful planning to see started.

That's a far more sensible idea.

[netmilsmom]

I worked at BP America then. Downtown was safe and a p;easure to work in.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Tree plantations.]

Interesting idea. I like black walnut. It takes decades but is worth it.

There's also a market for ornamental plants, trees and shrubbery for landscaping.