Detroit Can Create Gardens of Good or Evil
Randal Charlton, Executive Director
Good or evil: which will Detroit choose?
City planners owe Detroiters an answer, a roadmap to future.In my limited experience, seduction is infinitely more attractive means of achieving ones goal than the use of brute force. I was reminded of the power of seduction as an instrument of urban planning by my friend and colleague Judy Johncox who recently visited the mysteriously romantic and historic city of Savannah, Georgia.
Judy Johncox - Director of Business Services
She returned to Detroit to remind me of the stories of oddball characters, intrigue, murder and mystery that were contained in the best-selling book set in Savannah called Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Those stories that involved the mysterious death of at least one character were set against a background of a city undergoing a carefully planned rebirth.
Apparently Savannah’s urban planners used gardens a time when the city was showing signed of wear and tear. The grand old houses were falling down, neighborhoods were disintegrating and Savannah, like Detroit was a facing a crisis. So the city planners created a series of small green squares and made houses close by attractive to buy.Developers were drawn to the magnet of beautiful gardens and moved in to restore and renovate the properties on the edge of the greenery.
Maybe Detroit’s city planners should take a trip to Savannah. There is talk of contracting the city and forcibly moving some home dweller from blighted areas where few homes remain occupied and therefore an ability to deliver essential services at more reasonable cost.
The city could repeat the Savannah experiment and create a series of gardens and buy houses bordering them. Some houses could be bought for the express purpose of providing low cost housing to those in blighted areas. I suspect the effect on the community might be infinity more positive than using force through eminent domain or cutting off trash collection and others services. Detroit has no choice but to replan the city.
How the city goes about the process could be seen as good or evil.
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I agree wholeheartedly that Detroit needs to replan the city. The “replan” needs to include several components and beautiful gardens is certainly a positive step to make an attractive Environment. There are infrastructure changes that need to be made also in the areas of Energy, Education, and Economics (i.e. jobs).
I believe the “replan” also needs to include:
– how Detroit will provide energy for itself (new green DC microgrids using renewable energy sources),
– a plan to feed it’s people (I like the urban farming model that’s been proposed),
– a robust education module for it’s people to better prepare for financial downsizing (personal budgeting to live within new lower levels of income); ditto for businesses
– create new and exciting jobs in the process of building these new industries (leveraging the TechTown entrepreneur model).
I believe we need to focus on Individuals, Businesses and the Community. All three are imperative to a successful rebirth of Detroit.
Mike Kastler
“Remember the cartoon, the Jetsons, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon created in the fifties and sixties, to depict the future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLOBkkvwie8 George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, Rosie the robot servant, Mr. Spacely drove Flying cars, used Video Phones and moving sidewalks to shuttle them from place to place.
The Jetson Age is the 21st century depicted by the Jetson cartoon. We are now living in that Jetson Age. People have had a fascination with robots for over 100year. Te robotic theme has propelled many successful products.
Before the City picks up one project it must determine where it is going and what theme and focus it will have. I am suggesting the Jetson Age theme, especially since the Auto industry is unconsciously driving the Jetson Age Revolution. Case in point. Chevy Volt with Android oriented remote
I see Detroit as the next Green City. We have 4 beautiful seasons. Our land is nutrient, especially for native plants. Not to mention cleanest water surround by 4 great lakes. Not too many states have access to clean water from your tap. I envision children riding bikes to schools. Families gardening in urban communities, residents embracing a sustainable community adapting energy efficient lifestyles. Homeowners and renters are having homes weatherized to keep keep air out, and control moisture. I smell the clean air already. Come on Detroiters lets, “Rise From The Ashes.”
Last month, I visited the Sarasota Florida area. One of the places that I visited there was St. Armands Circle on Lido Key. St. Armands Circle is an area with many lovely gardens accented with beautiful sculptures and artwork. The most compelling part of St. Armands cirlce is the story behind it. It was inspired by a vision of John Ringling of Ringling Brother’s Circus. He had a vision which foresaw a people-friendly place of broad boulevards, beautiful homes, classical statues, lush landscaping, shops and restaurants, with a central park for musical performances. The area was founded on what he called the ‘Seven Virtues of Sarasota’. In the circle that are also tributes to the Circus performers of the past. It was all seeded by a vision. It sound like it was similar to the vision that someone had for Savannah described in the ‘Garden of Good and Evil’ article. I have never been to Savannah, but St. Armands Circle was, to me, a real life example of how the beatification of a city was a sound strategy for economic growth.
Last weekend, a group of us visited one of Detroit’s abandoned neighborhoods. It was disturbing to see what was once a quaint neighborhood street, had fallen into total disrepair. It made me think ‘how can the people around here have so little concern for their neighborhood’. Then I realized that I was one of those people. I too had done little to improve my surrounding area. I realized that, with my lack of involvement, the plight of the city was just as much my responsibility as anyone else’s.
What has happened in the city of Detroit is reflection on the entire metropolitan area and it will take the entire metro area’s involvement to improve it. What Detroit really needs is a vision for the future. A vision similar to the one they had in Sarasota and in Savannah. Creating energy and economic infrastructures, education modules, new green technology jobs, etc. is too big of an idea for most people to get their head around. But working on a garden is something that everyone can do.
After our visit to the city, the few of us agreed to get involved in improving the city. We chose one of the abandoned lots nearby and set up a plot for flowers. We took some perennials from our gardens and planted them there. We christened the place ‘Harwell Park’ in memory of one of Detroit’s local heroes, Ernie Harwell. We agreed to return each week and try to gather additional help to fix up the garden with hope that maybe it will spark a broader effort. We want it to be a place of with beautiful flower and vegetable gardens with paths and benches and statues and sculptures. We want it to be a place where people in the community can come to work together and help each other. We imagined how it would be if there were several of these beautiful gardens around the city; that it would be something that would attract people to the area.
After we started our garden, we agreed, that even if our vision never materializes, just the simple act of planting those flowers made us feel that we contributed something lasting toward improving the city. Perhaps this simple virtue is all this city really needs. I believe that if it can begin with a community garden, the rest will grow from there.
“Yet a tree broader than a man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
A dam greater than a river can overflow starts with a clod of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
‘ Lao Tzu