Being an unabashed fan of abandoned buildings, ghost towns and the middle of nowhere (a preoccupation evidenced by recent blogs), I was fascinated to discover that significant chunks of some Detroit neighborhoods have been more than just abandoned thanks to urban blight and suburban flight; they’re being reclaimed by nature and slowly turning back into fields and forests. Excerpts from Detroitblog:
Whole neighorhood blocks cleared of houses by arson and bulldozers have reverted to urban prairies, visible in satellite photos as unusually large green patches in the middle of the inner city. Sidewalks vanish beneath creeping grasses, while aluminum fences between homes become entwined with the branches of dozens of saplings growing as high as the droopy utility wires. Animals normally scared out to the perimeter of the exurban rural areas are wandering back, sometimes finding more greenspace in parts of the city than they do in the increasingly developed parts of the exurbs like northern Macomb County.
It’s gotten to the point that various groups over the years have floated the ideas of turning some of the empty lots around the city into small farming plots for neighborhood residents to farm, reminiscent of Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree’s program that turned city plots into potato farms to feed the hungry in the 1890s. Abandoned industrial sites like the Fisher Body 21 plant, the Studebaker plant, the Continental Aluminum plant and the Detroit Screw Works plant have been overrun by trees growing through walls and roofs, impervious to the chemicals and toxins left behind.
“Roving packs of wild dogs”
Probably the most visible wildlife in the city are the roving packs of wild dogs in Detroit neighborhoods. Groups of usually four to seven dogs, each litter progressively wilder and stranger-looking than their predecessors, roam through even well-kept neighborhoods, occasionally making the news when they attack someone, usually children or mail carriers.
“Post-apocalyptic”
The State Fair neighborhood has all sorts of different, unique pockets, but the common characteristic of the area remains the eerie, spreading countryside that replaced what was long ago a stable residential neighborhood, where people could walk to stores and restaurants and churches in safety and comfort. Today, the neighborhood is post-apocalyptic, having passed through the worst standard stages of neighborhood decline: falling housing values, longtime residents moving to the suburbs, crumbling properties converted to rentals, a growth of criminal activity, abandonment by anyone who can afford to leave, and finally the disappearance of the houses themselves.
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Work brings me to Southeast Michigan fairly often and I always marvel at what a hellhole Detroit has become.
As near as I can tell, it is the ONLY major North American city that has no “rich people residential zone” within the city proper. Sure, there are plenty of well-to-do communities in the suburbs, but (correct me if I’m wrong) there aren’t any “loaded people live here” city neighborhoods. Compare this with New York, Chicago, etc., each of which have some very exclusive residential areas.
One year I happened to be in town for Devil’s Night (October 30th). We called this “Mischief Night” where I grew up in NJ. There, people would toilet paper houses or adorn them with shaving cream. In Detoit, the houses get BURNED DOWN. On the news that night were helicopter shots showing DOZENS of torched buildings all over the city, glowing all at once.
Anyhow, it’s all a shame because plenty of the old homes in Detroit were quite grand and desirable in their day… Quite sad.
posted by Jim on 3-20-2007 at 2:50 pm
Living about an hour from Detroit, I get chances to go there more than I would care for. But it’s a real shame that most of the city is going to hell because of all the cash given away to pretty up the area around Ford Field for last year’s super bowl. It really does look nice, but once you get away from that area….and no matter where you go, homeless people. Sad
posted by Undeniable Liberal on 3-20-2007 at 5:46 pm
There are indeed a few very exclusive neighborhoods within Detroit, but they’re very small. And there’s always the Grosse Pointes, which aren’t “part” of Detroit but might as well be. There’s plenty of money there.
Luckily, Devil’s Night hasn’t been a problem for a few years now, thanks to stepped up patrols. That said, Detroit certainly still has more than its share of problems. (We lived in a nice, safe corner of the city for seven years until 2000, by which time it had stopped being nice and safe, forcing us to retreat to the suburbs.)
I was reading in the paper a couple days ago that houses — NICE houses within Detroit — are being auctioned for $25K or so, or less than the price of a new car, because nobody wants them. It’s an absolute shame.
Detroit is actually becoming what a lot of other cities have: what I call a “doughnut.” A central area (downtown) of revitalization, an active suburban area on the outside, and then a doughnut-shaped mass of blight in-between.
posted by Sandy on 3-20-2007 at 8:59 pm
Whenever I hear people talking about Detroit I have to bring up the origins of techno music in that city in the 80′s. The music that came out of (and continues to come out of) that “hellhole” has changed all music that is made nowadays in a major way. I think Detroit’s modern primitivism has everything to the tone of most electronic music today, and I think reflects all of America’s, even the world’s, conflict between technology and dirt.
posted by ron chin on 7-16-2007 at 2:43 pm
It truly is a shame that what was once a great city is now a vast wasteland. I remember growing up and listening to ‘Mowtown’ music with ‘Hitsville USA’ and how great it was. What strikes me more than anything now is that even when you had the racial strife back in the 60′s there was always hope that things would get better someday. Someday has come and there is no hope; only a quiet dispair and pity from those looking in on the remnants.
posted by douglas lloyd on 7-17-2007 at 10:34 am
Being a music fanatic, I have vivid fantasies about Detroit being an adventurous melting pot of races, organisms and robotics. Reading these stories of a deteriorating post-apocalyptic wasteland, only puts more oil on my imaginary fires. Should I stay or should I go? Maybe it’s time for me to travel to technocity/motown and see what it’s all about. Maybe I should buy a crumbling building and a piece of wasteland there, and try to model it to my fantasy. Maybe more people could follow. Maybe we could build a city again.
posted by yusef haen on 7-27-2007 at 1:57 am
The most incredibly strange thing is the marked difference you see the moment you cross the border into Canada. Though separated by no more than 300 yards of (disgusting) water, Windsor has managed to retain its beauty in Detroit’s decline.
To be honest though, some of the best times of my life were in those terrifying neighborhoods near C.C.S. and the Detroit Institute for the Arts. If you can get past the walk from the car, there is still an amazing music and arts community in the city. St. Andrews Hall will forever be the venue against which all other venues are measured for me.
posted by nathan on 3-25-2008 at 9:21 am
It’s all too easy to sit back and pass judgement. I moved to Detroit from Portland Oregon in order to get away from the yuppie-psedu-ecofriendly attitudes of people that have now over taken that NW city. It is hard living here but its worth it of course it isn’t for everyone. It takes a sort person that doesn’t mind working hard for things that some cities take for granted. Ther are lots of good things happening here there is a very vibrant grassroots urban farming network, a prominent art scene, and a very alive music scene. The only true green city DETROIT. Check out Detroit arcadia in Harpers mag.
posted by denis rochac on 4-6-2008 at 3:02 pm
Detroit is a huge hellhole, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just plain ignornat or not really in-touch with what is happening there. Re-gentrification that has happened in other cities will not happen here because the local governmnet is too liberal and too easily swayed by welfare dependant population. The schools are a mess and with no improvement in sight to fix them, there is no taxbase because a majority of the population that live in the city limits of Detroit are below poverty. The crime is outrageous. The only suburb close enough for anyone of middle class to consider without an hour-long commute from the safer neighborhoods is the Grosse Pointes area, where the police strongly patrol what is commonly called “the border” to Detroit. Don’t be fooled by the mentions of great cultural centers in Detroit (above), every city has them. Detroit makes Camden NJ and Gary Ind look like Beverly Hills. Sure there are bad sections of every town, take Cleveland for example, its near east side is pretty bad, maybe about 30 blocks worth, and at the same time there is a revitalization effort going on. In Detroit and Highland Park? The blight is everywhere, collapsed homes, abandon factories, burned out apartment buildings..at every single turn. There is no escape from it, everywhere you turn there are people loitering, shooting menacing looks, homeless sleeping in doorways and under bridges. I have lived here for many years and it’s only hope is a large fire and displace it’s current residents. It is a shame that so much good architecture has fallen into neglect or engulfed by the cancer of the welfare nation, but let it serve as a warning to other cities. Detroit is dying a slow and agonizing death. Only the welfare assisted black population that lives there can tun it around…so don’t count on it.
posted by Frank on 2-22-2010 at 12:49 pm