I have found that if you dig into the 'American Dream' a little you find a few interesting things.
If you dig below the surface, only by a foot or so, you start to discover a different view of the city. In this area the houses we're taken apart and the scrap materials transported away to a landfill. In other districts the houses were simply collapsed in on themselves, you can tell where they once were due to the slump in the ground. Dig down a little (as I have been doing on a few farms and even here in the Hostel grounds) and you start to play archaeologist. Like Time Team but in Detroit, and only going back a decade or two. So far I have have found a floral shirt, three amputee toy soliders, a pair of glasses, many roof tiles, a wheel trim, a door matt and a door knob.
Detroit was purpose built to be the automotive car capital of the USA and for it's 2 million and expanding population, nowadays it's only got a population of 600,000 and that's still shrinking. When you walk around Cork Town it feels like the countryside, it feels like those southern countryside setting for Hollywood films, feels a bit like Snaith(?). Lack of houses, grown over pavements, no cars on the road and no street lighting.
To me it seems the community gardens and farms that exist here, have been established for 2 main reasons either as a way of being sustainable as a city population or a fair citywide community, in this broken down shell of a state capital.
The first lot: those farming in order to achieve a level of sustainability; have become aware that they cannot expect their city or its authorities to look after the place. That things they expect to be in place (public transport, road maintenance, police and such) are not. For these Farmers, it's a case of preparing for a change when the USA is no longer the top dog- putting in place a serious plan for long term sustainability.
The second lot: they seem to be about social justice, mainly for the African American community that are resident here. In the basic essence providing for the poor, those left in the wake of Detroits collapse finding that they are struggling to be able to afford food and those who have found themselves homeless. In he long term they seek to create a new American society based on racial equailty in the void that has been created here. They look to reinvest all the money within Detoit, by supporting local businesses and public schools. To rebuild Detroit both in finance and in structure, and by doing so create a better place to live. Certainly in their eyes this idealised city would be a better place than Detroit was in it's hay day, if not just for racial equailty and all round social justice.
Both groups of urban farmers have found themselves in an City croppers paradise here, a lack of police and overworked city officials means that they have large swathes of freedom to do as they please. While the hefty decrease in population means that many acres of land has become spare, has no use and no plans, this has allowed them to expand gardens as far as possible. It's the freedom and the land that seems to be attracting new people to the city too. For those already resident here, they hope that these new residents (buying cheap real estate and land for a $1) share the same ideals for Detroit as them.
As a tourist here, I can see that the further you dig into the American dream the more truely fucked up it looks to me. People are abandoned here by the actions of others seeking the best for themselves, justifying such moves with ease. When they are unable to get their way- they take it to the Supreme Court and demand demand it's against the Constitution. Here, people seem to move themselves forwards without a care for those below. There is no caring state here, not like we know it. No one looks after you here if/when you find yourself in trouble. Well, no one is paid to anyway, Government will not pay for your care.
However, those who live here all look after each other and even me since I've arrived. Lesha from the Black Food Security Network and D-town Farm has called me to see if I'm ok and says to call her if ever I need anything. Meanwhile, Greg from Brother Nature Farms delivered me Tea (proper tea) to the hostel on Sunday morning- which in my hungover state was really appreciated. On Friday I sat round a bonfire at his farm and ate watermelon- I am very much enjoying the country life in a deserted automotive city.
