Detroit: City of Trees

[buildingsofdetroit]

In the 19th Century, Detroit was known as the City of Trees. It appears that much of the city lived up to that name well into the 1940s: http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/3/2...33090737_o.jpg

I know trees ain't cheap and take a while to grow, but just think how much better Detroit would look if we had those vistas instead of the barren, weed-choked overgrown lots that litter the city today. Shots like this make me an even bigger proponent of Greening of Detroit.

[Retroit]

I think a lot had to do with the Dutch Elm disease, which reached Detroit in 1950. I'm not sure why they planted so many trees of one species [[graceful arches over the streets?), but I'm sure an analogy could be made of Detroit putting all its eggs in another basket, which was also devastated [[auto industry).

[Lowell]

That was Highland Park's motto on on its limit signs. I don't think city limit signs even exist for Highland Park now, but they were blue with while letters.
Highland Park
City of Trees

[Neilr]

The landscaping of Lafayette Park was planed by Alfred Caldwell who worked in conjunction with Mies van der Rohe. What you are seeing in the google map photo is the upper story of honey locus trees. They are very sculptural and let in a beautiful dappled light.

Then below the honey locus, there's a mid-story of flowering crabs, plums, and lilacs, etc. Finally the lower story of hawthorn bushes shied the front yard areas from the parking lots and sidewalks.

55 years ago it was all planned out and planted. We continue to reap the benefits of Mies' and Caldwell's genius to this day.

Google Maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?source=i...08218&t=h&z=17


And from Bing Maps:

[Zimm]

detroit is now the city of ghetto palms, for whatever that's worth...

[MichMatters]

I think the Dutch Elm Disease, while a very big problem, is an excuse that allowed for the putting off of planting other trees. I don't believe Detroit was the only, or even the hardest hit city. One of the things I've always lamented was that the city never bothered paying any attention to aesthetics after it lost its Elms. One of the most stark visual aspects of the city is the lack of any type of regular greenery along its major streets. It really needs something to break up the street lights, tacky fast-food signs, and street lighting that makes the avenues appear like some cheap retail drag on the outskirts of a small town connected to a freeway. The city's remaining commercial strips are horrible. One of the first things you notice if you're not from here is how you can have these treeless, tacky commercial strips in the midst of beautiful, still tree-line residential neighborhoods.

[sumas]

The city did make an effort to reforest. Unfortunately, most trees planted were Ash.

My Dad was angry at people who didn't replant a tree. He would go and plant a tree for them. Mostly Maples.

When the city came thru last year to eliminate dead Ash, we talked to the supervisor. They voluntarily, trimmed all those Maples my Dad planted. Don't rat those guys out. They were suppost to eliminate dead blight but instead, they also trimmed up beautiful living trees. They did a great job of it too! My Dad would have loved it.

[sumas]

My street was lined with Elm. Every other year, the city would trim them. They were indeed beautiful. That arch of green was stunning.

I honor the mission of Greening of Detroit. Unfortunately, I think they have lost their focus.

[Meddle]

We had a mix of maple, oak and elm. The crews would come around with large truck mounted sprayers once a year spraying the elms. They'd set signs out a day or two before telling people not to park on the street.

Eventually all the elms went away.

[sumas]

Not all, just most.

[Zacha341]

Ah-yes! The good ole "die-hard" Tree-of-Heaven [[Ailanthus altissima). The tree with the stinky leaves that will grow on a roof of an abandoned building. It also loves alleys and spaces between houses [[abandoned or otherwise) unless you get after it. There's one near me nearly two stories high!

detroit is now the city of ghetto palms, for whatever that's worth...

[sumas]

Yes, that is one heck of a weed tree. Who named it the "tree of heaven"?

[Zacha341]

There is a poem written by Naomi Long Madgett [[Poet Laureate of Detroit) called "Tree of Life". Here's an excerpt:

Curse of the orchard,
Blemish on the land's fair countenance,
I have grown strong for strength denied, for struggle
In hostile woods. I keep alive by being the troublesome,
Indestructible
Stinkweed of truth.

[[Naomi Long Madgett [[b. 1923), African American poet. "Tree of Heaven," lines 13-18 [[1970).

Yes, that is one heck of a weed tree. Who named it the "tree of heaven"?

[Meddle]

Looks like the west side is still pretty heavily covered. East side too. City center, not so much.

[Zacha341]

Good point. Some areas still boast tree lined streets providing the canopy effect which is so nice. Then others are barren of trees... well except for the "tree of heaven/ hell/ life"

Looks like the west side is still pretty heavily covered. East side too. City center, not so much.

[Bearinabox]

That was Highland Park's motto on on its limit signs. I don't think city limit signs even exist for Highland Park now, but they were blue with while letters.
Highland Park
City of Trees

Is this the design you're referring to? There are other city limit signs in HP [[off the top of my head, there's one on Woodward heading south, one on Oakman heading east, and one on Oakland heading north), but those are simple white-on-green rectangles that say Highland Park City Limit. The one on Brush is the only one I know of with that design.

[jgavrile]

The original signs were like made of plywood with some countour at the top with a house roof and a bunch of trees and it sort of reminded me of a railroad crossing sign if I can remember correctly?? I think some of them said city of trees and some said clean streets and maybe some other slogan?? Some correct me if I am mistaken. Damm! I wish I had a picture now of the old signs

[jgavrile]

Highland Park truly was the City of Trees. They took great pride in the trees along the streets. they constantly were trimming them and they were spraying them, etc. All to no avail with the Dutch Elm disease. I remember when they came to cut down all the trees on my parents street ,sometime in the 60's, and my Mother was crying because it made the neighborhood look so bleak with the trees gone.She felt a great loss to have the trees gone.They came back and eventually planted different species of trees along the streets. A lot of Sycamore's , but they never looked the same. In the summer, with the Elms,it was like a cathedral of trees over the street when you drove down. They were really beautiful.

[szla]

The Greening of Detroit has done a more than admirable job as they are the forestry department of the city of Detroit. It is a 501c3 corporation and only recently have gotten permission to use the old Rouge Park nursery to plant smaller trees which will grow into larger trees at a much lower cost. They are a non profit.

Trees of Heaven i believe were named after a Michaelangelo painting of St Michael guarding the gates of heaven. They are presented as an arch in the painting.

CCS did a wonderful project with trees of heaven and benches at I think MOCAD?. They cut the trees, milled them and turned them into benches. They were surprising beautiful. The pictures and video are fun.

[menckensghost]

There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly...survives without sun, water, and seemingly earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.
—A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , Introduction

[Hornwrecker]

[RickBeall]

Wow, I can't believe how beautiful that arch of trees were!

[oladub]

Streetlights didn't illuminate sidewalks very well because of the elms. It didn't matter much though because the crime rate was negligible. Thanks for the comparison pictures. It reminded me of walking in the shade to E. Warren on a summmer day listening to cicadas.

[Patrick]

Looks like a cathedral of trees.

[MichMatters]

The Greening of Detroit has done a more than admirable job as they are the forestry department of the city of Detroit. It is a 501c3 corporation and only recently have gotten permission to use the old Rouge Park nursery to plant smaller trees which will grow into larger trees at a much lower cost. They are a non profit.

Trees of Heaven i believe were named after a Michaelangelo painting of St Michael guarding the gates of heaven. They are presented as an arch in the painting.

CCS did a wonderful project with trees of heaven and benches at I think MOCAD?. They cut the trees, milled them and turned them into benches. They were surprising beautiful. The pictures and video are fun.

Yes, I'm a fan of the Greening of Detroit, but there is only so much one small organization can do. And, you did mean that the GofD is the de facto forestry department, right?

BTW, did Detroit ever have a formal forestry department or was in Parks & Rec that did the trees? If it did, did it get folded into Parks & Rec.