Detroit as a massive botanical garden city

[canuck]

I was stinking about all the talk of urban gardening and the garden city concept of which Detroit was an exponent in the late nineteenth century. Anyways, it seems that with the vast amount of mature treed lots, the city could redesign large swaths of its territory for farming but also botanical gardening as an added attraction. Imagine a large bike and pedestrian circuit with pavilions for food and refreshments for a good part of the year. The center of Detroit's region would be an oasis of sorts if the car culture were to take a sidestep and give way to the garden city. Since botanical work, the caring of flowers, shrubs and trees is labor intensive, and the city is overwhelmed by the cost of this, it would make sense to invest in relatively large portions of the city's vacant lots for this purpose. Beyond the touristic attraction, some fields could serve for production and sale of flowers and shrubs. This would also provide training, employment, and resources for [[budding?) horticulturalists. Some crops could yield benefits by helping to decontaminate the land just short of heavy metals and or chemicals such as pcb's.

As was mentioned in another thread, disused auto and other plants with large glazing could be transformed into greenhouses.

I noticed that there are a lot of great resource centers to help apply this on a vast scale such as the Matthei botanical gardens of UofM, the Belle Isle Botanical Society, the Cranbrook House and Gardens, the Fisher mansion in greater Detroit. There is the WJ Beal BG and Horticultural Demonstration Gardens in East Lansing at MSU. We could axe Whitehouse to send a few tulip bulbs from beautiful Holland. I could send some dandelion seeds which I have a lot of. Would they spread?

[stasu1213]

The mayor tell us that the city will is going green. He would probably give the vacated land to the corporations once all of the people had deserted it.

[Gistok]

I see one major problems with botanical gardens.... they need to be "gated" or fenced in at night. The Belle Isle Botanical Gardens next to the Anna Scripts Whitcombe Conservatory have their 9 foot tall wrought iron gates [[and fences) closed at 5PM every evening.

My late mother who lived near Balduck Park on the far east side had hanging basket stolen two years in a row hanging from her front porch. And some brazen thief stole the Geraniums from the cement planter boxes across the street from her... the planter boxes were too heavy... so the thief just stole the Geraniums right out of them.

I wonder if Cub has had much thievery in his Georgia Street farming endeavor... but unprotected floral gardens would likely be a target for thieves.... [[they'd make a great selling item for panhandlers at Detroit Freeway exits...)

[n7hn]

I Like the idea. If nothing else something park like while areas are in transition. I think people would be attracted to a city less dense than most with almost a in the country feel. Detroit more than any city could really be in a prime position for this type of experiment. Shoot Make it a reality show to generate funding. Court corporate sponsorship from home improvement , green industries, sh*t, call HGTV. Look what they did w their NY urban Oasis... Imagine what could be done for the same $'s in detroit. A multi arce palace in the city Im sure.

[mwilbert]

If I were making up stuff to have in Detroit, I would like to see an arboretum. It doesn't require as close supervision as a botanical garden, but it is a cool thing to have, and quite educational. However, there is nothing that doesn't require maintenance, so unless some groups stepped forward to make this happen, I don't see how to afford it.

It is important to remember that we are talking about a city that can't maintain Belle Isle at anything more than a barely acceptable level of cleanliness, much less maintain plantings.

[fryar]

Yeah, this would have to be privately funded/maintained.

[canuck]

[QUOTE=Gistok;189416]I see one major problems with botanical gardens.... they need to be "gated" or fenced in at night. The Belle Isle Botanical Gardens next to the Anna Scripts Whitcombe Conservatory have their 9 foot tall wrought iron gates [[and fences) closed at 5PM every evening.

That's my experience of Botanical Gardens too. But I think we can get past that problem of poaching if the city's garden offer is vast enough that people are [[dog forbid) blasé about it. If enough people are enlisted in the effort of building a horticultural city, then by touching most everybody the renewed sense of Detroit's worth as a garden city would curtail the vandalism and loss of property to some degree. I wouldnt think of it in terms of perfection but rather in terms of enhancement. When someone has a stake in the process, there is less chance of that person committing misdeeds.

The planning stages for something like this are important but the labor is very intense. I'm sure the urban gardeners in Detroit would wish for a bigger impetus from institutions around their efforts. This would definitely help the economy by providing much needed employment at reasonable wages and there are few more satisfying health promoting jobs than working the land.
Young people need to know that there is more to what politicians and business folk peddle as the green economy than the sloganeering.

N7hn, there is this thread on TED about Majora Carter who initiated rehab of a shoreline in the Bronx, cleaning the old industrial wasteland into a great park. She aIso has a lot to say about racial disparities in terms of environmental welfare.

I also just found this info on Montreal's two term ex-mayor Pierre Bourque who used to direct our city's botanical gardens. He is now directing a project in Quijing, in China's Yunan province which is described as an Agrifood Technopark, the 21st century's largest exhibition grounds for agricultural production. They are planting a million trees and millions of plowers on this 6 square kilometer site. They also will eliminate non-bio degradable elements like geotextile membranes for more sustainable equipment. This is the beginning of a project to transform the desertified province of Yunan and replace tobacco with other crops. I only found a french article on the web for this.

[fryar]

That's a big bet on civic pride in the new park/whatever. If Belle Isle may be taken as a proxy, there have been lots of comments on here about it being litter-strewn. Not a perfect proxy at all, but it raises concerns that you would need some kind of an unarmed patrol, and lights for night-time bike riding or whatever, in order to undermine the scrapping of the park, if you will.

I, too, would be interested in the experience of the GSCC in this regard, as a proxy. We'll see if somebody from there "tunes into" this thread.

I do like the idea.

Can we off-load the costs onto somebody else [[pardon the bluntness, but Detroit's broke) by making it a state or national park? A big ole arc around much of Detroit, intersected by a few main thoroughfares and a couple of interstates, possibly. It certainly can include a botanical garden or some urban farming stuff, why not? One benefit, beyond the availability of a nice park, may be that you create a situation akin to that in Portland, where the urban area could not grow, geographically, due to legislation protecting the farm land next door.

PR-wise, one would have to be careful not to let people twist this into the tired old city-vs-suburb antagonisms. I realize I'm twisting your idea into an arc around Detroit, but once you "shrink" the city, maybe that's what you do with the newfound territory.

[canuck]

Fryar,

Actually I think this is one area where antagonism between city and suburbs is less likely to grow. I am thinking of this in conjunction to the urban farming project. The urban farming is certainly more debatable in terms of ownership and investment, in relation to vacancy and appropriate use of eminent domain, and of course the corporate vs citizen issue. The botanical garden on a massive scale integrating elements of urban agriculture on different sized lots may be less problematic because it might entail a more complex structure. I mean if you are trying to instigate farming on all available lots, there are many laws and ownership and service and sanitation issues to deal with. You can balance some farming with botanical exhibition grounds on many lots of the city much faster and with fewer rules impeding development. Specialists could organize soil sampling on designated lots citywide, and decide on a course of action to decontaminate via some crops, revitalize via others depending on quality. Existing parks would receive more material resources from organized plantings, etc... It seems that the transition toward a rebuilt Detroit would be easier and more pleasant with a horticultural environment to complement it. Eventually, the offer would include shuttling for tourists to themed parks scattered around the city; chinese, japanese, italian, english, and first nations gardens. Mexicantown could use a massive greenhouse to provide jalapenos and specialty produce. There would be a number of produce markets distributed across the city with Eastern Market as the HQ for instance... Major universities would seek funding for research and implement within Detroit's wards.

It is less costly to replant a garden that needs expropriation than to purchase, demolish or move an existing building.

[fryar]

It sounds like a great idea.

[Gistok]

If rip-off artists knew how expensive large Hosta's are... the boulevards of metro Detroit would be stripped of them... but then again... there's not exactly a black market for them....

A large fancy type Hosta with a 3 foot spread can sell easily for $200 at Bordines.

Japanese Maples get dug up occasionally from metro Detroit homes... not to mention the disappearance of the occasional Christimas... errr I mean.... Pine Tree...

[canuck]

Yup; These japanese maples are pretty expensive too.

Of course I'm wrong when I say that gardens are cheaper to dismantle than houses. It depends on the size of trees if there are trees to be uprooted and taken somewhere else but let's say some gardens on corner lots where there used to be a gas station or such and later developments include filling a block with businesses like Mexicantown business people want to do on Vernor principally. There may be legal mechanisms whereby property owners of vacant commercial lots can contribute to tax revenue in two or three year increments in exchange for using properties that lay fallow so to speak. A third or fourth year would be redeemed by the city and if ever the property owner develops the property, he pays for the cost of a garden transplant or at least part of it. This technicality would be used in specific areas to foster neighborhood beautification and spur business development on street level.

[Hypestyles]

I'd support this. I just hope that the more cynical elements among some city leaders/activists come around to supporting this, folks who normally are monomaniacally focused on "civil rights" to such an extent that they can't see improving on arboreal/park/agriculture resources in the city would have an impact on jobs and education locally.

[canuck]

Hypestyles,

Yes, and I think that decent wages, not huge but OK wages could be had by folks like the WPA in FDR's tenure. I think that city workers and their unions would have very little argument to stand in the way of this if the work is massive and needs contracting out.

The benefits are manifold for the city and citizens;

-Employment rises by one point at least; 9000 workers out of a 900,000 population.
Multiplier effect on employment is also relatively high. Let's say that 2 points overall would be conservative.

-Employees would be subject to the same prospective benefits according to skills such as
experience in heavy machinery operation.

-Both the city and citizenry would profit from the loop afforded by employment, tax revenue and a garden city on a vast scale.

-Gardening is an occupation that is most often unpaid. There are more unprofessional gardeners in the world than those who make a living at it. There is a pool of people who have the interest but limited knowledge and would gain form working at it. There is another pool of very knowledgeable amateurs with skills to impart and who want to get involved. Therefore, you can count on a mass of volunteers who are now overwhelmed by the task but would be encouraged by a massive project to contribute more.

-A stadium brings people together in one place, one or two sports are played in it plus the odd concert. The tickets are often too expensive for a family to buy in the inner city. The cost of Ford Field cost taxpayers 51% of 430million dollars when it was built.

-In contrast to a stadium, money spent on a botanical project designed to include all parts of the city would therefore benefit citizens in a direct way.

-Programs to give folks compost twice a year for home gardens. This would be generated from a composting retrieval system that brings compostable waste from homes to the city station. This city station stores and accelerates decomposition and uses this compost for city gardens and homeowners. We have this service in our city and I take advantage of it.

-Property values are low as it stands and there are plenty of people looking for potential changes in the city. A visual transformation over a couple of years would improve investment potential. Even well tended trees will look better in wintertime. More treeplanting of hardy species, some underutilized, some for seasonal color variation, this can make a huge difference in how people look at their city. Young people will get to know a Detroit that is more visually cohesive like their parents or grandparents knew.

-Detroit is lucky to have a brand-name. It can get the help to realize this but also the new kinds of industry that will come around. The turnaround in Detroit is inevitable, and the investment will come about precisely because investors will want to transform the negative branding for profit.