I know this shot is not much to look at, but stay with me on this one. Is this an empty field on the west side of Detroit, or an opportunity? At one time this site was home to a large low- income housing project called Herman Gardens. Now everything is gone and nature is slowly reclaiming the old street grid. I understand there are plans to build new housing units, another ambitious plan of well intentioned government officials. Maybe I am old and cynical, but I can't help but think we've been down this path before. Manufactured urban renewal in what was once the manufacturing heartland.
That's what was running through my head while I was taking this shot. I was on my way to watch a football game at the folk's house out in the county north of Ann Arbor. Camera in hand, I took the long route, off the freeway down a couple unpaved roads. I passed many sparkling new developments in what were once corn fields. That's when an inspiration hit me- Plant Corn! The key to urban renewal in the industrial Midwest is corn. We spend all this time and energy trying to figure out ways to lure folks back into old cities like Detroit only to find years of planning and fighting result in projects nobody wants. All the while builders and developers are tearing up corn fields in a near sexual frenzy. The strippers on 8 Mile have nothing on 200 acres of good old maize with these guys.
What does this all means for Mayor Kwame and the fine folks in Washington? Put away your purchase orders for a new study on the latest in urban renewal. Take those bucks, buy a couple John Deere tractors and get to work plowing up every vacant lot in the city. Plant corn and watch the free market work its magic. Trust me. I know a bunch of these builder types. They are not too bright and very easily manipulated. And they can't help themselves.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Gardens
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