Down on the Farm in Detroit

 

Future skyline of Detroit?

Decades after the results were tabulated, I still remember the moment when my high school aptitude test revealed the profession I was best suited for: farmer.

I haven’t yet followed that path. I’ve always lived in Detroit and its ‘burbs, satisfying my inner farmer by digging around in the yarden and attempting to grow herbs and tomatoes on our little suburban plot. Though I loved our family’s annual visits to the cousins’ dairy farm in the UP town of Rock and faithfully watched “Green Acres” on TV, I never uttered the words, “Goodbye city life.”

Detroit's 18th century French settlers established a series of long and narrow ribbon farms along the riverfront

Now, it looks as if I won’t have to. The country may be coming to the city.

A story in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reports that the Obama administration is considering copying, in select rust belt cities including Detroit, a de-urbanization program now underway in Flint, Michigan.

There, in the birthplace of General Motors, already-ruined sections of the city are being bulldozed and will be allowed to return to nature. With the decline of its major employer, a population about half of its boomtime citizenry, and resulting disappearing tax base, Flint can no longer support the services and infrastructure it required (and could afford) during more prosperous times.

Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint, is behind the idea of shrinking the city by reducing the number of populated pockets and costs related to servicing those areas. About 4,000 decimated buildings will come down. “Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity,” says Kildee. “Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow,” he predicts.

You can buy Grown in Detroit produce in season on Saturdays at Eastern Market

Apparently Kildee will be working with the US government to take the idea nationwide. But the concept isn’t news in Detroit; in fact years ago pheasants, coyotes and other wildlife started making a comeback in vacant areas of the city, and individual and community gardens have been growing across its approximately 140 square miles.

Corine Vermeulen-Smith, a photographer from The Netherlands who came here to study at Cranbrook and stayed, has captured scenes of Detroit’s unofficial, gradual return to nature and its roots as a city built on farms with her Your Town Tomorrow project.

I may never fulfill my potential as a farmer, but it looks like I may not have to travel far to enjoy the ambiance of country living. 

 

Top photo: Maybury Farm, Northville