Nurturing nature in Detroit

Nurturing nature in Motor City

Renewal and bucolic nature in the heart of… Detroit! A visit to her home town held some pleasant surprises for Annie McClarnon of Beccles NWR.

So, you think you know a place, right? I mean, Detroit isn’t on the top-10 list for holiday destinations, is it?

I grew up in a Detroit suburb and went to high school in the inner city. In the mid-1950s and 60s Detroit was still flourishing—its automotive factories, the Institute of Art’s Diego Rivera murals, its orchestra and Motown were world famous, and still are. It had solid working-class neighbourhoods sitting alongside verdant, wealthy ones with comfortable homes on huge lots and lakes.

Then it changed. In 1967 we had race riots; Motown left for LA in 1972; the main shopping district downtown died. There was white flight to the suburbs, leaving the city short of tax-payers’ funds. It became grittier: abandoned buildings, whole streets without essential services like street lighting or power. Detroit was the murder capital, and is still a violent city. Then in 2013 the city was declared bankrupt and things looked really bleak.

So, why go back? Well, many of my large family still live in the area. COVID-19 delayed my last trip and now that my dad is 94 there was no time like the present. And it’s an interesting time to go. As a dual citizen I can still vote in US elections, and I wanted to see for myself the state of the nation as an arms-length observer. Michigan is a classic divided state, with Democratvoting labour towns like Detroit sitting alongside Republican rural areas, huge farms and forests with rugged individualists defending anti-Federal views. Not for nothing was this state on a knife edge during the 2020 Presidential election.

So, what did I find? Yes, I saw obliterated neighbourhoods: where once stood street after street of housing, now there was one house, as far as the eye could see. And yet… where abandoned houses still stood, I saw how some of them were turned into art installations. The Heidelberg Project has 200,000 visitors a year. It may not be everyone’s idea of art but it’s still a testament to resilience and an example of making something good out of a dire situation.

The same can be said for the urban farms springing up all over town. Nonprofit organisations are working with the locals to provide much needed fresh food in the food deserts left by urban devastation and all those empty housing lots. And with the food comes jobs and pride. People are moving back into the city to be part of this exciting, grassroots renewal.

Nature is also taking over in other ways. The abandoned golf course opposite my sister’s house is a rewilder’s dream, teeming with wild flowers, insects and wildlife. Wild turkeys are the latest species to set up home there, and there are foxes, deer, raccoons, and opossums. Not really what one expects from such a gritty, urban place.

I also saw gentrification, for some. Property developers can call the tune when a city is bankrupt. So, there are expensive housing developments on the waterfront; but nary a black face among the hipsters living in reclaimed Victorian houses. And in other locations, where the only house standing is owned by a black family who have lived there for over half a century, the pressure is pretty strong on them to take the money and move to the suburbs. And yet… there are some wonderful re-imaginings taking place. The greenway, created out of a disused railway line, offers a two-mile pedestrian and bike link between the riverfront, past the Eastern Market—a farmers’ market, first established in 1891—and several residential neighbourhoods in between. Around the market and along the route murals are encouraged, and there’s an outdoor bar, a stage for music events, bike hire and more besides.

There are even bigger plans for Detroit’s iconic central train station and surrounding area. For years the train station was the subject of many disaster porn photo shoots. Now, with funding from the Ford Motor Company and government grants, it is all being revitalised. New businesses, housing and transport infrastructure are all being created in another example of renaissance to match the Renaissance Centre project that was built in the 1970s and which still graces the Detroit skyline today.

But it wasn’t all building that surprised me. Rather, it was the tranquil and bucolic side that blew me away. I visited Belle Isle, a 982-acre island in the middle of the Detroit River. Owned by Detroit but managed as a state park, it was initially designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York’s Central Park, in the 1880s. It is home to an aquarium, a glasshouse, a nature centre, the Great Lakes museum, a municipal golf course, a magnificent fountain, a boat club, and numerous beaches and watering holes for swimming. And, in the past, it had a casino and even hosted the Detroit Grand Prix circuit.