Requiem for Detroit – welcome to the future
(not sure why I am getting auto draft as a title above.. sorry ’bout that)
With its big chrome cars, 24 hour production lines and fantastic wealth, Detroit was the very embodiment of the American dream. Consumerism began here.. and it died here. Population has collapsed from over 2 million to less than 800,000.
“Amongst the ruins of the city, what was the Paris of the midwest – the frontier city of american dream, lies the first post-American city. Its a darkly cautionary tale for the whole industrialised world. Its a first pioneer’s map of the post industrial future which awaits us all”
“Over the last few years 50,000 houses have been pulled down and turned into vacant lots (in Detroit)”
“the fastest growing movement in the United States today is the urban agriculture movement”
“Food is the way you begin to care for yourself and (and growing food makes you) begin to think about yourself in a very different way”
This excellent documentary is the tale of our times really. The century of the motor car, also the intransigence of big business, the inability to see ahead and to embrace change, its a tale of greed, oppression, racism, divided communities. It is about how money looks after itself and people are expendible. AND It is contains real hope, a real positive message, that you can rebuild from the bottom up, that nature will reclaim the ruins of our so called civilization and that we will be able to move on and find new, different and more creative and sustainable ways of living.
Here’s some links: BBC News story on Urbam farming in Detroit
Urban farming network, USA
Earthworks Urban farm Detroit
Greens and Greenbacks. Metro times article on Urban farms
