Did you know Techno is from Detroit? Mike Clark, Delano Smith, and Al Lester (among other Detroit greats) came and talked to us about their experiences in Detroit at the start of the techno scene. No pictures, but afterwards I went to Corktown - a near southwest neighborhood with more urban agriculture than I have ever seen. Lots of backyard chickens, goats, gardens, etc. It kind of felt like the country. Almost. Except for this abandoned train station in the background:
Unfortunately it's privately owned and has been unoccupied since the 80's.
Saturday I saw Lafayette Park, an urban renewal project with buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe. I really liked the project aesthetically and in theory (well, not the urban renewal aspect, but the architecture, planning, and landscaping) but in actuality I'm not so sure about it... The neighborhood co-op owns the buildings and the outdoor space, so no one can really garden, and there are no bike racks for bikes. The large Mies-ian glass windows are fantastic to look at, but not so great for heating and cooling efficiently. And the semi-public spaces are set away from any public streets so that it really does feel like a gated community, for better or worse. On the upside, the neighborhood has maintained occupancy rates and home ownership to a much higher degree than most of Detroit, and our lovely tour guides seemed really happy to be living there. And their home is beautiful. Cool fact: there are underground tunnels that run underneath the town home units to pick up trash- so you don't have to put it out front! (someone tell david and josh)
Next to Lafayette Park is Dequindre Cut, a "rails-to-trails" project that has converted part of an old rail line that's depressed 25 feet beneath street level into a biking/running/walking trail. It's nicely paved, landscaped, and decorated by old grafitti along the way. So far only a small portion of the proposed trail has been completed, but hopefully there will be more to come.
We also went on a neighborhood bus tour, and one of the places we stopped was the Heidelberg Project. It's a small section of a neighborhood that has been converted to a massive art instillation. It's hard to tell how the community feels about the project, but it's now a non-profit organization that performs a variety of functions. There are definitely some problems with the project, but I found the art itself as well as the sheer number of people it brought to the neighborhood to be inspiring. Here is a small, small selection of the pieces there. There are many houses that are also decorated as part of the project.
For our neighborhood visit today we went to Southwest Detroit, a primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Delicious delicious enchiladas and Mexican pastries...
the chairs at the restaurant
1 comment:
i'm lovin the blog sarah. your inspiration is rubbing off. keep it up because all that energy is what you're going to bring out of this whole thing, and we all need to feed off of each other, you know? this is a crucial part of the program because it's closest to the cultural context that you're going to return to and most likely live the rest of your life.
tell natalie hi for me. i just realized that you're both on the program together. :)
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