Detroit Green City

April 29, 2008 9:09 AM

Sometime in the last year I read an article in a print magazine about Detroit becoming the model sustainable city of the future. Help me find it.

The first part of the article detailed how Detroit has crumbled since the 70s. The second part argued that because Detroit is so totally ruined and unprofitable and abandoned, it may be the only place where it is possible for a new model city to emerge with a much greater focus on local agriculture, green technology, and small business. There were also some photos of areas so neglected that meadows are sprouting and wildlife is returning.

I thought I saw it in the Utne Reader, but a search of their online archive has proved fruitless. If it's not UR, it's likely some other liberal/progressive monthly. Did anyone else see this article?

posted by blapst to society & culture (7 answers total)

Detroit Arcadia, from Harper's July 2007? Summary of the article here.
posted by iconomy at 9:15 AM on April 29, 2008

Perhaps in Dwell?
posted by txsebastien at 9:50 AM on April 29, 2008

It's not helpful per se, but I grew up in the 'burbs there and that circle of widely-spread friends talks from time to time of moving back and buying enough vacant property (at pennies on the dollar) to establish a green compound of sorts within the city limits - not entirely facetiously either.
posted by kcm at 10:13 AM on April 29, 2008

It was definitely in Harpers. I loved that article, too: the author's hypothesis was that by the time of peak oil/environmental apocalypse, it will be Detroit that will have already figured out how to deal with self-sustainability in a way that all the rest of us will be learning from.

I think it was this
posted by catesbie at 11:07 AM on April 29, 2008

There was an article on O (Oprah's magazine) about urban gardening in Detroit, but they don't seem to have it on the web site. I think the article ran in April of this year or thereabouts.
posted by selfmedicating at 1:46 PM on April 29, 2008

Detroit Arcadia PDF
posted by jon1270 at 2:41 PM on April 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

iconomy, catesbie, jon 1270 - that's it!

well played, hivemind.
posted by blapst at 9:37 AM on May 12, 2008