Last Spring, an iconic piece of public art in downtown Detroit was painted over to make room for a temporary 7-11 ad. The sudden loss lead Matthew Piper to dig deep into the history of "Color Cubes" by David Rubello, which is gone but not forgotten.
Over the last 25 years, the Greening of Detroit has planted 82,000 trees, helped hundreds of Detroiters develop career skills, and changed the way we think about sustainability in the city.
Creative transformations are happening in the neighborhood immediately north of Hamtramck, where groups like Power House Productions and the Hinterlands are joining art with community life. Matthew Piper gets experienced at the Play House on Moran St.
Great things are happening in Palmer Park, the historic, 296-acre greenspace and adjacent apartment district, which features a jaw-dropping collection of buildings built between 1925 and 1965. Matthew Piper surveys the past, present and future plans for the neighborhood.
One of the threads running through the eight diary entries we published this year is seeing different people engaged in different passions in all corners of Detroit. Matthew Piper recaps 2013 in sustainability and green living.
Based on fundamental values like caring for the Earth and its people, urban permaculture is here and Detroit looks to be an ideal partner to test how it can work. Matthew Piper shows us where a new, better and self-sustaining future is being built.
A resurgence in urban beekeeping is part of a return to the agricultural practices we had in cities in the 1930s and 1940s. New York, Paris, Detroit and other urban areas are leading a movement back to greater biodiversity, says our sustainability diarist Matthew Piper.
Sustainability advocacy journalist Matthew Piper talks to Detroit urban farming pioneer Patrick Crouch, who never tires of putting his hands into the soil and coming up with all sorts of wriggling organic life. The point? A healthy, naturally balanced ecosystem for all.
While it's becoming clear that support for same-sex marriage is increasing, with Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota recently joining nine other states in making it legal, Michigan still has some work to do, says Matthew Piper.
Detroit residents are finding ways to go blue -- meaning, they are learning about the practical environmental benefits of freshwater infrastructure by creating rain gardens and other water-based landscapes. Matthew Piper dives in to get the story.
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