The future of Cass Avenue, a struggle between commercial growth and gardens

Mlive’s Jeff Wattrick produced an in-depth commentary on the fate of the
two Cass Corridor land parcels sold to Midtown doggie daycare Canine to
Five. The land’s been informally used by Birdtown Gardens for urban
gardening.

As Wattrick writes, this was about more than just one garden — it’s
bound to be a guiding case for City Council as Detroit attempts to
rectify its interests in urban agriculture with the needs of local
entrepreneurs like Canine’s Liz Blondy. And while Wattrick supports the
desires of urban agriculture, he warns that, without entrepreneurs,
gardening alone won’t save the city.

Excerpt:

Still, Detroit has 60,000 vacant city-owned parcels. Even if gardening doesn’t help make Detroit “look like Chicago,” to quote Councilman Ken Cockrel, it is an exponentially better use for
vacant land than ad hoc tire dumps or shooting galleries for dopeheads.
Even the densest of cities, say Manhattan, find small pockets for green
space. In other words, there is plenty of room for Detroit to be a real
city while accommodating reasonable urban gardening.

Read the whole article here.