Detroit – Garden Belt?

Here’s a nice piece by Paul Harris of The Guardian in which he updates readers on the positive fallout from his prior articles about a small group of people in Detroit who are working to turn a patch of urban desolation (which there is, sadly, far too much of  in that city) into a vegetable garden and playground.

The success of the project is certainly heartwarming and it’s hard to imagine anyone  unwilling to celebrate what these people are accomplishing.  But beyond that, what’s interesting to me is Harris’ observation that in addition to improving people’s diets and beautifying urban blight, one of the results of people working on this project is that they are “reasserting community pride.”

Large cities such as Detroit are typically an impediment to maintaining or nourishing communities; they’re simply too big.  Historically a community population is measured in the hundreds or just a few thousands.  The millions?  That’s a whole ‘nother beast, a large rambling society.  So a knee jerk reaction might be to note that Harris, like most people, is using the word “community” in a vague and imprecise manner, yet another sign that the word itself is almost meaningless as people use it however they want.  But instead of getting bogged down in a debate about vocabulary, I think it’s much more worthwhile to think about the possibility that Harris is offering us something new and interesting.

When he uses the phrase “community pride,” it seems obvious that among other things, he’s referring to the strengthening of relationships among the people working on this garden.  Their shared vision, labor, and dedication to a common goal is resulting in an increased sense of connectedness.  Together the participants are reaping benefits.  But they are also developing mutual obligations and responsibilities, and presumably rules about what’s acceptable and what’s not.  All of these are hallmarks of a real community.

So here’s a question.  If big cities are an impediment to communities, can their otherwise tragedy of their ongoing dilapidation provide the opportunity for new, small communities to rise in their wake?  After decades of depopulation and economic collapse, can rust belt cities like Detroit witness the birth of new communities amid their ashes?  Is it possible to build a modern version of a historic community by developing small, close-knit, semi-rural  population centers in nearly abandoned urban neighborhoods?