Gardens As In Heaven
Sometimes new things can happen in places only when the old things have passed away. Katherine Yung writes in the Detroit Free Press of Charter One Bank’s initiative to offer support to Detroit’s growing urban farming movement. $100,000 will be awarded to farmers and vendors through Charter One’s Growing Communities program to “expand local food sources in … Read more
anarchy
An 84 year old security guard was shot to death last night outside the church he was watching in Detroit. Here’s the story from the Free Press. Authority. An elderly man. Guarding a church. Attacked. Shot. Dead. In the video one man says ‘anarchy’. He says it is the one word no one want to use in … Read more
The rock that is higher than I
I exited I 64 at 15th Street and turned right. It felt home. Could be Gary, Detroit. This morning I visited East St Louis IL. It’s the rough counterpart to its larger urban cousin to the west across the Mississippi. St Louis MO has rough places, especially its north neighborhoods. But East St Louis is another degree rougher. Or … Read more
A Detroit Sketch
The young man in white shirt and tie was quietly working on a sketch. Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press writes about her conversation with him at the office this week on National Take Your Child to Work Day. She sees in him “Detroit’s future sitting at a conference table”. Through his young eyes and in Riley’s words read … Read more
Detroit Churches Closing
Shortage of clergy, money and parishioners = 50 closed Detroit churches The Archdiocese of Detroit is expected to announce this month its plans to close 30 suburban and as many as 20 urban parishes. To put this in perspective, the Archdiocese included 112 parishes in 1988. The closings will mean about a third of them remain. Many … Read more
urban subversion in the altitudes of Sao Paulo
I visited Sao Paulo, Brazil in the early 1990s. Skyscrapers seemed to stretch in all directions. At night the view was stunning from the deck at the top of our hotel. And I remember the continual din night and day of cars with awful mufflers. Sao Paulo is the largest city in South America, over 10.6 million … Read more
The remnants of what was
One of the images I will always carry of Detroit: piles of trash. When we arrived in 1998 I was amazed at the trash along the curb, in the street, in yards of homes both occupied and abandoned. In a city with many places that seemed still and empty, trash appeared, to be carted off by garbage … Read more
Do Flaming Hot Cheetos make me urban?
Have you noticed the subtle inroads Flaming Hot Cheetos have made into American life? They were coming into their own as a snack food in Detroit as the 21st century came into sight. But if we wanted to find a sack for our daughter, the one who is a Salvation Army cadet … nowhere in the suburbs. You know … Read more
Urban Kansas
I am breathing easy. Just this morning I submitted my term paper. It’s on mission and the prison theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I’m glad it’s finished, but it has opened up more questions. Bonhoeffer’s thoughts on a world come of age and the need now for a ‘nonreligious interpretation’ of Christianity holds hope for the church … Read more
Detroit Bankruptcy?
See today’s Detroit Free Press for the latest on talk of bankruptcy for the city of Detroit. Right now it appears the city will be out of money in April. On top of that chances are the State of Michigan will appoint an emergency manager just as it has for Flint, Pontiac and Benton Harbor. Columnist … Read more
