The New York Times takes a look at a burgeoning community in one of the sub-prime-fallen neighbourhoods of Detroit.
So what did $1,900 buy? The run-down bungalow had already been stripped of its appliances and wiring by the city’s voracious scrappers. But for Mitch that only added to its appeal, because he now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances.
Buying that first house had a snowball effect. Almost immediately, Mitch and Gina bought two adjacent lots for even less and, with the help of friends and local youngsters, dug in a garden. Then they bought the house next door for $500, reselling it to a pair of local artists for a $50 profit. When they heard about the $100 place down the street, they called their friends Jon and Sarah.
Admittedly, the $100 home needed some work, a hole patched, some windows replaced. But Mitch plans to connect their home to his mini-green grid and a neighborhood is slowly coming together.
Sounds like an interesting place to live, even though the Times notes that “the occasional crack addict still commutes in from the suburbs.”
And, with artists from as far away as Berlin and Amsterdam expressing an interest in moving to Detroit for its “interesting textures” as well as its sheer affordability, you have to think there’s an interesting period ahead for the blighted city.
Paging Dr. Florida. Dr. Richard Florida?
Grant Hamilton
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MPot