January 18th, 2017

                              What Has Farming Done For Detroit, or For Those in                                                                          Politics, Why the City NEEDS to SUPPORT Urban Farming?

1. It has never abandoned the city unlike many other things such as department stores, manufacturing, music production, and the movie industry...
   
2. It creates community in a lasting way. For people that try to organize in the city it is hard to get people to commit; they only come to the first neighborhood meeting, someone new might poke their head in at church on Sunday never to be seen again but as long as the garden is there people come by and engage, often bringing family and friends. Farmers are also outside all day working and being vigilant, which helps to make the neighborhood safer for everyone.
   
3. It has and can employ the supposed unemployable. Are we really going to continue to throw away thousands of people because of the unspoken rule that ‘once past the age of 50 they are too old to do anything’ or because they have been to prison or due to their disability? I hear the city say that it is not profitable to let urban farmers buy the land they have been farming or wish to farm but who is making money when citizens’ tax dollars go to a multi-millionaire so he can build a stadium for a sport that most Detroiters don’t play or watch let alone pay money to go see? And who makes money when developers buy property, don’t pay the taxes and don’t actually develop the property or even keep it from further deterioration? Politicians, who are you trying to make money for? Are you trying to get money to provide better city services to people, that must surely be the most tolerant populace in America, or ‘job creators’ that might employ you after you get finished politicing?
   
4. It has given an all too often helpless people power. People could not control the street lights or police response time or pension funds or whether or not their employer chooses to move their jobs out of the state or the country or whether or not they would receive aid from the government but they could grow their own food and beautify their own corner of the world which has improved quality of life here and made things bare-able.
   
5. It diversifies the city’s money making portfolio. Detroit is trying to increase tourism and with urban agriculture tourists can (arguably) have the best of the city attractions as well as agricultural delights such as petting zoos, pick your own produce, hayrides, mazes, spooky farmsteads, and cider mills. But these money making endeavors can only happen when the city legislatively embraces farming. And I am not talking about agribusiness like Hantz farm; which is nothing more than a land grab, I am talking about micro farms of 1 acre, 2 acres not 3 square miles that butt right up against houses and employ less people than you have fingers and toes.
   
6. It saves the city money. Everyone knows that empty land loses money; not only is no one paying taxes on the land but no one is making an income from the land and furthermore B&L and Brilar or whomever it is these days, has to be paid to cut it. Even though most farmers are not going to bring in millions whatever they pay in property taxes and income taxes will be more than what the city treasurer is getting right now. The city is damn near speculating itself to death,  but definitely into a real estate bubble quick to burst.
   
7. It has brought Detroit into the 21st century. Farming is so old its new again and documentarians, tv networks, non fiction authors, work clothes apparel makers, international news reporters from all over the world, urban planning scholars from every continent, garden supply retailers, and national seed companies all realize the value of urban farming in Detroit and yet farmers get no such love from the city lawmakers itself.
   

In conclusion I have said all this to say that the people of Detroit, who have been holding it down all these years need to be lifted up right alongside ‘new Detroit’. If everyone really wants to see Detroit ‘come back’ then we must make economic moves with an eye to the future, not the past. The past was department stores that moved out, manufactures that left the country and downsized, convenient stores that found it too inconvenient to stay, and people that packed up like war was coming. The future is hundreds of small and lean businesses providing for the needs of the community first and foremost, but there is also plenty of room for investor funded stadiums and entertainment districts. By not selling land adjacent to adjacent lots or to farmers so that you can ‘hold it’ for a potential developer who ‘wants it all’ you are holding back development your damn self. Because while you wait for a big box store to come swallow up 4 blocks at a time, big box stores like Walmart, Sam’s club, and Kohl’s are closing up stores and unless 10s of thousands of suburbanites move back to the city there is no logical reason why they should abandon stores in more populated areas for depopulated ones.
Who wants to move to Detroit like it is now? Urban farmers, that’s who. Let us urban farmers be the backbone that puts people back to work, feeds the people actually fresh chemical free food, and connects person to person so that strangers become neighbors. I am not saying let everyone do whatever they want-that is why we have zoning and ordinances; I am saying make logical regulations in a timely manner and enforce them equally so that we all can have the things we need and want instead of fighting over tiny plots of land when there are acres and acres of empty land. Life doesn’t have to be like this. Urban farmers don’t demand tax breaks or regulations to be waved just for us; we want first dibs on the land we have been caring for, a hoop houses for health type program wherein people that do not have the money to buy all the lots they wish to have can work off the money buy selling produce directly to the community that are in at farmer’s markets, liquor stores, and grocery stores, drainage fee free metered access of hydrants and last but not least an end to repeated blight tickets. Come on! Detroit is sitting on prime agricultural land at an important international trade juncture; the original deed to my house refers to the plat as Thompson Farm, that land begs to be worked. It’s the truth chil’.
and for anybody that thinks my solutions are too far fetched I am waiting to hear what yours are.