Parks, Gardens, and Urban Forests: Detroit's Big Opportunity
Welcome to Daily Detroit — your guide to what's next, what's now, and what matters in the Motor City.
Today, we're diving deep into one of Detroit's biggest challenges and, possibly, its greatest opportunity: what to do with our city's vast tracts of vacant land.
Since 1950, Detroit has lost 65% of its population, creating more than 100,000 vacant lots and 18 square miles of unused land.
Right now, the city spends more than $1.3 million each year just mowing the grass on these empty parcels, among other costs.
But what if these vacant lots were transformed into something new? Parks, forests…
The skinny
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