The people who have stayed behind are often quite upbeat, gritty, and idealistic about their sickly city.
On Saturday, park cleanup projects went down across the city which is a very important thing because all Detroit kids often see are blight and decay and burned out houses. Just getting in touch with nature is so important for inner city kids to see the big picture and what life is really all about.
I drove through one park on the southwest side where trash was strewn all over the place and there were only about three pieces of rusty playground equipment. It seemed like a potentially beautiful site just off of I-96 freeway but people had been dumping things there like trash of all kinds and even a small boat near the back.
The irresponsibility of a few citizens can easily mess up what a bunch of dedicated people can do in no time. That makes it much more honorable that so many people are so persistent with all the greening projects.
One lady I met taught local boys how to grow crops like potatoes and then had them sell them at a local market for spending cash. That's a beautiful thing right there.
The solutions to many of our inner cities' natural problems or at least support for a healthy lifestyle someday comes on the back of green projects like this and others.
Spread the word and let's try to beautify our urban areas as much as possible in the future.
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