City residents, volunteers clean up old industrial site

By JESSICA HAVENS and AILEO WEINMANN

Staff Writers

United Auto Workers volunteers, college students, retirees, environmentalists, and individuals from local schools, churches and businesses from throughout metro Detroit and southeast Michigan joined hands with Northwest Goldberg residents on July 6 to clean up an industrial site on Wabash and Marquette and prepare some vacant lots for a community garden. 

The day was the culmination of weeks of similar community get-togethers.  Since May, volunteers had gathered on Saturday mornings to repair and beautify the location. 

But, besides making the location safer, the restoration also served notice for prospective illegal dumpers to keep out.

“The site has a long history of illegal dumping and has been an attractive but dangerous nuisance to children who play there,” said Charles Simmons, Eastern Michigan University journalism professor and CPR-Detroit co-chair.

COURTESY PHOTO   CPR co-chair Elena Herrada hauls rocks away in a wheelbarrow.  Children painted the rocks for a new garden.

Young and old pitched in from early in the morning to late afternoon in hopes of re-spiriting the neighborhood.  The eldest volunteer, 85-year-old Lasker Smith, a retired member of Local 600, drove in from Ecorse.  The youngest participant was just a pre-schooler. 

Seniors shared their experiences with the youth about gardening, canning food, quilting, cooking and renovating historic homes.  And kids of all ages painted rocks and bricks – and sometimes themselves – to decorate the perimeters of a new community garden in the works. 

Residents and volunteers will continue work in the garden as long as weather cooperates.   

Community gardening, according to Simmons, should be a central focus for restoring vacant residential land in Detroit. 

“Today, there is a growing national movement to rebuild urban communities, and community gardening is at the center,” Simmons said. “Detroiters need to join this movement, to return to the idea that there is a link between the earth and the people and all living things.”

Moreover, explained Simmons, community gardening provides the opportunity for elders and youth to exchange ideas and energy.

With this summer’s clean up, the struggle to rebuild Northwest Goldberg is under way.  Future growth is destined not only in the garden, but also in the neighborhood.