Speaker A
detroit's the city of champions the whole world knows that detroit is the american city whose products have revolutionized our way of living [Music] and only in michigan will you find the men and women whose talent made us the
Anthony Bourdain explores Detroit's post-industrial decline, abandoned factories, urban exploration, and its resilient food scene from Coney dogs to DIY barbecue.
Key Takeaways
- Detroit's decline stems from the flight of industry, capital, and the white and middle class, compounded by corruption and mismanagement.
- Abandoned industrial structures are both haunting monuments and magnets for scavengers, explorers, and photographers.
- Despite hardship, Detroit's residents show resilience through food culture, entrepreneurship, and community-driven urban agriculture.
What the video covers
- Bourdain opens by framing Detroit as the birthplace of American industry, once home to roughly two million people, now post-apocalyptic in parts with about 700,000 residents.
- Journalist Charlie LeDuff describes the city's depopulation: white and middle-class residents left, taking jobs and money, leaving pockets of hardened survivors and wild, overgrown land.
- The abandoned Packard Automotive Plant, opened in 1903 and once employing up to 33,000 people during WWII, serves as a central symbol of decline.
- Alan Hill, who lives in the former Packard complex, explains that scrap metal theft and vandalism accelerated the plant's ruin over the last five years.
- Urban explorers, music video shoots, and even wedding parties use the ruins as backdrops, raising the 'ruin porn' debate and local resentment.
- The segment on Detroit's Coney Island hot dog restaurants celebrates a local food tradition that is deeply rooted in the city's identity.
- Bourdain examines Detroit's mismanagement and corruption, including questions about political leadership and why capable people avoid running for office.
- The episode highlights DIY and grassroots entrepreneurship, such as Greedy Greg's barbecue, and urban farming efforts supplying local produce to the city.
- Detroit's struggles are presented as a warning about how industrial collapse ripples outward, affecting families, communities, and eventually the wider world.
Chapters
- 00:00Detroit: The City of Champions and Its Fall
- 03:28The Packard Plant and Urban Ruins
- 06:26Urban Exploration and Ruin Porn
- 08:08Detroit's Coney Island Hot Dogs
- 11:00Corruption, Politics, and Civic Failure
- 17:12DIY Food Culture and Greedy Greg's
- 26:24Local Restaurants and Hidden Eateries
- 38:04Urban Farming and the Future of Detroit
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
arsenal of democracy in wartime and the economic pacesetter in peacetime [Music] on my shoulders [Music] [Applause] [Music] shy it's where nearly everything american and great came from the things the whole world wanted made here the heart the soul the beat of
Speaker A
an industrial cultural superpower a magnet for everyone with a dream of a better future from eastern europe to the deep south american dream you came here the one straight ahead with the green roof yep the big rococo building completely
Speaker A
empty empty unbelievable the white one is being rehabbed there's some money coming in the one next to it on the right is completely empty the gray pyramid with the spire on top sold for five million dollars five million for that you can't buy a garage
Speaker A
in the hamptons for that five million for a skyscraper it is post-apocalyptic i mean it's it's like a science fiction film what the hell happened here well it is post-apocalyptic except for the fact there's 700 000 people living here detroit 2013.
Speaker A
charlie leduff is a writer journalist television reporter he grew up here but it used to be two million people that was rubber that guy was steel that guy was a doctor this was what made america the the road started here the automobile
Speaker A
frozen peas started here credit on a mass scale started here what was this like just before this so 20 years before it was insane and that's when there was like twice as many people here this is a consequence because all the
Speaker A
whites went they took their money they took their factories the black middle class maintain for a while and then it got too rough for them so there's little pockets of feral hippies and older black folks a couple white folks some arabs but
Speaker A
this is 140 square miles so you're going to get tall grass because it's back to the wild it is one of the most beautiful cities in america it speaks of those industrial aid dreams of an endlessly glorious future you know the people who built
Speaker A
these structures they were thinking big they were they were looking at a new rome and they built it actually it's awesome [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] maybe the worms started to turn here the packard automotive plant opened in 1903 it was considered the
Speaker A
most advanced facility of its kind anywhere in the world huge epically proportioned i mean 3.5 million square feet now one man lives here al hill my name is alan hill welcome to my home this room right here is the
Speaker A
forge room it was a former packard motorcar company i started living about seven years ago at that time i was semi-apprehensive about the place and the going is around here but it turned out it's about as peaceful as the north woods
Speaker A
and uh not having a credit card or a mortgage payment or a car payment is a real blessing there's two nails here so yeah what's happened here in detroit is unfortunate but you know it's assigned it at times we find out that
Speaker A
not only does it take a village to raise an individual it takes an entire world to support one city you know one city is suffering or when communities suffering the entire world should pitch in and help elevate it
Speaker A
instead of sit there and stare at it people have lost their faith in a lot of things part of it had to do with the faith it had in detroit it was once industrial might of the entire world
Speaker A
it's enormous yeah it is it's about a mile long maybe a quarter mile wide got a pretty good view from up here yeah how many people worked here at its peak uh well during the war there was like 33
Speaker A
000 people working here they went out of business at 56 you know they brought studebaker in uh it's a partner and studebaker pulled them down this has been abandoned since the 50s well actually what happened in 1956 they
Speaker A
rented out the various entrepreneurs yeah the shoe warehouse there's uh trucking companies guys restoring cars so how long has it been like this though most of this damage happened within five years within the last five years yeah wow
Speaker A
china had this olympia effort and scrap metal went to a high price so people come in here scrapping they took the windows out they just destroyed everything [Music] the place is pretty much open to anybody who wants to come in sure a lot of
Speaker A
urban explorers people shooting music videos taking pictures oftentimes you see a wedding party come here and you know they use this as a backdrop for their wedding you take pictures videos wow you want to take pictures here the place
Speaker A
like so much of detroit invites it urban exploring as they call it sifting through the remains of detroit's great american ongoing tragedy photographing them posing in front of them is something of an irresistible impulse detroiters hate it all the visitors like
Speaker A
us i should point out wallowing in ruin porn what was this part of the factory where are we standing this right here is where the uh assembly line was this was a paint booth right here with a spray painted cars
Speaker A
you can see in the floor where they have the uh we can wash away the overspray the assembly line ended 35-40 feet over here there's bridges here between here in the main building and the stamina actually came across here the bridges
Speaker A
you look at a possibility of something like about three quarters a mile long you're talking hundreds if not thousands of people all working on the uh on the process yeah i mean this is sort of a kind of
Speaker A
you know it's not a perfect model for the toy but it's a perfect model when a big factory goes down it's not just 33 000 people that's 33 000 families who are going to be eating dinner outlets you got a pointer on that
Speaker A
most people i would guess have no idea what a packard even was we're talking about one of the great luxury cars in the world yes yeah it was the kind of car that everybody uh would love to have the kings and queens
Speaker A
and every president wanted to ride in one and popes and indian chiefs electric car maker went out of business you know and they did little did they realize that was a trend that started here in detroit and what affected detroit
Speaker A
affected the entire world because it followed everybody home it might have been 50 or 60 years later but it started here and then everybody else you get to experience the same problem that we're having in another 20 years this place probably
Speaker A
won't be here and people won't have any idea what went on over here it's hard to look away from the ruin to not find beauty in the decay comparisons to angkor wat machu picchu ancient rome are inevitable magnificent structures representing the
Speaker A
boundless dreams of the dead left to rot get unlike angkor and leptus magna people still live here we forget that you tell people you go to detroit and chances are somebody from the home team is gonna say be sure to get a coney
Speaker A
i never really understood that i mean i'm like 30 minutes from a place called coney island where presumably they know something about freaking hot dogs right maybe the early greeks or macedonians who first experienced that golden land by the shore
Speaker A
then took what they saw with them to florida michigan and beyond maybe they knew something they've been doing coneys at dooley's for over 90 years that's almost as long as the hot dog's been around and i can't tell you how deep this
Speaker A
creation runs here deep dish at chicago cheesesteak in philadelphia you'll find some ambivalence not here are you sir good now if i were from detroit would i be eating this with my hands or with a fork probably with your hands all right i'll
Speaker A
do my best logistical problems that's delicious this is like the best of my only three coney experiences [Music] europa 24 hours yes sir 24 7. i don't know what i want to watch like seriously drunk people trying to eat
Speaker A
this oh yeah we have a fun time is it a skill that you learn over time yeah it takes practice it's like kung fu you know you gotta just practice and practice exactly practice makes perfect it was good
Speaker A
yeah i think i'd better have another one of these yeah you should i'll be better at it the next time around one corny of everything it seems like a simple thing hot dog chili raw onion mustard steamed bun but the delicate interplay
Speaker A
between these ingredients when done right is symphonic [Music] so [Applause] [Music] detroit's problems are well documented a lot of attention has been paid to a history of spectacular mismanagement and corruption detroit is hardly alone in this koch era
Speaker A
new york we forget too soon was a cesspit of mob influenced corruption chicago boston machine politics they wrote the book but detroit differs in that its scandal seems so comically lurid so surrealistically squalid the last mayor kwame kulpatrick is
Speaker A
currently serving time in the jug for some of his less hilariously bent behaviors through all of it one man seems to have known what's going on adolf [ __ ] political strategist oracle survivor he's seen it all i know what
Speaker A
i'm having but i'd love a beer man this ain't this kind of place man i thought you drank man are you drinking beer uh what are you drinking i'm drinking vodka i'll have i'll have a uh fold under a pressure then i'll think
Speaker A
about a burger down the way you having something to eat uh all right i'll hold back i will i will stick with this i have to ask uh you're uh born and raised in the detroit area right an academic star uh marine corps
Speaker A
uh journalism why do you never run for office you got to be crazy you know what they don't want straightforward politicians they don't last you got to be real cold-blooded being an elected official like working for the drug
Speaker A
cartel you can't give anybody any mercy well it seems that whatever might be in in your heart uh and and however pure you might be when you finally arrive in office somebody brings you a big dossier it opens it up and said mr president or mr
Speaker A
mayor or mr governor this is the real situation at which point it's an ocean uh trying to start making some serious accommodations yes so kwame called patrick what went wrong there greedy that's great old school greedy he was greedy i didn't support
Speaker A
him in the beginning and when he was and i was one of his biggest critics but when he got in trouble when he called he called me call you i should listen to my wife she said don't be messing with them are there
Speaker A
good guys out there who would presumably own a lot of run for office who is going to win there's a lot of guys yes but they don't want to run there's a lot of people why does that happen because you got to take the
Speaker A
bags that come along with it you got to take the garbage why should a right young guy out of a fresh out of law school start thinking about running for anything in the city yeah because sooner or later it's gonna
Speaker A
be all right it's gonna come it's gonna be all right this is a tough time is detroit going to turn things around i could lie and tell you yes but you know what this city screwed only place i've ever been that looks
Speaker A
anything like detroit does now chernobyl i'm not being funny that's the truth [Music] but you have to admire the bold proud ferociously enterprising survivors who decided to hang on hang in and figure out a way to not only
Speaker A
survive but do something extraordinary there's tyree guyton's heidelberg project a delightfully loony outdoor community art project that began in 1986 and now attracts 35 000 visitors per year from around the world that was a [ __ ] gas right here
Speaker A
i love detroit you know they got this field mode last summer the neighborhood lit it on fire another block and more decay and a liquor store for this neighborhood the only store for miles just be right back see you later
Speaker A
cheers man [Music] yup you want one [Music] that's the benefit of a college education right there people seem to like you in this town who hates you with this town who hates me in this town nobody politicians i'm guessing there are a number of
Speaker A
politicians and former public employees who who are not too happy i don't know you know yeah yeah but let's face it though there's a whole lot of people out there who just who could be perfectly happy with just
Speaker A
let detroit go it already went look at this see all those lilies there uh-huh i call those the ghost gardens like they're all over like the houses that used to be the gardens still come [Music] up [Music] off the main drag girl you're wearing
Speaker A
the hat and everything a backyard thanks for coming i never had such a good time a well-tended home surrounded by many neglected ones an example of detroit style entrepreneurship greedy greg's a do-it-yourself barbecue joint started by these two
Speaker A
rochelle and greg on the menu absolutely delicious straight from the grill ribs and rib tips but the really good stuff is inside superb smoked pork loaded collards and mac and cheese thank you so much this is perfect that's good bro i'm gonna use this spoon
Speaker A
here it's unbelievably good what's the mag the greens are incredible oh those are good so in the greens is that like smoked ham hockey i can't tell you my favorite well i'll tell you those are some of the best
Speaker A
queens i ever had no doubt about it this dude's been everywhere come on yes i've been all over the south and i've had a lot of greens and those are some they're not just delicious they're luxurious big hunks of
Speaker A
you won't tell me what in there right now will this kind of entrepreneurship lead detroit out of its sinkhole probably not i can't believe there's like another line of cars around the corner that was good but it's no longer about
Speaker A
winning is it it's about surviving [Music] there are approximately 80 000 abandoned buildings within detroit's 140 square mile city limits what that translates to unfortunately is about 14 acts of arson a day nearly 5 000 a year that's just arson
Speaker A
that doesn't include the thousands of other types of fires and medical emergencies the detroit fire department responds to every day with an ever lower valued housing market where you can buy a home for as little as five hundred dollars
Speaker A
many houses are burned down for the insurance many because angry neighbors desperate to hang on see abandoned structures taken over by crackheads or drug gangs with law enforcement stretched ridiculously thin they resort to burning them out they won't say it
Speaker A
i will the detroit fire department is underfunded under equipped often badly and incompetently led and up against what seems like a never-ending war a city on fire their safety equipment their boots their clothes are often moldering and shambolic but they fight on
Speaker A
this is the second time they've been to this house if it happens to be arson chances are no one will ever know for sure given the ever-shrinking resources available to the department most fires can even be investigated [Music]
Speaker A
this fire is out within an hour and after the fire dinner [Music] the cliche is that firemen are great cooks in this case the cliche is true lieutenant mike devins and the boys of squad 3 are cooking up a family meal is every
Speaker A
firefighter expected to cook reasonably well if they don't they catch hell i mean detroit yeah it's almost a perfect society in that sense because in a perfect society i believe everybody should be able to feed themselves and their friends or their
Speaker A
family at least reasonably well and that that if they're not able to do that they should be shunned and demonized and marginal we'll agree most the firemen are known for their cooking we cook some outstanding meals we've learned to shop we've learned to shop
Speaker A
with less to feed more you don't want to be a belly robber you better bring some food back for the boys firefighters in my experience are a lot like the marines i've met over the years no matter how badly led
Speaker A
ridiculously under equipped underappreciated no matter how doomed their mission they take a bizarre and quite beautiful pride and at least being screwed more than everybody else and doing it with style they seem to do what they do for themselves it's not a job it's a
Speaker A
calling this is where the guys store their gear as you can see the gear is very weathered how well oh this gear is only a couple years old i mean it just gets beat up quick yeah got one new coat hanging in there
Speaker A
so there's a lucky guy it's got a new coat but uh that gear has seen a lot of action where's the fire pole dude they took him oh man in the late 90s management took the polls out what is
Speaker A
every little boy you know for my age what was all about sparky the fire dog and the pole you know i used to love sliding the pole and that headquarters was three stories so when you were sliding that thing you had
Speaker A
to really hold on because you were going for a ride [Music] the old running board we put up here we don't use the running board but this is how many companies we used to have what percentage of that number are
Speaker A
active now less than half and we're fighting a lot more fires you know i gotta say the uh the kitchen's looking pretty good that's one of the best kitchens in the city tonight's meal is being cooked by paul
Speaker A
he's squad three's best they say look at this he's reading the can that's a good start tonight's menu crab cakes with a mix of actual crab and this stuff sea leg maybe you know it from such beloved menu items as
Speaker A
california roll hey firefighters can't afford 100 jumbo lump crab meat okay do you know what this stuff is by the way some fish isn't it it's pollock right yeah it's a miracle fish you can actually make beef out of
Speaker A
this too or beef like substance yeah it should be pointed out that every meal is paid for by the crew on duty they pool their money and shop as a unit what's the firehouse favorite by consensus oh steaks and steaks if i were the you
Speaker A
know the regular cookie the whole firehouse would be in totally open rebellion why first of all i'd be making stews because it's cheap and i think they're delicious plus i'd be trying out like tripe and guts on you guys
Speaker A
i don't know how that would go that would not go you'd be eating like like like italian peasants every day if i was the cookie that pretty much you'd have like a big bowl of stew with a big hunk
Speaker A
of bread and that would be about it i'd be pocketing a difference yeah lamb chops seared in the pan then finished over the grill then caesar salad with chicken ever find out like how are the other firefighters eating around the
Speaker A
city you'll know like at a florida state what are you guys having for child you ever get tempted to just kind of like look at the other guys and say oh yeah we had like foie gras with truffles and uh all
Speaker A
the time you know in the deer racing la the other day i'm gonna be thinking lobster in a minute yeah lobster again you know i keep telling the guys no more lobster i just can't take it we are free to eat yes
Speaker A
job on the crab page too yeah full of meat very tasty paul so if it's not good you're not diplomatic about it no not at all no it's all nice try a lot of cooks they look at that kitchen
Speaker A
there's a lot of room and there's always a lot of spices our staples are always loaded you can pretty much make anything in there it's a good place to be a cook nice job there paulie yes well done sir
Speaker A
generally speaking you eat fast because you never know in all likelihood you are not going to get to finish that meal well obviously tony's not doing any dishes i'll do all the dishes no hell no it would be the first time i'll
Speaker A
be the last no way no way at this point you may be asking what about all the cool stuff i hear about detroit that's what you're thinking the vibrant new do-it-yourself culture of urban renaissance young entrepreneurs artists transforming
Speaker A
the city one block at a time where's that well that is happening young idealistic true believing hard-working creative people are indeed doing their best to bring light and hope and beauty to this greatest of cities you've got to start
Speaker A
with the deeply felt and absolute belief that detroit is indeed a great city and that it is worth saving as utterly screwed as detroit may be you have to be a twisted unpatriotic freak to not believe that behold the future charlie ladoff what
Speaker A
like cooking in a back alley yes all right chef craig lightfield has done what many would call a very unwise thing after working at gotham grill and jean georges in manhattan instead of staying where the money in arguably was
Speaker A
he returned to detroit he's been working to get a brick and mortar establishment going by first doing regular pop-ups here at guns and butter tucked into the back room of an art gallery under an overpass in downtown detroit
Speaker A
and you have like a really weird attitude towards food in general yeah what's that well you know you got liquor you got cigarettes you got coffee i'm for all of those things we're gonna eat well charlie ladoff may have a pulitzer prize but his
Speaker A
appreciation of fine food and dining is shall we say is that cheese lacking simply put he's a philistine [Music] warm egg yolk with a generous helping of smelt raw on top egg with eggs yes please the duff scars
Speaker A
his like he's at ruby tuesdays you got all these kids flooding into the tournament which is good right how's that going to play on it will there be political leadership in place to manage that fairly it'll be fine everybody likes a
Speaker A
nice little thing and an egg show with caviar on top everybody it's it's just all about keeping cool no it won't be fine dude it will not be fine if if if there's not political leadership it will not well you know sometimes
Speaker A
political leadership grows up out of what's happening and we don't have any political leadership and this is happening are you an optimist charlie i'm an optimist you're an optimist i'm here in this i'm here in his garage with you chilled
Speaker A
summer soup with melon the tomato lemon verbena broth so we have summer's soup all the melons from the market the coriander blossoms we actually picked from a farm right in detroit beautiful thank you thank you it's good isn't it
Speaker A
i would describe that may i chef is a light airy gazpacho oh delicious i wouldn't even go that far the duff sees an opportunity to make a melon gimlet a little gin in it putting gin in your soup well the soup
Speaker A
is delicious let me let me try it let me try it as a drink you're on your own dude you know when i was a chef and you'd pour gin in my soup i would've stabbed me in a neck with a fork
Speaker A
i'm dying somewhere inside you're like the worst case scenario customer the customer oh next up smoked mussels that are lightly steamed in white wine aromatics and butter served in a lobster broth with fried onions honey and yuzu quite delicious
Speaker A
baby greek salad with beets tomato and feta all sourced locally a tribute to the greek diners where craig grew up eating with his family this guy could be running a 300-seat restaurant in vegas and here he is in
Speaker A
detroit well guess what that's a heroic thing the headaches are less you appreciate it here no this no this is this would be considered a foolhardy venture in the chef world guess what we like good food too we're not space aliens people say they
Speaker A
often say thank you like why we just moved back from chicago we lived in chicago last six years we lived in elderly to six years thank you this is exactly what we wanted what you've done is counterintuitive i
Speaker A
mean there is a sort of conventional career path for chefs but instead you decide to go to detroit hell yeah now you try to come back home people think i'm crazy for going back to detroit then another tribute to classic detroit
Speaker A
potato filled pierogi and kielbasa simmered in white wine thyme and fennel seeds finished with burr fondue and burnt butter pine nuts followed by locally sourced lamb cooked perfectly topped with sour cherries mulberries toasted pistachios coriander and yogurt sauce in what way
Speaker A
does opening a fine dining restaurant in detroit benefit the majority of detroiters how is it not making it better how is sitting back not doing anything making it better how is it only buying my products from detroit or farmers in detroit
Speaker A
not helping detroit i'm supplying from detroit i'm hiring people from detroit everybody here lives in detroit if i were asked the same question and said i would say i don't know i'm doing what i do right now exactly i'm doing it at a place i love
Speaker A
and i am demonstrating that that yet another person gives up about detroit i believe in it enough to be here you're 100 right i never really thought about it until you asked that question it's like to me it's just obvious what will the
Speaker A
detroit of the future look like whatever you may think it should look like it will probably taste like this somewhere in this unassuming neighborhood one can sit down for an excellent meal but you won't find this place on yelp
Speaker A
and unfortunately i cannot tell you where it is exactly why not you ask it's not exactly a restaurant you see which means it's not strictly speaking legal what is this place papoosa house i call it house i mean
Speaker A
like a papu i guess you could say it's a cultural thing traditionally they serve out of their houses and it's just something that people ring over and they come so this is this is about as traditional it gets right here it's just like called
Speaker A
yeah this is what's called a papoosa house literally a house this one's serving home-cooked salvadoran meals once the living room now the main dining area the woman running it we can't show her face but she's been here for 10 years
Speaker A
serving a mostly salvadoran clientele looking for a taste of home [Music] first up a staple done a little differently than the norm tamales wrapped in banana leaf and steamed mmm that's delicious next the dish of the house papoosas
Speaker A
tortillas stuffed with ground pork or chicharron you get purposes in nicaragua in guatemala but for some reason a salvadorian papooses get the most respect general consensus seems to be there the best how come i would agree george azar is
Speaker A
our detroit fixer he's been coming here with his friend joe for years this is what makes it right here boom is this cortido salsa and i'll do this but i don't know if you for up to this one what are you
Speaker A
saying i don't know if you can hang man is it a manly thing it i mean it's turning into it seems like mexican spicy salvadorian not spicy that's true though they don't like it they don't do it that spicy
Speaker A
wow yeah there's a porky goodness in there for sure fried pork fried pork and it's ground with peppers onion and tomato simple taking the liberty of water reading some indigenous detroit beverages that we've we've egregiously overlooked so far that would be burners which i
Speaker A
haven't had uh it's like a cross between ginger beer and ginger ale it's like not as spicy as ginger beer and not as sweet as ginger ale it's like in the middle it's my favorite beverage i see yes i needed this to enhance my street
Speaker A
cred in detroit so that i will be welcomed back then pollo asado had shrimp and garlic butter that shrimp head on thank you very much this is where it's at god lives in there butter garlic simple delicious it's the low fat
Speaker A
butter butter that's good not [Music] [Music] there are available of uh of foodies with ironic sunglasses and fedoras and they're just waiting to get in here oh we don't want this place to come to the food i get mad at him when
Speaker A
he starts bringing different people really you'd hate a line of people outside waiting yeah two-hour wait to get in here yes yes yes i don't want to wait for my place who hates money with her it's not about the money it's about keeping the
Speaker A
tradition alive [Music] what happens when a city goes bankrupt when it's at the point that it's actually considering selling what's left of itself in chunks in detroit city services are reduced or cut out completely fewer buses fewer cops fewer
Speaker A
firefighters answer they turn to each other for help or figure out how to do it for themselves detroit has a reputation as a tough town but that toughness is about resilience too the insistence on sticking with it no matter what on not giving up in the
Speaker A
face of the utter failure of leadership year after year if the city abandons its parks and leaves them to become overgrown eaten like so much of the rest of the city by tall grass and weeds then somebody has got to do something
Speaker A
right meet the mower gang started by this guy tom nardone with a simple mission of doing what they can to keep detroit's abandoned parks maintained who are you guys and what are you doing here we are the detroit mower gang
Speaker A
and we clean up the abandoned parks and playgrounds in this town why would you do that uh kids need a place to play i don't care who you are you know if you're under 10 years old i think you deserve some justice in this
Speaker A
world don't you think yeah yeah how did this thing start i guess i started it i bought a lawn tractor when the city announced they were closed in 72 parks what's the difference between open and closed they're just going to stop maintaining
Speaker A
that's it or do they actually physically shut it off no no they don't physically shut it off because there's no money here you just physically shut it off yeah they just they just take the trash barrels away and stop mowing
Speaker A
crazy it's a strange place detroit when we're done here it will not look like a nice park but still a playable park yeah in a visible park so if you had kids you could see what they're doing in this
Speaker A
park it's safer all right well let's cut some grass yeah come on you like it it's fun [Applause] god [Music] oh [Applause] it's grass in my beer [Music] in detroit approximately 40 square miles have been reverted to basically
Speaker A
unused green space in many cities so-called urban farming may be looked upon by cynics like me as an affectation here in detroit it's not with nature taking back the landscape block by block the urban farm is really the last line
Speaker A
of defense d-town sits on the western border of detroit where are we we're in the largest park in the city which is called rouge park did you just come in and start digging or did you had permission to come in we
Speaker A
had permission to come in was that difficult it was very difficult we negotiated with the city for two years and part of the difficulty was they really didn't know what hook to hang our request on they're used to developers coming saying
Speaker A
i want to build a strip mall or i want to build a parking structure but they're not used to people saying we want land to build a model organic farm malik yakini started the farm with the goal of providing greater access to
Speaker A
fresh produce in areas that grocery stores have completely abandoned that's basically all of detroit's inner city other than whole foods it just came in yes not a single national food chain no no in 2007 farmer jack closed his last stores in detroit and
Speaker A
that was kind of the end of the big chains in detroit this is subsistence farming not cash crop i mean you're not you're not going to be selling you're not anticipating selling outside of detroit there's a greater demand in detroit than
Speaker A
all of the farmers locally can supply so first we want to supply that local demand in the city of detroit to what degree do you think that this model can be replicated in and around the city well clearly we
Speaker A
think urban agriculture has great potential and one of the things that we have in detroit is access to huge amounts of land if we're able to produce even a small percentage of the food which is consumed in detroit
Speaker A
and circulate the revenues from that food within our community then we're able to create a more vibrant healthy economically strong community so we think it has tremendous potential who will live in the detroit of the future there's no question is there that
Speaker A
detroit will come back in one form or another a city this magnificent this storied this american cannot will not ever disappear into the weeds there are too few places this beautiful for it to be allowed to crumble like encore or rome someone will live in
Speaker A
a smaller tighter no doubt hipper much contracted new detroit but who will that be will it be the people who stuck it out here who fought block by block to keep their city from burning who struggled to defend their homes
Speaker A
keep up appearances as all around them their neighborhoods emptied what will detroit look like in 20 years or 50. that's not just a detroit question that's an america question so [Music] [Music] you
Topics:DetroitAnthony BourdainParts Unknownurban declinePackard plantConey Island hot dogsurban explorationRust Belturban farmingdeindustrialization
