Detroit has been alight with discussions of and proposals for large-scale Urban Agriculture projects. In addition to land use, local economic and community engagement concerns, large-scale Agriculture in an urban setting provides us an opportunity to look into the environmental impact of farming. After the screenings we’ll discuss the films and share info on local groups working in Environmental Health.

On the third Wednesday of every month Eastern Market Corporation, Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit and Detroit Evolution partner to present DETROIT ABIDES – A FREE Movie Night in Eastern Market. Detroit Abides screens a movie on a sustainable topic, explores the topic at the local level through discussion and support from regional groups and businesses, and creates a space to meet like-minded people from all walks of life & grow an active, healthy community. For this casual event, please bring a comfortable seat. Shed 5 is located at the corner of Russell and Alfred St. Parking is available in the lots adjacent to the Shed.

Big River – A King Corn Companion
http://www.bigriverfilm.com
Following up on their Peabody winning documentary, the King Corn boys are back. For Big River, best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis have returned to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn has sent to the people and places downstream. In a journey that spans from the heartland to the Gulf of Mexico, Ian and Curt trade their combine for a canoe––and set out to see the big world their little acre of corn has touched. On their trip, flashbacks to the pesticides they sprayed, the fertilizers they injected, and the soil they plowed now lead to new questions, explored by new experts in new places. Half of Iowa’s topsoil, they learn, has been washed out to sea. Fertilizer runoff has spawned a hypoxic “dead zone” in the Gulf. And back at their acre, the herbicides they used are blamed for a cancer cluster that reaches all too close to home. Run-time: 27 minutes

HealthyTown – Detroit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIYASqPAF6g
Bill Couzens, the film’s Director, will join us for this screening. HealthyTown – Detroit documents organizations working to bridge the numerous Environmental Health gaps in Detroit through prevention. The film features Earthworks at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Local Motion Green, Childrens Hospital of Michigan, the Kresge Foundation and Kids Kicking Cancer. Run-time: 25 minutes

NEXT MONTH: join us in Shed 5 on June 16th when we will feature the full-length documentary Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action. “Fierce Light is a journey around the world looking at a vast range of people protesting social issues and examines the notion that social action is most effective when it is deeply rooted in some form of spirituality.”

For more information or to get involved call Detroit Evolution at 313.316.1411

This winter ecological family fair is a ‘one-of-a-kind’ event. Many exhibitors will be available to answer questions at their organization’s displays. This is an annual co-sponsored event presented by: The Friends of the Detroit River, The Friends of Belle Isle and The City of Detroit Recreation Department.

For additional information contact The Friends of Belle Isle Office at 313-331-7760. Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm.

Events held at the Casino Building:
Exhibits, Displays, and Refreshments
Belle Isle Historical Slide Presentation
Environmental Arts and Crafts for Kids
Compact Fluorescent Bulb Collection
Thermometer Exchange

Belle Isle Aquarium will be open 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
There will be fish in one of the tanks !

Other Fun all around Belle Isle
Dossin Maritime Museum , 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Conservatory, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Belle Isle Nature Zoo , 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Old Belle Isle Boat Club, 12 noon – 4 p.m.

FRIENDS OF THE DETROIT RIVER
2674 W. Jefferson Ave,, Suite LL1
Trenton, MI 48183
(734) 675 – 0141
http://www.detroitriver.org/

THE FRIENDS OF BELLE ISLE
8109 East Jefferson
Detroit, MI 48214
Phone: (313) 331-7760
http://www.fobi.org/index.htm

Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium
P.O. 02416
Detroit, Michigan 48202
http://belleisleaquarium.com/

Friday, October 2, 2009 at 7:00pm through
Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 4:00am

Top DJ‘s will be arriving from Toronto, Cleveland, OH and Detroit to perform at The Inaugural Detroit Going Green / Entertainment Awareness Event.

The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the importance of Going Green in Detroit through music and, entertainment.

Featured DJ’s include: Derrick May, DJ SEOUL, Chuck Daniels, and many more. See the full set list and bios at : http://www.DetroitGoingGreen.citymax.com

DWP is grateful to have the support of FilmEmerge.com, Motor City Blight Busters, StandUp for Kids, Green Party of Michigan, and Environment Michigan.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about how you can be involved in Detroit Going Green.

The Detroit Going Green / Entertainment Awareness Event will be broadcast live on http://www.DetroitCity.Tv and filmed by other industries. Local businesses will attend the event to support Detroit becoming greener. There are a ton of little factors everyone can do to change the environment and how we live in the city of Detroit.

Learn more about the Event and Tickets at http://www.DetroitGoingGreen.citymax.com

Detroit Warehouse Party (DWP)
1600 E. Grand Blvd
Detroit, MI
Email: nathan@detroitgoionggreen.org
http://www.detroitgoinggreen.org/

Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market Accepts Michigan Bridge Card and WSU One Card

Members of the university, mid-town, and broader Detroit community are invited to visit the Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market and shop for fresh, locally grown vegetables, fruits, flowers, transplants, and other farm and food products.

The market opened June 3, and runs every Wednesday from 11 AM to 4 PM, through October 28. It is located on Cass Avenue, in front of Prentis Hall (WSU Business School), just north of Warren Ave, and across the street from the Detroit Public Library.

The market features farmers from Detroit and the surrounding metropolitan region, including one farmer from Ontario, Canada. In June, farmers will offer the season’s early gifts, including lettuce, spinach, collard and other greens, peas, potatoes, strawberries, apples, spring flowers, and lots of transplants. Some farmers will have hothouse tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs. One of Detroit’s favorite bakeries, Avalon International Breads, will also maintain a stall through the entire market season.

The market’s organizers are especially proud of Detroit growers who will sell at the market; they include the D-Town Farm run by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, Vandalia Gardens, Earthworks Urban Farm, and the Grown in Detroit Cooperative coordinated by the Garden Resource Program Collaborative.

The Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market is authorized to accept the Michigan Bridge Card. The Bridge Card is a debit card, in which federal food stamp dollars are deposited so that participating low-income households can purchase food. The food stamp program—now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP—is offered at the market in partnership with Detroit’s Eastern Market Corporation.

SEED Wayne is also gearing up to be authorized to accept the state’s Project Fresh and Senior Project Fresh coupons this season. Project Fresh and Senior Project Fresh are programs that help pregnant women and children, and senior citizens, respectively, have access to Michigan-produced fruits and vegetables sold at farmers markets. This program therefore also supports Michigan farmers.

Additionally the market will accept the Wayne State One Card, for the convenience of students and staff who do business on campus through their One Card.

As with all SEED Wayne activities, the farmers market is made possible with the help of several campus partners, with special thanks to the Division of Business Operations led by Nabelah Ghareeb and the Department of Public Safety led by Chief Tony Holt, and Dean David L. Williams of the School of Business Administration.

The Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market is a project of SEED Wayne.
For questions regarding the Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market or SEED Wayne, please contact Kami Pothukuchi at k.pothukuchi@wayne.edu.

SEED Wayne’s mission is to collaboratively build sustainable food systems on the campus of Wayne State University and in Detroit area neighborhoods.

SEED Wayne projects include the Warrior Demonstration Garden and the St. Andrew’s Allotment Garden on campus, in which students and staff grow herbs and vegetables; the Wayne State Wednesday Farmers Market in which area market gardeners and farmers sell fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and prepared foods; Cafeteria Composting, in which kitchen wastes at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center and campus cafeterias are composted; a 4,000 sq. ft. passive solar greenhouse at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen for year-round production of vegetables for the soup kitchen; and Healthy Corner Stores, in which corner stores in the near-Eastside neighborhood around Capuchin Soup Kitchen are being assessed to increase access to healthy foods in the community.

SEED Wayne is made possible by the Ford Motor Company Fund. For more information on SEED Wayne, please browse: www.clas.wayne.edu/seedwayne

This event will be held at the FD Lofts in Detroit’s Eastern Market, and will feature a 75-minute Evolutionary Yoga session led by Gregg Newsom, live music from Dixion’s Violin (a cosmic gypsy electronic experience), and will be followed by a local and organic raw food brunch prepared by Angela Newsom. Learn more about how raw foods help balance the body and mind and promote both physical and spiritual wellness!

Where: FD Lofts, Detroit
When: 10:00AM-1:00PM
Tix: $35.00 (must register in advance; call 313-316-1411 or visit the website)

http://detroitevolution.com

Chef Anthony Bourdain, the show’s punk-rock aficionado and proud New Yorker posted on his blog about his visit to Detroit and other rust belt cities.

I think that troubled cities often tragically misinterpret what’s coolest about themselves. They scramble for cure-alls, something that will “attract business”, always one convention center, one pedestrian mall or restaurant district away from revival. They miss their biggest, best and probably most marketable asset: their unique and slightly off-center character. Few people go to New Orleans because it’s a “normal” city — or a “perfect” or “safe” one. They go because it’s crazy, borderline dysfunctional, permissive, shabby, alcoholic and bat sh!t crazy — and because it looks like nowhere else.

From a cycling perspective, this is certainly true.

For instance, the super popular Tour de Troit bike ride doesn’t start in a Wallmart parking lot. It starts in front of a amazing yet decaying 1913 Beaux-Arts train station. The route doesn’t take you past a repeating background of national chain stores and restaurants. You won’t find a Heidelberg Project or a Hamtramck Disneyland or a Dequindre Cut in the suburbs, much less anywhere else in the world.

And you won’t find as many major streets with such minor traffic.

Biking in the city of Detroit is like nowhere else. As we mentioned before, we don’t just fit the bike-friendly mold that other cities are chasing and that’s just fine. Let’s celebrate and hone what we have while not trying so desparately to hide the blemishes that aren’t hurting anyone (like old Tiger Stadium.)

But off the soapbox and back to Bourdain’s blog, he does continue with a focus just on our fair city.

Detroit. Where just about everything cool originated. As angry as one gets looking at block after block of abandoned row houses in Baltimore and wondering how the hell that happened, it’s mind boggling to see how far Detroit has been allowed to fall. But what a truly magnificent breed of crazy-ass hardcase characters have dug in there. Of all three cities we visited, Detroit, oddly enough, even while looking the jaws of death straight in the face, remains closest to being a true culinary wonderland. This is due entirely to the successive waves of migration and immigration from all over the world, when people came to MAKE things in America — each group bringing their own food and traditions. Detroit IS the story of America, for better — and worse, and I think we’ve missed that, allowed ourselves to look away. Detroit, after all, made us who we are. Literally. A country of cars, highways, car culture, upward mobility, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and what were once, unlimited dreams. Whatever happens next, Motown, Eminem and the Stooges’ “Fun House”, at least, shall surely outlast the automobile.

So, how does one tie together a post on Detroit, the Michigan Central Station, Tiger stadium and biking?

Eminem’s Beatiful video seems to do just fine. (Not safe for work, so watch it at home if you have to.)

Todd Scott Is The Detroit Greenways Coordinator

You may already know that Detroit is a leader in urban agriculture. This week you have the opportunity to witness it firsthand.

Wednesday evening, August 5th, is the 12th Annual Detroit Agriculture Network Tour of Urban Gardens and Farms.

This year’s tour will highlight a selection of prosperous, innovative, and visually stunning gardens and farms that are contributing to the new food system through bio‐intensive urban agriculture and commerce between local restaurants and farmer’s markets. The Garden Resource Program Collaborative (GRPC) works to support the emergence of a new, sustainable food system in Detroit through a network of more than 517 backyard gardens, 244 community gardens, and 46 school gardens. The GRPC facilitates resources, education, and training of urban gardeners, farmers, and community leaders through a variety of programming.

The bicycle tour will “weave through gardens located in the Cass Corridor, Woodbridge, and Greater Corktown.” At the end of the tour will be locally-grown food and refreshments created by local chefs!

There is also a bus tour option, but it is full as of today.

All tours start at the Catherine Ferguson Academy (2750 Selden in Detroit.) Sign in begins at 5pm and the tour starts sharply at 6pm.

There are still a few open spots on the bike tour.

Register ahead of time by contacting Ashley Atkinson at 313‐237‐8736 or via email at aatkinso@umich.edu. The tour fee is a sliding scale from $1 to $20 which offsets costs and helps “grow Detroit’s agricultural movement.”

And for those that can’t make it August 5th, there is a Garden Bike Tour on August 15th just south of the border. It’s part of Windsor’s 2nd Annual Summer Harvest Festival. (via Bike Windsor)

Todd Scott Is The Detroit Greenways Coordinator

The project is designed to test Kresge’s belief that grassroots arts and cultural projects can be an effective tool to unite communities, address pressing social issues, and uplift spirits in difficult times. Individuals and groups are encouraged to apply, including local artists and historians, neighborhood and homeowner associations, youth with parental consent, service agencies, municipal governments, community development corporations, and arts and cultural organizations, among others.

“We believe a thriving arts and cultural community inspires new thinking, spurs innovation and accelerates the creative vitality of a city or region,” said Rip Rapson, president of the Kresge Foundation. “We hope these grants encourage civic dialogue and provide creative outlets to feed the human spirit.”

Kresge Community Arts is intended to support the creative ideas that percolate from within the selected communities. The hope is that projects will engage underserved and new audiences as well as children, teens and families; promote cross-cultural understanding; increase exposure to art and culture; and provide experiences in non-traditional spaces such as low-income housing developments, juvenile detention centers, battered women’s shelters and after-school program centers.

“There are many talented artists and artistic activities in Detroit that are not always well-funded or widely recognized,” says pilot-program administrator Susan D. Wood. “At the same time, we have numerous social-service entities and community-based groups in Detroit that are working hard to restore distressed neighborhoods and to provide services to families and children. We hope this pilot program will encourage partnerships across these sectors and result in the creation of community-based works of art that inspire residents and revitalize neighborhoods.”

Pilot cities were selected based on a criterion that included median household income and the readiness of existing local partners to help launch the project. Twelve of the nation’s most distressed cities were considered for participation. In metropolitan Detroit, only residents and/or organizations living or located in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park are eligible to apply.

Applicants in the three pilot cities – Detroit, Baltimore and St. Louis – may request two-year grants for planning and implementation. Projects do not have to be new, but existing projects will not receive priority funding. Complete information on Kresge Community Arts, the grant process, and applications can be found at www.kresge.org. The submission deadline for the Detroit area is August 31. Grantees will be announced in October 2009 with funding beginning thereafter.

Kresge Foundation – The Kresge Foundation is a $2.8 billion private, national foundation that supports communities by building the capacity of nonprofit organizations in six fields: health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. In partnership with grantees, Kresge seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expression, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for dealing with global climate change. In 2008, the foundation approved 342 grants totaling $181 million.

The Detroit Tigers are hosting a green weekend at the ballpark, highlighting both the ways they are cutting waste and ways you can go green.

They asked TRU (Transit Riders Unite) help to show fans how they can ride the bus to the ballpark, saving gas, saving on parking, and decreasing pollution! The TRU website now features both a How to Ride the Bus webpage and a Ride the Bus to the Ballpark webpage. Both will soon be on the Detroit Tigers’ website too.

The Tigers will also be hosting a green fair outside Comerica Park this Saturday and Sunday from 12noon until 8pm and TRU will also be there!

It’s grand opening in May officially kicked off the Summer of Dequindre Cut Love. It was far and away the most talked about trail at the MTGA RiverDays booth. And at the Palmer Park Green Fair, Lt. Governor John Cherry was quick to locate the Dequindre Cut on the Detroit Greenways brochure.

The word is out.

And one major reason is the world class graffiti along the Cut. Yesterday’s Detroit News ran an article that discusses that graffiti with some of the artists that created it. The article includes both a video and an audio tour. It was interesting to learn that some of the graffiti is over 20 years old.

Additional link: Photos of the Dequindre Cut graffiti prior to the trail construction
Detroit Ferry Service?

Currently the only convenient means for getting ones bike across the Detroit River into Canada is by driving it. That may change as the Wayne County Port Authority will soon have support facilities for ferry service on the RiverWalk. The Free Press is reporting their receipt of $7 million in funding to further that effort thanks to Senator Carl Levin.

Imagine if taking your bike to Windsor, Canada was as straightforward as taking it to Mackinaw Island (with customs, of course.)
Special Needs Bike Camp

Today’s Detroit News has a great article called, Bike camp clears hurdle for special needs children:

Because of their limitations, only 10 percent of children with Down syndrome and 18 percent of children with autism can ride a bike, said Dale Ulrich, director of U-M’s Center for Physical Activity & Health in Pediatric Disabilities.

But after the camp, most who attend can ride a bike, and the study is finding the children are more likely to stay physically active, leading to many health benefits. This is especially good for children with Down syndrome since it often leads to excess weight. Children with autism often suffer from sleep disorders that are treated with medications, some of which cause weight gain.

Besides the health benefits, learning how to ride a bike also helps the children become more social, verbal and independent, Ulrich said.
No Sidewalks

This Free Press article, Road sound raises residents’ fury, shows how backwards some communities can be.

…The residents did post one victory. The township board agreed not to run a sidewalk alongside Square Lake Road.

“The beautification project is not most important right now, safety is the issue,” township Clerk Janet Roncelli said.

Apparently pedestrians safety is not a priority for Bloomfield Township.
Downsizing Detroit

The Free Press revisits how we can manage the downsizing of Detroit. While not directly about biking, a planned downsizing would lead to vast greenspace and opportunities for additional greenways and trails.

And in a related vein, the Detroit News is noting the return of wildlife within the city, including red foxes.

The red fox is carving out a place of its own deep into downtown, joining the ranks of raccoons, skunks, opossum, white-tailed deer and red-tailed hawks finding homes in untended lots, houses and buildings in the rusting one-time car capital.
And don’t forget the red-necked pheasants!

Todd Scott Is The Detroit Greenways Coordinator