A Beautiful Detroit Begins with Monica and Ashley (and their green army)

 Monica Tabares                                             Ashley Atkinson

The Greening of Detroit                     The view from GM's Headquarters

The Greening of Detroit is looking for new members. It's sort of like fundraising, but maybe you have to do something. To say this to outsiders, especially those just over the 8 Mile divide, would be like bringing up the bad marriage, "the money wasted!"  Some hard-core hippie-types are looking for more money and help to throw it away on plants for all that vacant land. Is this how they are going to make up for what other cities have i.e. real grocery stores with fresh food? 

It wasn't a very big gathering, there were some Birkenstocks, and they were looking for people to "join" this organization that plants gardens and trees.  It could have been a deja vu moment, that is until you heard the statistics.  Obama couldn't have dreamed up a better grassroots movement nor this winning green party ticket:  Monica Tabares, Events Coordinator and Ashley Atkinson, Director of Project Development and Urban Agriculture for The Greening of Detroit. 

They stand up in their cargo pants and flip flops, coolly lay out the statistics that have put Detroit in the international driver's seat of a cutting-edge urban agricultural movement. Monica tells how 15 years ago she decided she wanted to save the world and couldn't as just a new mom and an attorney in Detroit. She was one of three staff members in this fledgling organization whose mission was to plant trees in the blighted city. This is going to save the world? (the power of postpartum thinking?!). 

Well it turns out those darn "hippies" were planting more than trees. The Greening of Detroit has grown a citywide food movement, and it's feeding more than a few people. Where there were once only 18 gardens, Detroit now has more than 1500. Then an idea to involve kids became the training of hundreds of kids and adults in green jobs, paying green jobs. The initial staff of three has become thirty.  One board member flew to an international conference on urban agriculture, and found out there was nothing new to learn. Detroit knew more than any other city about how to cultivate a successful urban agricultural program. Monica's idea to expand the mission beyond tree planting, despite limited funds and few troops, paid off.  

Ashley is the field marshal presiding over a not so small army, getting acreage planted, food disseminated to markets and people across the city and the projects keep coming. All this on a budget and they're so fiscally efficient, they've earned a 4-star rating because of their money management. Ashley and Monica  explained that when the money isn't available, they simply all work together to find another, creative way to get things done. How novel. Ashley whispered that a 3-acre garden is going in at the 200-plus year-old farmer's market in downtown Detroit and a whole world is watching to see if Detroit can cultivate a financially viable model that can be exported. People watching this food desert to see if a grass roots movement can grow food in it? As a business concept? Like an unwanted weed, turns out you just can't kill the D, and actually, you might want to live there. 

Trees are still getting planted. One impassioned homeowner reported how The Greening organization helped his neighborhood replace dead trees and in the process a strong community took root. They're moving from places like Ann Arbor and Chicago, it's such a positive, futuristic living experience here. There's money being wasted on some ugly ideas in this country, but not in this beautiful backyard. One woman's company moved from one of the well-heeled suburbs to downtown Detroit. She said that looking out her new window from the GM headquarter's building, the trees are blooming and it's quite beautiful. Would you believe the people who planted them are on their way to saving the world?