about rapidly gentrifying urban outliers like Staten Island
or rapidly deconstructing clusters like the other 135.8 miles of Detroit.
Urban observers who can write are especially welcome
Sunday, April 21, 2024
The Best Park you never heard of
Humboldt Forest is the spot where
artists go to do legal graffiti, have a party, and meet up. You can go too. It is located on one of the last cobblestone streets near the Jeffries. In fact, Forest street ends here, and Humboldt street is the cobblestone street. Skateboarders are waiting for the receiving docks to be fixed so they can run again.
The days I have visited, I got invited to a party later. SO the nice thing to do is go and bring some corn to roast, or bring some Gatorade. I am not sure about alcohol-Humboldt Forest is a privately owned space, and they want to avoid police, so not bringing anything that can be confiscated is a good idea.
It is quiet, like an art gallery, but outdoors. People do live nearby, so be respectful.
I wonder how to live next to something that needs to be restored or torn down.... I would prefer more tiny house projects developed for the formerly homeless and more avant garde approaches to using space once land is cleared. Detroit is not ranked high in healthy walkable neighborhoods. I do not know if its the design /crime/or car culture that makes this place diabetes central.But one thing I do know- Detroit could be the Number One 21st century city of the future. Not suburban, not urban, not inner, not outer but something for all . I call it NeoUrban. A new living arrangement of people , living in connected neighborhoods. Connected walkable, safe with light rail for distances over 2 miles. See this fantasy transportation map?
Disclosure: I write a blog called diabeticslifeline.com I know that diabetes is managed by walking...
Also
My blogging is affected by the following --- I can dream of better things.
I was a kid growing up in a faux Cape Cod with a covered porch / Fixer Upper in Conant Gardens ...I used to look out my window over the city and imagine what it would look like with less houses, and winding lanes and lamps twinkling through the zillion trees. I saw the ravages of Dutch Elm disease, and left before the center fell @ 1985 for NYC. I am now back in Detroit with a unique perspective ...Isn't strange that I could see this city laid out differently years before it actually ended up with less houses?
So put in the twinkling lanes and zillion trees but add houses people can afford till death if need be...A thought : Once the mortgage is paid WHY can't we keep the taxes down? According to what I have been seeing since I left the very expensive East Coast and gentrified precincts of greater NYC ,
Detroiters pay way more than their houses are worth. I live in Oakland county and its also crazy here- we in Oakland are often paying more taxes than owners in Brooklyn Heights mansion owners who are blocks from the Riverfront with that crazy quintillion dollar view...
WHY SO MUCH $$$$ for Less in Mitten Land???????????
If the house is tiny /the taxes should be tiny -until your time is up! if only they would Chant this in the streets.... -regenerate cities- go tiny /rise up Detroit/time to be shiny/lets go people/lets be lively Disclosure: I have seen the marches in Buenos Aires circa 2003 - 3 points This is what will it take to deliver some fairness to the 99%-
Try to sell so that Tiny houses paid in full (no mortgages ) and at the same time , homeowners of tiny houses billed yearly for taxes held to a rule of 15 % of the occupants future earnings(social security, etc) No Increases!!
Use the 15% taxed of all homeowners of green/tiny houses for only 1 thing -the $$$ pays for school ... other taxes levied from other possible sources go to other structural needs of a city , and are subject to legislation
Social Contract of the Neo-urban city: All house taxes Must support the Year Around school for anyone who wants to learn (Mandatory 1-12 grades) . Learning as facilitated by Free Internet will be made available for all future generations to be educated to a BS or BA level Just make it non negotiable and not something voters wrangle over : Millages are stupid.
The third coast is the trendsetter for the rest of the country, and Detroit is the neo-urban leader...
Why should Detroit go tiny since NYC is not going tiny ? East Coast Cities like NY are going up (not tiny...) NY is building above existing buildings like Bladerunner - using the air space . (Maybe has to do with the rising ocean...) See the picture below??. I lived right around the corner from this house in Brooklyn . The other boros: Staten Island, Queens, The Bronx& Brooklyn are not as overbuilt as Manhattan .The possibility of space sans demolition makes these areas open to experimental container green housing. Puerto Rico take note ...Cheaper and Hurricane Proof Housing is available using your imagination and going tiny with railroad containers -cheaper than traditional materials (and can be installed quickly...before the next hurricane season......
see the video below in Williamsburg Brooklyn
(I lived near here in 2011, and passed by it often...)
If tiny is the new black then Square feet is the new bitcoin - unpredictable income equals instability for fboth the 1% and the 99 %.
Why spotlight Diana and Aretha ?
Entertainers make $$$ until they do not -which is when the entertainment is no longer hot, and enters a nostalgic phase. That is when the downsizing should occur - 2 homes and a lot can be a bit much- no?
Having a lot in Palmer Woods off the Golf course is also sensible.
Having a home in Bloomfield Hills is also sensible.
But not being able to maintain all three at the level of no worries would be the goal, especially as one gets older and works less. Something has to give. Guess what is teetering/ hovering above the swirling edge of the default drain? Guess where the property of the stars is that requires a Small infusion of liquid money in order to keep it off the Taxman/Auction list?? 18281 Hamilton Avenue- 1 house from 7 mile is just a cute lot Only .58 of an acre - the right size to put a tiny home cluster of 2 or 3 homes
and give some formerly homeless a chance to start anew ...not too far from the University District and the 8 mile border- Relatively safe- near the 12th precinct police station also. One less thing to worry about, and an opportunity to do good...
Aretha's Lot......Could look like thisProject called True North Near Wayne State University
in any case, the lot is around the corner from the
Frank Lloyd Wright home on 7 mile:
The Dorothy H. Turkel House is a private residence located at 2760 West 7 Mile Road in north-central Detroit, Michigan, within the Palmer Woods neighborhood. - wikipedia
