pole beans

they got a late start and struggled for a while because our lattice was too flimsy. but we fixed that with this massive tripod.

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zucchini

I didn't know how to convey to you how big this zucchini was so I gave it to Mr B and took a picture

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The garden overflows

As an example of how the garden is coming along here are the peppers MJ picked this week. tomatoes are on the way. the first batch should be in later this week.

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test

can I post to my blog from my new phone...answer "I think so"

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Firstfruits

Spinach, Arugala, Radish

Russell Bazaar

Detroit is full of empty factories.  The exodus of manufacturing from Detroit that began in the 1950's was in part due to the lack of space for new factories.  Suburbs and other states offered free land to companies that would build new factories outside the city rather than rehabing old ones.

The Russell Industrial Center, finished in 1925 made auto bodies, then later became a hub for printers then abandoned.  History

In 2003 It was purchased.  Now it is the Russell Arts Bazaar.  For around thirty dollars a week you can rent a stall to sell whatever you want.  And people sell all sorts of things.  Clothing-used, new, designed by the seller, computers for 200$, furniture, music, food.  There's a dollar cafe where everything is a dollar.  The sandwiches aren't half bad.  There's a guy who sells fruit, and someone who sells water bottles, and several jewelry stores.  There's also a shop devoted to selling conspiracy theory DVD's including all 5 episodes of "A Damn Shame".  On the weekends the place is hopping.  They have an art gallery with regular shows.  The next one is by a well known graffiti artist in the area.  Every first weekend of the month there is an art fair (apparently some months are better than others).  They have open mic night a couple times a week, and then there's the exhibition hall--on Saturday when we went down there they were setting up for a "professional wrestling match"  I couldn't convince Age and MJ to stay for the fun.  It was only 5$ a ticket for front row seats.  

Then aside from the bazaar there are great arts events.  Like the Michigan Hot Glass Workshop.  We haven't been yet, but it's in the plan.  The great thing about an old, big, factory is that there is so much space, you can fit all sorts of small businesses into it. Like The Highway Press.

Kill the Illuminati

I met this guy the other day.  He's 24, and he doesn't have consistent employment.  I'm not sure what he actually does for money.  Not sure I want to know.  He dropped out of high school at 15 after bouncing around 3-4 different schools.  One he got kicked out of, one he was just bored.  He's a bright guy though.  Mentally agile, given an opportunity I'm sure he could have finished high school gone to college and made his way in the world.  He's also one of the nicest people I've ever met...always smiling.

Anyway, so he was asking me if I could answer some questions for him.  He wanted to know if we were really experiencing hell on earth.  I had no idea what he was talking about...long story short...he loaned me this DVD to watch.  I have since talked to some people who have grown up in Detroit in less than wealthy circumstances and apparently this DVD is pretty popular.  It's called "A Damn Shame" and there are five, two-hour installments.  I only watch about half an hour of one of them.

So it turns out that Detroit is a hotbed of modern conspiracy theorists.   It's all about how the Illuminati control the world.   I learned so much about them.  They killed Tupac for starters, and Michael Jackson. They also put their symbol on the back of the one dollar bill.  The Masons control who becomes president...I actually thought this one had died with the election of a black president since when I first heard these theories they focused heavily on how only white men could become president.  And their ultimate goal?...to bring about and maintain hell on earth.

Ridiculous right, how could anyone believe this...the thing is though, I got it.  I saw why it's so popular.  The narrator talks about hopelessness, oppression, poverty.  It speaks right to the feeling of the inevitableness of poverty among the underclass of this city.  The lack of opportunities.  To grow up in poverty in Detroit is not a hopeful position.  If I didn't have an education I'd probably believe it too.

But it takes the truth of oppression and poverty, and twists it.  The video says there is this one group oppressing us, holding us down...when what is really holding this city is the sin of millions of people.  The small choices of everyone.  The choices of rich folk out in the suburbs who have given up on the city, and the choices of some of the poor here in the city who choose alcohol, drugs, and sex over staying in chool and getting a job.   It is the weight of the collective decisions of millions of people that makes the problem of poverty so intractable.  If it were just a few illuminati, we could just take them out and poverty would be gone.

So this video gets passed around-bootleg copies making the rounds in Detroit.  And I think it actually brings a modicum of hope to some, because it makes things simpler and it gives an answer...just get rid of the illuminati.

Things you might see if you wander around Detroit

One thing about Detroit is that it has unique features you might not find in other cities.  Other places don't necessarily have so many interesting sites. And this is all in an afternoon.

Where else can you move into an abandoned building today just by calling a number.

Where else can you find a church named after the pastor?

I grew up driving by crosses on the side of the road at most sharp turns.  Thismemorial takes it to a whole new level.  It is in memory of a girl who died two months ago when she crashed into this tree.  Apparently they brought out all her belongings and stapled them to this tree. 

Mr. B doesn't like to sit in his stroller for long periods of time.

Sprouts!

The garden is coming along.  It's fun to see things growing that were little seeds a few weeks ago.  The guy who lives in the house adjacent to the garden has graciously offered us a hose and a functioning spigot, and he is taking over a small plot to grow his collard greens and peppers...because greens just aren't the same with out a little hot peppers.

 I can occasionally convince Adrienne to go along with my crazy ideas--she painted the sign:

And some of the seeds are sprouting:

Spinach planted by Jane

Peas planted by MJ

And the seedlings that Earthworks gave us are starting to go in the ground.  These had outgrown their small little seedling containers.  When I planted them they were all wilted and laying on the ground.  So we watered them, and ten minutes later...

Ok, so they're still a little wilted, but they look even better now

Housefire

I watched this house burn yesterday.  I didn't have the camera with me.  It's quite a sight to see a house burn.  I was hot standing a block away.  The flames are bigger than you think they would be.  I always thought firefighters had a chance, but I've realized that once the house really gets going they're just protecting the house next door. 

This is the third house I've seen burn in the last year and a half...I'd never seen one before then. 

I think the house that was on the land where we have the garden burned.  I keep finding charred bits all over the lot.

health and well being

One thing about living in and working in Detroit is that you can't help gaining a deeper understanding of the inequalities in our society. The patients I work with at the hospitals here--particularly Detroit Receiving--highlight the vast gulf between the educated, resourced elite, and the underresourced underclass.
An example: For most American women, the annual exam--or at least biannual is an assumed right.  In fact when the USPSTF recommended that women really don't need quite as many pelvic and breast exams as they have been getting, there was a public uproar--despite the fact that these recommendations were based in empiric research.
Last week a 40 year old woman came into the clinic complaining of pain and irregular bleeding for the last year.  She had come to the ER twice, and been diagnosed with benign conditions and sent home.  On her third visit, someone finally took the time to sign her up for a free program that screens women for cervical cancer.  It turns out that her last visit to the doctor was 15 years ago.  She knew that she needed to come, but she didn't really have the education to know why, and she never had insurance, so she did what most people without insurance do and came to the ER when she couldn't stand it anymore.  In Michigan two groups of people qualify for medicaid--children and pregnant women. 
Turns out she had inoperable cervical cancer.  So she will have an extended course of radiation treatment and maybe chemotherapy and so forth for several years, then the odds are that she will die. 

So here's the way I see this scenario:  We as a society and as a medical profession failed to provide this woman with the basic preventative health care she needed, and so now we will end up paying many times what prevention or early treatment would have cost us to give her a treatment that has a relatively low chance of long term success and gives her all sorts of miserable side effects.

The Heidelberg Project (#14)

The Heidelberg Project is one of the most visited sites in Detroit.  Tour buses roll by on a regular basis.  In 1986 this guy named Tyree Guyton got fed up with his neighborhood and sick of waiting for the government to clean it up.  In 1986 the neighborhood was just another example of Detroit's broken social structure dominated by crack houses and prostitution.  So Guyton got neighborhood kids and his family together and started cleaning uop the neighborhood.  They made big piles of trash...then he turned it into a giant piece of instalation art.  He started with polkadots...and painted an entire block of trash heaps wih bright colors...then he moved on to other works.  In 1991 and again in 1999 the city of Detroit demolished part of the project...it seems that certain mayors are more sensitive to criticism than others. 

Guyton's work has been featured in museums around the world over the last 10-15 years, and his movement is increasingly recognized as one of the landmarks of Detroit...something like 300,000 people visit it a year.

                               Weapons of Mass Destruction

The stuffed animal house

The Doors

I thought the mission statement and vision statement were worth reading...ambitious.

The Heidelberg Project is a Detroit-based community organization designed to improve lives and neighborhoods through art.

The Heidelberg Project envisions neighborhood residents using art to come together to rebuild the structure and fabric of under-resourced communities and to create a way of living that is economically viable, enriches lives, and welcomes all people.

Death Camels

Things to love about Detroit #11

11. Optimism:  I guess you learn to see the silver lining when it's always cloudy...or I guess you learn to see the glass as half full when somebody else is drinking all your water every time you fill the glass.

To announce the fact that GM lost 4.3 billion dollars in six months the Free Press chose the headline:

Signs of Hope at GM     for it's print edition.

No seriously though, if you spend enough time around here you begin to realize that everybody has a plan to make things better.  And it's hard not to be optimistic...I mean really there's not much room to go down...

For a good example, here is the Free Press again...

Big Plans for the Future of Detroit

Reasons to love Detroit #6 and # 320

6.  Urban gardening is hip and popular in Detroit...which makes me hip and popular...at least among a slightly uncool subset of the population...
This means that there is lots of support for urban gardening and community gardening projects.  So MJ signed us up for the Garden Resource Program through Earthworks...for 20 dollars we got more seeds and seedlings than we can plant this year.

320. It's close enough to farms that you can get free manure without owning horses.  A quick search on Craig's list yielded several leads...So MJ and I rolled out of town into the country and filled our friends pickup to overflowing.

 MJ and the Padre unload manure

Compost bins, manure pile...the beginnings of a great garden

Back in the game

100 + hrs/wk of surgery clerkship plus a new child got in the way of posting for a while....

Reasons to love Detroit #18

18. Cheap land. Back in the summer The Padre and I were talking one day and decided that we should have a garden. A community garden would be a good way to grow some food, meet some new people in the community and generally make our way towards having a positive impact in the city.
During the course of several discussions we roped in MJ the ideas man. It turns out that the City of Detroit actually owns quite a bit of the land in Detroit(Former Detroiters have made a habit of leaving their houses untended for the city to take over over the last 30 years), and it would rather get rid of that land than have to maintain it. So every month there is a list printed of all the available lots. Not many sell so they pretty much stay the same from month to month.
So we went off to the city land office to inquire about the possibility of using one of the lots for a community garden. But as it happens they were more than willing to sell us the land...so for 300 dollars--cash on the barrel--we walked out the proud new owners of our own little slice of Detroit.

Here it is after a few improvements...

the sign wil soon say something...

can't find the original pictures

Christmas photo blooper reel

Mom had a great idea to take a picture for Christmas cards. Clayton sat very nicely through the whole process. The same cannot be said for Mr. B