Côté renouveau architectural, quelques édifices vides ont fait peau neuve grâce à la renaissance. Un des projets les plus en vue a été celui de la tour Broderick, rénovée pour 50 millions $. Il a ouvert ses portes en 2012 à 125 résidents. La liste d’attente ne permet que les sous-locations, disponibles à 1975 $ par mois pour 2 chambres à coucher, 2 salles de bain. Ce prix modique par rapport aux équivalents à Manhattan reste néanmoins hors de portée de la majorité des habitants.
Le renouveau tant salué du centre-ville de Detroit a son prix. Les valeurs immobilières, tant pour le loyer que pour l’achat, ont grimpé au-delà du seuil abordable pour plusieurs nouveaux arrivants. De surcroît, la ville de Detroit n’offre pas de contrôle des loyers comme le font plusieurs grandes villes correspondantes ailleurs aux États-Unis et au Canada. Le taux d’occupation résidentielle du centre-ville en 2013 y était de 97 pour cent, et de 95 % dans le quartier adjacent de Midtown. |
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L’art plutôt que les clôtures : le Lincoln Street Art Park
Faire contre mauvaise fortune bon cœur est un leitmotiv de la ville. Un des exemples de débrouillardise les mieux connus concerne le recyclage. Jusqu’à la fin 2014, la ville de Detroit aura été la seule aux États-Unis à ne pas offrir la collecte universelle à domicile des objets recyclables. Le vide a été comblé en partie en 2005 par l’organisme Recycle Here!, incorporé sous l’égide de Green Living Science, sur les lieux de l’ancienne usine Lincoln de la rue Holden. Le fondateur de Recycle Here!, Matt Naimi, a commencé par laisser un camion-benne devant le Bronx Bar, sur la Second Avenue, pour encourager les gens à recycler leurs ordures. Depuis, le projet a gagné de l’ampleur, soit une croissance de 50 % par année. Les citoyens y ont laissé leurs déchets recyclables lors d’environ 65 000 visites en 2012. Ce n’est pas pour les désintéressés : il faut quand même que les visiteurs classent eux-mêmes leurs déchets par catégorie. Selon la directrice générale Rachel Klegon, l’effort les incite à prendre conscience de leur impact individuel sur l’environnement. |
Même que l’effort de recyclage a mené à un site artistique impromptu et inattendu : le Lincoln Street Art Park, entièrement composé de déchets recyclés en créations imaginatives, sans compter l’art mural qui décore les ruelles. C’est en 2010 qu’un bon samedi, on a invité les gens des parages de l’édifice à venir nettoyer ce qui était alors un site illégal d’abandon des déchets. Une fois le déblayage accompli, les organisateurs se sont demandé quoi faire : ériger une clôture pour empêcher les déversements, ou transformer le site en parc d’art. On a choisi la création plutôt que l’obstruction, en utilisant les matériaux laissés pour le recyclage comme matière première. Depuis, raconte Klegon, « la seule chose qu’on abandonne ici, c’est davantage d’œuvres d’art. »
Le hic : pour desservir une population de plus de 700 000 citadins, Green Living Sciences n’a que trois employés à plein temps, dont deux du AmeriCorps, version domestique du Peace Corps pour le développement international… Les autres intervenants sont bénévoles. Recycle Here!, où les résidents peuvent toujours laisser leurs déchets, a 10 employés à temps partiel à sa disposition, tandis que la compagnie à profit associée, Green Safe Products, dispose de sept employés à plein temps. Pourtant, souligne Klegon, elle préfère ne pas attendre de subventions d’un gouvernement ou d’une fondation ou de l’autre. « Je ne veux pas me faire dire comment mener mes affaires, » explique-t-elle. Heidelberg Project : indépendance artistique et sociale
L’idée du parc d’art n’est pas tout à fait neuve, puisque déjà un résidant de Detroit décore depuis 27 ans un des endroits les plus défavorisés de sa ville natale. Tyree Guyton, pompier et travailleur chez Chrysler et Ford avant de devenir artiste à renommée internationale, a choisi de transformer son propre quartier de la rue Heidelberg en œuvre d’art en plein air à base d’objets trouvés, qu’il aménage autour de terrains vagues et de maisons désertes. Encouragé par son grand-père, il a fait de son art une œuvre en continu.
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Plus on tente de la démolir ou d’y mettre le feu, plus l’œuvre-quartier renaît de ses propres cendres : le terrain calciné devient lui-même un nouveau canevas accueillant des œuvres en changement. Lisa Rodriguez, conservatrice du projet, exprime d’ailleurs une certaine solidarité avec les inconnus qui ont mis le feu à plusieurs maisons une dizaine de fois depuis l’été 2013. Dans les restes noircis d’un sous-sol, des artistes et bénévoles ont placé des chaussures récupérées qu’on a peintes d’un bleu vif, comme un beau ciel d’été.
On dirait bien Detroit même qui prend la parole par la métaphore. |
Sources du tableau:
✝* http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue - la Free Press, citant les rapports annuels financiers de la ville de Detroit **✝ http://ycharts.com/indicators/detroit_mi_unemployment_rate -Bureau of Labour Statistics *✝✝http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130430/NEWS/130439983/detroit-jobs-are-out-there-but-detroit-job-seekers-arent-ready-for **http://www.escapehere.com/destination/the-10-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-us/10/ - citant Forbes magazine *** http://news.yahoo.com/detroit-bankruptcy-streetlights-185544119.html , http://thesocietypages.org/specials/debt-and-darkness-in-detroit/ ✝✝ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-usa-detroit-mayor-idUSBREA1Q06Y20140227 ✝ http://thesocietypages.org/specials/debt-and-darkness-in-detroit/ ✝✝✝ http://www.detroitmi.gov/News/tabid/3196/ctl/ReadDefault/mid/4561/ArticleId/450/Default.aspx ***✝ http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ex-detroit-mayor-kwame-kilpatrick-gets-28-years-for-corruption-1.1958983 Veuillez noter que j'ai moi-même recherché toutes les données individuellement, et que tout emprunt de ce tableau a été fait après mes recherches et sans autorisation. |
Self-help in Detroit privatizes services by default © 2014 Dominique Millette, photos and text April 16, 2014 Do big problems need small solutions? Detroit seems to think so. A few years before the city declared bankruptcy on July 18, 2013, signs of renewal peppered news reports despite years of decay: a reinvigorated downtown core, public-private partnerships funding riverfront improvements, boutique manufacturing businesses selling products made in Detroit… The majority of these start-ups got no help from the municipal government. This should be no surprise, except that as late as March 2014, the city promised to open its coffers to the tune of $284.5 M for a planned sports centre to house the Detroit Red Wings. Howls of protest greeted the plan from several quarters, in light of the severe cutbacks and lack of existing services. As just one example, about half of all streetlights in town are broken, the worst rate in the country. Some area billionaires seem to be part of the problem rather than the solution. Local bloggers such as Joel Thurtell, a 23-year veteran reporter of the Detroit Free Press, argue that Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun has bought up land and buildings for the sole purpose of blocking competition against his lucrative transportation-based empire. Many of his estimated 625 parcels of land in Detroit, not to mention his holdings in Windsor, are quietly rotting into slums without official interference. The most flagrant example is the Michigan Central Depot, the abandoned behemoth that launched “ruin porn” in Detroit: despite announcements of millions of dollars in investment, the building remains dilapidated. The scope of decline is unprecedented in America, from general poverty levels to failing infrastructure and political corruption: Detroit in numbers Population, 1950 1.85 M Population, 2012 (est.) 701,475 Debt ✝* $18 billion Rate of violent crimes, 2013** 2,123 per 100,000 Rank – most violent cities in the U.S., 2013** 1 Income per capita, 2012 $14,861 Families living under the poverty line, 2010 35.5% (3x national average of 11.7%) Official unemployment rate, 2014** ✝ 15.90% Real unemployment rate (est.), 2009-14*✝✝ 49.1% Abandoned buildings, 2014 (est.) ✝ 78,000 Cost per demolition ✝ $5,000 – 10,000 Abandoned buildings: percentage of total ✝✝ 18.5% of 377,000 land parcels Broken street lights, out of 88,000 (est.)*** 35,000 to 44,000 Abandoned lots, 2014 (est.) ✝ 66,000 Fires 2004-2014 ✝ 111,000 Parks maintained in 2013, out of over 300 ✝✝✝ 25 Amount spent above his salary by Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor from 2004-08, before being sent to jail for 28 years on corruption charges***✝ 840 000 $ All data from the U.S. Census bureau unless otherwise specified. Please note that I gathered all these statistics individually from various sources, which I have listed below, and any copy of this specific table was done without my authorization. ✝* http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20130915/NEWS01/130801004/Detroit-Bankruptcy-history-1950-debt-pension-revenue - Detroit Free Press, quoting annual financial reports of the City of Detroit **✝ http://ycharts.com/indicators/detroit_mi_unemployment_rate -Bureau of Labour Statistics *✝✝http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130430/NEWS/130439983/detroit-jobs-are-out-there-but-detroit-job-seekers-arent-ready-for **http://www.escapehere.com/destination/the-10-most-dangerous-cities-in-the-us/10/ - quoting Forbes magazine *** http://news.yahoo.com/detroit-bankruptcy-streetlights-185544119.html , http://thesocietypages.org/specials/debt-and-darkness-in-detroit/ ✝✝ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-usa-detroit-mayor-idUSBREA1Q06Y20140227 ✝ http://thesocietypages.org/specials/debt-and-darkness-in-detroit/ ✝✝✝ http://www.detroitmi.gov/News/tabid/3196/ctl/ReadDefault/mid/4561/ArticleId/450/Default.aspx ***✝ http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ex-detroit-mayor-kwame-kilpatrick-gets-28-years-for-corruption-1.1958983 Urban industrial Wild West Increasingly, the private sector is taking over basic services where the municipal government has left the (abandoned) building. The Southwest Detroit Business Association poured $6.4 M into sidewalks, landscaping and street lighting in the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, 26-year old Andy Didorosi started his own bus company as an alternative to the now-defunct light rail project, given the lack of public transit in the Motor City. Community groups have also pledged to maintain parks in 2014. Others organize ad hoc trash collection and snow removal in their neighbourhoods, as well as patrols in sparsely populated areas to try and increase security. Some micro-level solutions to urban problems can seem inadequate, even bizarre. One example is The Empowerment Plan, founded by Veronika Scott and based in the start-up incubator building Ponyride. The company produces winter coats that convert into sleeping bags. Their target market, and employee base, is the homeless population of Detroit – those who either can’t or won’t go into shelters. Confronted with the impossibility of providing systemic solutions to extreme poverty, namely offering adequate low-income housing, local business has created a product to make it slightly easier for people to be left in the street… However, the flipside of poverty and its deflationary impact is to create opportunities. In addition to the 25 nascent businesses of Ponyride, which pay only 25 cents per square foot in rent, others are taking advantage of the real estate crash in Detroit. The tech sector has hired 30,000 people in the area since 2013, according to the 2013 Technology Industry Report from Automation Valley, even as Silicon Valley lost 10,000 jobs. On the architectural side, a few classic empty buildings have undergone renovations in the wake of downtown revitalization. One of the most highly touted projects is the Broderick Tower, with its $50 million facelift. It opened its doors to 125 residents in 2012: a two-bedroom unit with two bathrooms goes for $1,975 a month. Despite the bargain price compared to Manhattan real estate, the rent too expensive for most people who live in the core. The much-ballyhooed downtown renewal has led to rapidly climbing real estate values, putting home ownership and rentals in the core out of reach for many new arrivals. Detroit has no rent controls, unlike many major cities in the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, 2013 housing occupancy rates were 97 per cent downtown and 95 per cent in adjacent Midtown. Art instead of fences: Lincoln Street Art Park People in Detroit have a habit of making lemons into proverbial lemonade. A telling example of self-help is recycling. Until later in 2014, Detroit will have been the only major U.S. city not to provide curbside recycling in every neighbourhood. The vacuum was filled in part in 2005 by Recycle Here!, now incorporated as Green Living Science, at the former Lincoln factory on Holden Street. Founder Matt Naimi started out by leaving a waste bin in front of the Bronx Bar on Second Avenue, to encourage people to recycle their trash. Since then, the project has grown 50 per cent a year, with about 60,000 visits in 2012. People who drop off their recyclables still have to sort them personally, by category. According to executive director Rachel Klegon, the effort makes people more aware of their individual impact on the environment. The recycling effort led to the creation of an ad hoc artistic venue: the Lincoln Street Art Park, entirely made from trash transformed into imaginative sculptures. Murals adorn nearby lanes, adding to the initiative. The art park started in 2010, when a call went out to area residents to help clean up what was then an illegal dumping ground. Once it was cleared, organizers wondered what to do: put up a fence to prevent more dumping, or transform the site into an art venue. They chose creativity over obstruction, using discarded items as their raw materials. Since then, explains Klegon, “the only thing that gets dumped here is more art.” The main caveat is that to service a population of 700,000 people, Green Living Sciences employs only three people full-time. The rest are volunteers. Recycle Here!, where residents can still leave their trash, has 10 part-time workers, while the associated for-profit company, Green Safe Products, has seven full-time employees. Despite the lean structure, Klegon states she doesn’t want to wait for government or foundation subsidies. “I prefer not to have anyone telling me how to run things,” she explains. The Heidelberg Project rises from the ashes The idea behind the art park isn’t new. A long-time Detroit resident has spent the last 27 years decorating his own corner of the universe, one of the poorest in the city. Tyree Guyton, a firefighter, autoworker and soldier before dedicating himself full-time to his art and garnering international notice in the process, decided to transform his Heidelberg Street neighbourhood into an outdoor art gallery using found objects. The resulting works, known as the Heidelberg Project, grow out of abandoned houses and lots, constantly changing according to either inspiration or circumstance. “It’s not my job to fix the world this way. I just want to fix my little part of the world,” Guyton declared as he hosted an urbanism tour group organized by Spacing magazine in Toronto. “Look beyond blight, see what’s possible. Heidelberg is my medicine.” When someone asks him what he thinks of the disaster tourists coming into town to take pictures of the city’s devastation, he answers “I don’t care.” When it comes to failing municipal services, “I don’t want to wait for the city government to come and remove debris. I will get it done.” The more anyone tries to destroy the project, the more it rises from its own ashes: the scorched terrain itself becomes a new canvas welcoming constantly-changing art. Project curator Lisa Marie Rodriguez even expresses solidarity with the strangers who have set fire to several houses about ten times since the summer of 2013. In the blackened remains of one basement, artists and volunteers placed some old shoes, painted a bright cerulean blue, the colour of a perfect summer sky. The image is a fitting one for Detroit and its hope among the ruins. |