Once again, we should be taking cues from Detroit’s ambitious plans to ‘green’ areas of the city that are aesthetically distressed. An initiative called Greening of Detroit plans on planting tens of thousands of trees in targeted areas that will help to bring about pride and trigger investments. In November, I pointed to this Curbed.com article that showed the value of urban farming initiatives in Detroit. Now these additional greening efforts will piggyback on those initiatives. You can read about the most recent greening plans in Detroit Free Press.

The City of Buffalo continues to hint that the East Side is ready for grassroots, public and private investment. Maybe it’s time to get Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP), People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH), Riverkeeper (rain gardens), Grassroots Gardens, Farmer Pirates, eco_logic STUDIO, SRG of Buffalo, The Foundry, GObike Buffalo, Designing to Live Sustainably and Artfarms together, to formulate a short term and long term plan to create a sustainable green model for key neighborhoods on the East Side.

Photo: Greening of Detroit