I don't think the American public has any sense of what happened
in these buildings over the last four decades. We turned away.
And we turned away from the everyday neighborhoods of Detroit where
the people who worked there lived, and only woke up when the headlines
started screeching about "murder capital" and "Devil's Night".
No, in fact we have not woken up here in Southeastern Michigan.
We continue to turn away, as urban sprawl decimates our landscape and
natural resources. Michigan is the fourth worst state in terms of sprawl in
the U.S. In the past twenty years, Michigan has used undeveloped land at a
rate of 77,000 acres per year, while remaining constant in terms of
population. That's according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Statistics.
For those on this list that don't already know, I'm a reporter with a local
newspaper in Metro Detroit, and I've been reporting on this topic quite a
bit in the last 12 months. It's alarming how much of our state's open land
has been turned into highways, malls, subdivisions and office buildings
while there are vast acres of land, infrastructure and hundreds of buildings
rotting in Detroit.
In fact it's a crime.
The social and economic factors contributing to this phenomenon are
virtually unknown to the public at large, and remain unaddressed. The
legislators we elect have failed us, and we have failed ourselves and our
planet. We are already feeling the environmental and economic impact of this
continued decision to ignore the problem.
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