An upcoming documentary feature about the culture of urban sprawl, the politics of urban planning, the aesthetics of our built environment and the history of Western expansion

Detroit!

June 1st, 2008

At long last I’ll be shooting our first segment in Detroit this June 17th - 24th. I’ll be speaking with faculty at the Taubman College in Ann Arbor, docents at Detroit’s museums, and everyday people in neighborhoods throughout the metro.

I live on the Westside of Los Angeles where the average home price is over $1,000,000. There are neighborhoods in Detroit with average home values of $20,000. I can’t help but wonder whether an ambitious fixer-upper wouldn’t be making a solid investment by buying an entire neighborhood in Detroit and fixing it up a bit - testing some broken windows theory. It would only cost as much as buying a house in Los Angeles.

The satellite image below is near central “urban” Detroit.

Posted in Places |

2 Responses

  1. John Says:

    Congrats! Can’t wait to see the finished product.

  2. Tom Says:

    To the guy from California, please come and buy some neighborhoods.
    In Detroit there is so much vacant land it would be so cool to move some of the houses onto larger lots with new basements there have been so many excellent sound dwellings that have been destroyed and razed.

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