(Photo: Heidelberg Project, Michael Takasaki)

Following up on last post: In Detroit, at least, there’s already a number of projects underway that are designed to staunch the bleeding in neighborhoods struggling with urban decay and foreclosure. Boing Boing led me to James Griffioen’s marvelous set of photos of the abandoned Detroit Public School Book Depository, which led me to his passionate, excellent blog; it describes several initiatives reclaiming once-derelict homes and neighbourhoods and putting them back to productive use, including:

The Power House Project, which is converting a foreclosed house into one capable of generating power to sustain itself and supply power to those around it.

The Yes Farm, a group of transplanted San Franciscans trying to turn a street into an art and gardening community.

And the Georgia Street Community Garden, which has planted gardens on the lots of now-demolished houses and are rehabbing an abandoned store to become a community centre and store to sell the food they grow. They even have movie nights in the garden.

Addendum: Yves Marchand and Roman Meffre’s website has other photos of Detroit not included in the Time essay.

More from the Heidelberg Project: