Story: Why We Bought a Vacation Home in Detroit

My friend Julia and I just bought a vacation home in Detroit. It’s a small but comfortable three-bedroom house in good condition that sits on a shorefront plot of land along the banks of a river. The location is serene, and the price was right—the whole thing cost less than a new Cadillac Escalade. (A lot less, actually.) But that was only part of the appeal. Just as important to us was the idea that Detroit is poised to become a laboratory for the latest social trend: the greening of America.

Sure, Detroit may be the scariest place you can think of to buy a vacation home. Or is it? With the decline of the American auto industry, over 70 percent of the city’s populace fled to the burbs between 1966 and 1990. For those who remained, heroin and crack cocaine savaged the city’s neighborhoods. Yet when everyone else moved away, many of the thugs did too, leaving huge swaths of once-dense urban blocks very nearly depopulated—and quite a bit greener.

The nightmarish view of downtown Detroit Central and its nearby neighborhoods is ancient history. The city is currently home to a strong (though small by coast-city standards) art scene. Wayne State University is becoming known for its cutting-edge gallery shows, while older artists have contributed much to Detroit’s exceptional public art installations. Detroit is also the epicenter of the urban adventure movement, with intrepid explorers coming from as far away as Europe and Australia to clandestinely explore the city’s beautifully decaying factories, mansions, hotels, mental hospitals, and skyscrapers.

Most of all, though, Detroit is already one of the greenest cities in America. By that I mean green, as in green grass! Visit any typical residential block in the heart of Detroit, and what do you see? A handful of occupied houses and a few piles of rubble that once were homes, while the rest of the block has completely reverted back to nature. Rabbits, opossums, raccoons, and the occasional deer ramble through this urban landscape as though they owned it. We’ve gone canoeing along Detroit’s storied Rouge River canal, and we’ve climbed an abandoned 37-story building to get an up-close view of a peregrine falcon nest. Detroit’s public transportation system is no worse than that of most other American cities, and it’ll only improve as the renaissance continues. Homeowners can plant gardens on their spacious lots or those next door, and there’s plenty of space for growing actual crops, should you feel a need.

Being able to break away from the overcrowded and frenetic pace of life on the coasts to kick back and relax in a tree-shaded waterfront home we actually own outright is a luxury we never thought we’d know. We’ve got plenty of water, green trees, and wide open spaces in a place that everyone else has written off as a dump. For this town, there’s no place to go but up.