Transforming Detroit's Blight into Light and Hope

Last week, I read a beautiful article on CommonDreams.org.  I created my blog primarily to highlight positive stories involving African Americans.  This is such a story.  This story is even more dear to me because it is about my hometown, Detroit.  Even in the depths of darkness, there is hope and potential. It is easy to remain cynical and sarcastic in the face of problems such as unemployment, violence, inferior schools, etc.  This story is an example of how blight can be transformed into light.  In his article, Paul Harris of the Guardian/UK writes:

"Covington's story is simple. Finding himself unemployed and living back in the blighted neighbourhood that he had grown up in, he decided to improve things by turning vacant lots into vegetables plots. Not only did the work improve the look of Georgia Street it also started to change local people's lives: reasserting community pride and helping people have healthier diets in a city where fresh food is unforgivably scarce."

"One of the UK's top DJ outfits, Above and Beyond, have shot a video for their next single, On A Good Day (Metropolis). The wonderful piece of film features the good folks of Georgia Street turning a spot of typical Detroit wasteland into a garden, transforming their neighbourhood piece by piece into a better place to live."