Old East Side

Detroit's residential neighborhoods once sprawled out all the way to the Grosse Pointes in the east, almost to the shores of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. Now acres upon acres are being transformed into "urban prairie" as nature slowly reclaims the lost city. Trees and shrubs accelerate the decay of structures and paved surfaces, and overgrown empty-lot meadows have replaced a number of homes. Of the houses that remain standing, most are abandoned and left to time and arsonists, falling slowly in upon themselves as the years pass.

The communities known as Morningside, East English Village and Cornerstone Park are gone, eaten by the spreading wasteland; or, from an alternative viewpoint, returning to a more natural state. Where trees bordered parks and streets, their roots have now buckled the sidewalks to reveal more earth--save for a few sicker specimens which have stifled to death in place, the soil beneath the pavement insufficient or polluted.

The further away one travels from Detroit proper, the more significant the transformation. Vacant lots have become sapling nurseries, while here and there non-native landscape plants form their own colonies. Street signs keep lonely sentinel at corners and no one pays attention to the stop signs any longer. Power lines trail off into the distance, seemingly going nowhere.