Old West Side
You head west into the post-apocalyptic landscape of the urban prairie...
The old, now-unincorporated neighborhoods of the West Side sprawl outward, ruins of a destitute city. Once one leaves the safety of incorporated Detroit, the suburban wasteland begins. On both sides of Interstate 96, along roughly ten miles of freeway, the abandoned neighborhoods of the West Side bear witness to the ravages of poverty and decay. Many of these communities had ambitious names, names that evoked dreams of prosperity and comfort: Riverdale, Rosedale Park, Brightmoor, Castle Rouge. 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. On wider streets, vacant shops and empty office buildings withstand the elements, their glass windows grimy, broken or boarded up entirely. Scattered through the apocalyptic landscape, taller apartment buildings stand like punctuation in this statement of economic disaster.
The further away one travels from Detroit proper, the more significant the transformation. Abandoned lots have become grassy fields. Landscape plants form wild colonies around the houses that remain.
As if to defy the city's blight entirely, several vast islands of green occupy the westernmost edges of Measure 2 territory. Rouge Park, which covers about 1200 acres, is now an overgrown expanse of mixed forest and meadows, crossed by a few slowly-crumbling streets. Further north, Eliza Howell Park and Grand Lawn Cemetery have also returned to a wilder state. The Rouge River winds through all three of these areas, flanked by woods as it makes its slow serpentine way southward.
- Rouge Park, a vast green island rising from the urban prairie
