Arms around the city

"Could a dream rise up through onion fumes ... And yesterday's garbage ripening in the halls?"

—From "Kitchenette Building" by Gwendolyn Brooks

If you feel the city lift into the air sometime Saturday, don't worry. It's not aliens transporting us to some distant planet. If the city begins to hover, it will probably be due to the efforts of ARISE Detroit! and some 170 organizations participating in its fifth annual Neighborhoods Day, a celebration of the groups and unsung heroes who work throughout the year to make Detroit a better place.

The Mighty Motor City Blight Busters, one of those organizations, is anchored in the Grand River Avenue and Lahser Road area. The group has been around for 24 years and been a part of Neighborhoods Day from the beginning. Over the years, the group has leveraged hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours to renovate houses, paint houses, secure abandoned houses and build new houses.

"It's a pretty tough area, but we never give up," says John George, founder of the organization. "It's our goal to save the world and we're starting with Detroit." 

Blight Busters will host a community cleanup followed by arts and music events at the Artist Village and the Java Café, which was founded on an Angels Night long ago.

"We have been at this for 24 years," George says. "We don't need any more planning. We don't need any more maps with circles and arrows. We need action. We need people on the front line to eliminate this negative energy. ... People of good will can always find common ground. Let's work on the things we can agree on. It's really in everyone's best interest to work together. We can put our petty differences aside. There are only so many hours in the day and I think those hours should be focused on solutions, giving people a vested interest in our community. That's what's going to turn around Detroit, create ownership."

The kind of energy that George exudes is endemic among the participants in Neighborhoods Day. Those include such diverse community nonprofits, churches, arts groups and businesses as the Heidelberg Project, 2:1 Gallery, Ravendale Community, Bethel Baptist Church East, Habitat for Humanity, Gratiot McDougal United CDC, Good People Popcorn, Arts League of Michigan, and the list goes on. With all of the people and organizations out there working to make things better, it seems strange that they're not gaining more traction in their efforts.

"That's exactly why ARISE Detroit! came into being," says Luther Keith, founder and executive director of the five-year-old nonprofit. "I looked around at all these community organizations and saw they were all working like crazy. We have a holistic approach to the community. What we do is connect people to the programs. We ask how can we get our arms around Detroit, get people to network, build collaborations and share resources. That is what has made us grow. Our role is to champion the cause and be helpmates for people across the city."

> Email Larry Gabriel