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Revivalist Detroit, says NY Times: from Slows to skatepark

Thursday, October 21, 2010

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Farmers Market, Food, Green Building, Wayne County

Detroit

You know Detroit's Slows has arrived when The New York Times writes about not only the world-famous restaurant's food but the impact it's having on revitalizing the Motor City. Also, check out the second piece about urban farming and how Detroit sets the standard when it comes to this new, innovative way to handle land use.

Excerpt:

HOW much good can a restaurant do?

In this city, a much-heralded emblem of industrial-age decline, and home to a cripplingly bad economy, a troubled school system, racial segregation and sometimes unheeded crime, there is one place where most everyone � black, white, poor, rich, urban, not � will invariably recommend you eat: Slows Bar B Q.

Slows opened in 2005 at the edge of downtown Detroit, in Corktown, across from the long-abandoned central train station, itself a symbol of widespread blight. Hidden behind a stylish wooden door with no discernible handle, it has become a beacon, drawing longtime Detroiters, newly arrived young people and scores of suburbanites, who wait for hours to sample the pulled pork and dry-smoked ribs and coo over the upcycled design. The restaurant and its sleek d�cor were dreamed up by one of Slows' owners, Phillip Cooley, who has emerged as a de facto spokesman for the now-hip revitalization of this city.

"Before Slows was built, generally speaking people came into the city for hockey games, ball games and to see the 'Sesame Street Spectacular,'" said Toby Barlow, Detroit's other de facto spokesperson. Mr. Cooley, he said, has "validated the idea that people will come into the city."

Read the rest of the story here and another one on how Detroit sets the benchmark in urban farming here.

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