From London -

• In Requiem for Detroit (Dir. Julien Temple, 2010) we come face to face with a dystopic post-industrial city, in which 40% of the land in the centre is returning to prairie. This polemic documentary spans the course of the 20th century conveying the city's transition from Motor City to beacon for the burgeoning urban agricultural movement.

LSE Cities film screening and public debate

Date: Wednesday 17 March 2010 
Time: 5.30-7.30pm
Venue:  Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speakers: G. Asenath Andrews, Stuart Gulliver, Bruce Katz, Richard Sennett
Chair: Roger Graef

For more information:  London School of Economics - Events

Much in Boing Boing lately about the Downsizing of Detroit into Semi-Rural farms. 

From the article by Cory Doctorow - 

"The city of Detroit is proposing to give over a quarter of its land to be turned into "semi-rural" fields and farms, with the surviving neighborhoods standing in "pockets in expanses of green." The proposal is politically charged (serving a death-sentence on a whole neighborhood is bound to be controversial) but the idea of "downsizing" Detroit seems to have wide acceptance."

Read the entire article and see links to more articles on this subject here.

Kronk Village 

This project in Detroit, MI includes the historic rehabilitation and “green” adaptive reuse renovation of the existing Kronk Community Building (including the Kronk Boxing Gym founded by Emanuel Steward) as a multi-use center and the redevelopment of existing vacant public blocks and adjoining sites (Atkinson Playground) as a sustainable residential neighborhood.

There are approximately 35 acres of predominantly vacant, publicly-owned land surrounding the historic Kronk facility. The proposed new neighborhood development would contain a mix of approximately 250-350 units of affordable senior and family rental and/or cooperative housing in a variety of residential  forms, including single family homes, duplexes, rowhouses and multi-family apartments. A green infrastructure of sustainable urban initiatives including a district-wide geothermal utility and food farming is integrated into a traditional, walkable, transit-oriented “New Village” plan.