Experience the News: Detroit Parks Tour Samples Detroit’s Greenery
WDET’s Parks Tour participants learned there’s more nature in the city than just Belle Isle.
At Rouge Park, we hiked the nature path and stood on the mysterious stone bridge — no one really knows when it was built or by whom. We heard the buzz of model airplanes and watched them soar and twist, flown by the Detroit Aero Modelers. We petted horses at the barn that’s cared for by the Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Association.
At Clark Park we heard about the hundreds of youth who play baseball, tennis and skate, and we walked the crumbling sidewalks underneath a wide variety of trees. There was news: the city is replacing those walkways this month to make them smoother and wider. At Riverside Park, we reviewed the controversy and the city’s future plans for the beloved waterfront park.
The “we” was the 20 or so city residents and metro Detroiters who hopped aboard a bus Saturday to experience the news with WDET, the Detroit Experience Factory and Data Driven Detroit.
The tour caps WDET’s summer-long Parks Project, where we brought you stories of a city redefining itself after bankruptcy by improving its neighborhood parks. The tour was led by DXF’s Jeanette Pierce, WDET’s Sandra Svoboda, Friends of the Rouge‘s Sally Petrella, Clark Park’s Anthony Benavides and the City of Detroit’s Brad Dick.
