"Potato Patch" Pingree stencil in Detroit
Posted September 14, 2009 by bec_young in Street Art & Graffiti
A bold new stencil can be seen all over Detroit, one which may remind us that urban agriculture is not such a new thing. Hazen "potato patch" Pingree was Mayor of Detroit from 1890 to 1897, and followed with a stint as State Governor. Originally a shoemaker from Maine, it's said that Pingree won the election because of his physical resemblance to Prince Edward. What won the admiration of Detroiters, however, was his persistent attempts to create affordable, publicly-owned public transit ~ trolleys, which were later bought and decommissioned by GM and Ford. He's even more famous for his advocacy of gardens in the city. When over 10 % of workers were unemployed, Pingree's solution to alleviating hunger was to make unused lots available for gardens. He assisted in raising money for seeds and tools, and hundreds of working-poor families grew their own food.
Now, after more than a century of growth and decline, Detroit is in a strikingly similar position. The unemployment rate is even higher, and there are more vacant lots than ever before. It seems unlikely that current Mayor "I'm going to run the city like a business" Bing will hold fundraisers for lettuce seed. I don't know for sure, but I'm willing to bet that this new stencil is not an effort to make any particular elected official take charge of the dichotomy between empty lots and empty stomachs. Because Detroit's urban agriculture scene is already so vibrant, so connected, and so grass-roots, the poster seems to me to be saying, to take a quote from Grace Lee Boggs, "We are the leaders we've been looking for."
Comments
maybe Bing will start slow and in a second term follow Pingree's progressive social agenda.
If so, we in Detroit may begin to refer to him as Mayor "Davzen Bingree" ;)
Stay tuned. I predict things will be heating up in the D.
p.s. In 1880s Detroit the Democratic Party had a stranglehold on politics and local govt. jobs. Pingree, a Republican, got elected by courting the growing immigrant population (Germans and Poles). By the beginning of his second term as mayor he had begun to develop a heart for the underrepresented common man and ultimately pissed of his "elite" associates in town by pushing through policies that supported the common good.
Interesting blog you got here. It would be great to read something more about that matter. Thnx for giving this material.
Besides being famous for Pingree's Potato Patches, another of Pingree's acheivements was busting monopolies (adding competition). Detroit Streetlights and Trolley Cars were expensive monopolies for Detroit consumers. Although the trolley's stayed private, the threat of public competition kept them affordable thanks to Pingree. Now Detroit is experiencing just the opposite, the reversal of Public Lighting vs. Privitization. Will trolley cars return to Detroit's boulevards?
Let There Be Light (1997)
By Dr. Burton W. Folsom
http://www.mackinac.org/591
Light rail along Woodward Avenue
http://www.m-1rail.com/
Pingree's monument still stands in Grand Circus Park. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8335_Hazen_S_Pingree_Detroit_MI
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this totally looks like a vintage nutmeg b stencil! who made it?
Posted by: mary at September 15, 2009 11:02 AM