The Beauty of the Bees.

By: Tyler Dudenas

Summary: Detroit has faced a big problem in recent years in which they are unable to consistently bring in investors and developers to help fill the massive amount of vacant lots that litter the city. In an effort to increase to populate these urban eye sores, Detroit was offering prices for them at a cut cost for non profit organizations. This allowed Timothy Paule, Nicole Lindsey, and Keith Crispen to start their very own non profit organization, Detroit Hives, in an effort to not only help revitalize the city of Detroit, but also to spread awareness about bees. Located on Detroit’s east side, Detroit Hives has managed to take in nine vacant lots for their new honey making and bee saving operation. Vacant lots plague Detroit with over 90,000 spread across the city. These lots are an eye sore, and can be dangerous to children. On top of that, vacant lots are frankly an eye sore and finding a way to make use of them can do wonders for the community. 

Although 9 out of 90,000 may not seem like a big contribution, the workers in Detroit Hives do make a difference, as they are able to educate the public, continue to fill up lots, and even allow for gardens to grow in their lot as well which allows for more green instead of abandoned lots. With expansion on their mind, we soon may see more and more bee lots popping up across the city. 

​While the areas directly surrounding Wayne State’s campus are usually nice, Detroit still needs much improvement as many people live under the poverty line. Allowing non profit organizations to come and try to breathe fresh air into the city is great. It allows for fresh honey to be sold and knowing it is local makes it feel a lot better because it allows us to help people around the city to continue to try to make a difference and improve our city. I think it is imperative that we continue to push for the development of these vacant lots through local non profit organizations, so we can continue to improve the city from within. I love to think about what the communities of Detroit might look like if we continue to push for more community enrichment through these lots. With 90,000 vacant lots, we aren’t lacking in sites to try to build on, so we should encourage small organizations like Detroit Hives for trying to better our communities

Why we should care?  We should care about this topic because it is not only in regards to environmental health and improvement, but it also hits home as it takes us into the lives of people from Detroit, the city of our College. ​

Credit: Detroit Hives

Example News Article: 
​https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/09/18/detroit-has-thousands-vacant-lots-heres-why-some-are-becoming-honeybee-farms/

I thought this was a great article because it shows small changes that can be done to help better the city of Detroit. This is just a group of three people and they are making waves on plenty of news sites because it is so encouraging to see locals from Detroit take a step towards making their community beautiful. Detroit Hives is also interested in expanding the amount of lots they have as well. It is just amazing that a small group of people can have a great influence on the city and also inspire others to be a good influence as well. ​

Science in Action.  ​
Eugenia South, MD, MSHP is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

In this article by South, it was found that turning vacant urban lots into a green lot can have a big effect on mental health. The study found that there is over a 40% drop in feelings of depression and over a 60% drop for self reported poor mental health. This is extremely great news in regards to the blog topic, as we learned that Detroit Hives is not only turning abandoned lots into bee farms, but it also is allowing their lots to be transformed into gardens as well. If Detroit continues to see more bee farms and gardens taking place instead of vacant lots, there might be a big change in mental health among community members that are close to these lots. Starting a bee farm might seem a minuscule change in the community, but in truth it also brings beauty, education, and improved mental health as well.