Heidelberg is a street in
Detroit which was once inhabited by a troupe of
artists (around the late 80s). The artists cleaned up the neighborhood to an extent, and then began to turn it into their own work of art. They set up old
pairs of shoes around broken down washing machines and painted polka dots on the
sidewalk. They hung
dolls from the branches of trees and painted houses
pink, blue, red, and orange. They arranged abandoned appliances and random garbage into
spectacles that people would drive from the suburbs to see. The effect was
eerie, this flurry of multicolored activity in the middle of the ghetto.
The Detroit mayor at the time, Coleman A. Young, was not terribly impressed with the project, but let it survive since it had so much support from the local artists,
yuppies, and independent
newspapers. There were arguments over whether the Heideleurg project was an
eyesore or a work of art. Some time after Mayor Young died (mid 90s), the project was almost completely dismantled, and Heidelberg street is once again just an
unremarkable part of the Detroit
ghetto.