This is both proof of how far Detroit had fallen and at the same time a sign that it is slowly recovering. Detroit is full of alleys, the vast majority can no

This is both proof of how far Detroit had fallen and at the same time a sign that it is slowly recovering. Detroit is full of alleys, the vast majority can no longer be traversed. As a kid I do remember trash trucks moving along the alley. I also remember a black man with a horse and wagon who bought scrap metal and rags. He would ring a bell, my Mother didn't always have something to sell but she would always come out and visit. He also acted as a neighborhood sentinel and if he saw a crime being committed he would get someone to call it in. As a young kid we'd use the alleys as our own private system of trails. I never saw the city kept them clean but I'm assuming they did. Then sometime in the eighties it stopped. Then a dozen years later they stopped mowing the grass in the city parks.