Motor City Grounds Crew an Asset to Morningside
Members of Motor City Grounds Crew clean up damage caused by a storm earlier this summer. Image courtesy of Jim West
If you believe that one person can’t make a difference, Aaron Smith is here to prove you wrong. You’ll see his hand in projects all over MorningSide - in the East Warren Tool Library, Featherstone Garden on Lakepointe, and in the public spaces that his nonprofit Motor City Grounds Crew has helped to maintain around the neighborhood. No good thing happens because of just one person, of course, but every good thing that happens takes hard work and leadership, and that’s what Aaron has brought to these projects.
Aaron founded Motor City Grounds Crew (MCGC) in 2010, with help from Barney Thiesen, a resident of Grosse Pointe and a retired executive at Lear Corporation. MCGC’s mission is “to strengthen Detroit neighborhoods through green space beautification, youth sports activities, and community tool libraries.”
MCGC was a logical outgrowth of Aaron’s work with Motor City Blight Busters, an organization that pioneered removal of blighted buildings in Detroit through careful deconstruction and recycling of construction materials. He ran a successful prisoner re-entry program for the Blight Busters from 2005- 2010, and some of the graduates of that program still work for him on the Grounds Crew, Aaron says.
The focus on beautifying green space has its roots in the fiscal crisis of the Bing administration, when the city could no longer maintain its parks. Eventually Aaron created a for-profit arm, Detroit Grounds Crew, to handle those park maintenance contracts.
Aaron says he gets a lot of satisfaction from the neighborhood cleanups that Motor City Grounds Crew does in partnership with block clubs and other community organizations. “We come in with the heavy equipment, before and after the volunteers, to play a supportive role. We expect people in the community to pitch in,” he says. “It’s been contagious, as we clean up, more neighbors are cleaning up, feeling more engaged, and more comfortable being out.”
The East Warren Tool Library, another project of Motor City Grounds Crew, runs independently on a day-to-day basis now, thanks to the efforts of Joshua Arntson, Eric LeBarge, and Andrew Ianaccone.
MCGC’s youth sports activities program, which partners with University of Detroit and Wayne State students in the athletic department, is now in its second year. Its goal is to provide “youth sports on wheels,” bringing equipment to kids who may not have the athletic ability or opportunity to play organized competitive team sports. You’ll find things like bean bags, jump ropes, and badminton sets on the trailer, for the kind of games that kids of all abilities can play. The program has been hit hard by COVID-19, though, and this in-person sports program has been temporarily suspended.
“I have a natural affinity with this neighborhood,” Aaron says, “because it reminds me so much of the Flint neighborhood where I grew up.” Although he doesn’t live in MorningSide now, he spends most of his days here and is thinking seriously of relocating to our community. We would certainly roll out the welcome mat for such an active, caring neighbor!
