As Detroit’s population continues to shrink, nature is starting to take the city back. A dwindling population and high unemployment has also drastically reduced the opportunites for healthy food options. The documentary Grown in Detroit, which is playing at The Rotunda tonight as part of an ongoing discussion about food justice, shows how a handful of students in the Motor City have turned to urban farming to raise their own food and fight the blight.

The film is about the urban gardening done by a public school in Detroit, where 300 students, many pregnant and parenting teens, who farm land near their school.

The screening is part of the monthly “Food Justice Movie Night” series at The Rotunda, sponsored by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Urban Nutrition Initiative and admission is free and a discussion on urban farming and eating locally will follow. Dinner is included. The screening begins at 6 p.m.

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If you are interested in or concerned about the planning process in West Philly or elsewhere in the city, then you should check out the courses offered by the Citizen Planning Institute aimed at helping residents learn the planning process. The institute is an outreach arm of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

The one-off evening classes begin April 25. The “core” courses include:

• The BIG Picture: Planning in the City, April 25

• Land Use and Zoning 101, May 5

• The Development Process: Nuts and Bolts, May 9

The cost for all three sessions combined is $30. Completion of the core allows residents to participate in “elective” courses on commercial development, public transport and healthy communities and environmental justice.

The deadline for applying for courses is April 8.

The application is available here in the column on the right side of the screen.

Philadelphia Weekly published an important story yesterday about opposition to the proposed rehab of the 52nd Street shopping corridor.

One street vendor, Bashir Postley, was vocal in his opposition to the city’s multimillion plan to “revitalize” the historic shopping strip.

“Let’s call it what it is,” Postley told Philadelphia Weekly. “They gonna take the urban culture out of 52nd Street and make it into a little shopping mall for white people.”

The city’s plan includes the refurbishment of storefronts along 52nd Street.

Many vendors are angry that the city has taken down the custom awnings erected in 1976 to shield shoppers and vendors from the elements. The city has said that it was a necessary first step to determine how much work needed to be done. The city had originally planned to take the awnings down in 2009, but protests from vendors put that move on hold.