Three years ago, after the city of Detroit announced it would be closing 75 parks in the city, the city “closed” the parks by removing all of the trash barrels away from the parks and ceased mowing the grass.
Though Michigan resident Tom Nardone was busy working and taking care of his three small children, he said he decided to give back to the community and mow a few of the parks himself once he realized that’s all that needed to be done to keep the parks open.
He purchased a lawn tractor off of Craigslist for $250 and said one day he loaded it into his truck, and instead of brainstorming ways to better his business by sitting behind his desk, he began mowing some of the closed parks.
Nardone said he’s not the type to ask permission first, and showed up at the first park to mow the lawn without asking the city’s permission. “We’re more badass,” he said, “we don’t take any shit.”
From that first mow, Nardone’s work to give kids in Detroit their playgrounds back caught on, and he formed the Mower Gang — a group of “do-gooders” that works to restore parkland in the city.
Every Wednesday night, a group of about 25 to 30 Mower Gang members meet up and mow two to three parks in the city. Nardone, the group’s leader, said that the group has about 20 regular members who show up, nine or ten of whom have tractors.
“The city is in a situation where people need this service. Kids need a place to play,” Nardone said, adding that the whole concept of the Mower Gang is to create a space where kids have a place to play, since they are victims of the economic crisis the city is facing.
“Kids are helpless,” Nardone said. “They can’t call a lawn service. They don’t choose where they live. They can only go places in their immediate area.” He added that if kids can’t play at the park, most will be stuck in their house.
Like a biker gang, Nardone said there is no real leader and no bureaucracy in the organization. “Everybody brings their own stuff,” he said. “There is no budget.”
Though the group doesn’t host fundraisers themselves to pay for the equipment and fuel used to mow the playgrounds, a few groups in the city have hosted fundraisers for the Mower Gang. Nardone reported the last fundraiser raised about $250 for the group, which he said went to the Mower Gang’s gasoline fund and lasted about a week or two.
“A lot of people don’t mention how much it takes to be a member of this group,” he said, sharing that Mower Gang members spend more than $1,000 per year, and must have their own tractors and trailers, and pay for their own gas. “That’s hardcore,” he said, especially given that the members get almost nothing in return except a handshake.
Nardone’s vibrators.com business has put more than $10,000 into the organization, but he says it wasn’t a publicity stunt or a political move. “Because of what I do for a living,” he said, “I have voluntarily gotten out of the political system long ago. When you sell sex toys no one listen to you anymore.”
Though Nardone is proud of his sex toy business, he said it’s nice to now be known around town for something else. “It’s nice to be removed from work every once in awhile,” he said, adding that instead of being known as “Tom who sells penis pinatas,” he is now known as “Tom who runs the Mower Gang.”
With the help of his Mower Gang, Nardone said the group has been able to keep 14 parks in service. Though the city continues to upkeep the most popular parks in the city, Nardone said his group takes care of some of the “best of the rest.”
And the kids could not be more grateful. When the gang shows up at the parks, sometimes the grass is shoulder high. Nardone says as soon as the grass is cut, the kids come out and start playing on the swings.
“We get an immediate response from kids,” he said. “As soon as you cut it down, kids come out and wave and smile.”
Impact on Detroit
Already a struggling city, Detroit was hit hard by the 2008 economic collapse, and hasn’t rebounded yet.
Once home to 1.8 million people, the city’s population is down to about 700,000, and the once-bustling Motor City has more than 70,000 vacant homes and businesses and owes more than $18 billion in long-term debt.
The city has also filed for bankruptcy, which Nardone said was not surprising.
In 1994, Nardone moved to the area, saying he’d heard people say “Detroit is coming back.” It never has. Though his Mower Gang helps those in Detroit, Nardone actually lives in nearby Birmingham. When asked if he would ever move to the city, Nardone said “no.”
Detroit has “very high property taxes, there’s an income tax in the city and then the police claim that they really don’t have time to enforce property crimes against businesses,” said Nardone. “So if you owned a business — like I do — and you had a couple hundred thousand in inventory, which was your livelihood, would you move to a city where the police tell you they can’t defend it?”
Talking to Canada’s CBC, Nardone said that while there have been a few stories floating around about positive things happening in the city, the overwhelming reality is that efforts to improve the city by groups such as the Mower Gang are so small that they are not making as big of a difference as some may be led to believe.
“It’s a scale problem,” he said, explaining that while his group has managed to make at least 10 parks playable again, the city has closed about 150 parks in the past three years.
But that may be Nardone’s way of being modest. Since his Mower Gang has started re-opening parks throughout the city, youth football leagues have formed in some of those neighborhoods. As a result, some of those football teams have also begun taking responsibility for the appearance of the playgrounds as well.