Leave it to someone to figure out the upside of the many abandoned and untended lots in Detroit that are overrun with vegetation.
The Atlantic City Labs website reports:
There might be at least one positive side to this encroaching urban jungle: Unlike vacant lots that are occasionally mowed, properties left to go to seed will produce less hay fever-triggering ragweed pollen.
As Hank Hill and, now, researchers from the University of Michigan attest, a regular mowing schedule is what's needed to keep a lawn healthy and clear of weeds. That's especially true for ragweed, which thrives in urban areas due to a preponderance of vacant lots. But regular weed management is obviously not possible across Detroit, where 85,000 blighted properties include more than 6,000 empty lots.
These vacated spaces are powerful pollen producers in Detroit; the density of noxious ragweed is six times higher on them than on occupied properties. It's a "common practice" in the city for property managers to run a mower over these cursed plots once every year or even two years, according to the UM's scientists. But they shouldn't do that, as such a haphazard schedule of mowing creates the perfect conditions for ragweed to grow.
The Atlantic goes on to report that if the lots are left alone, other vegetation seems to compete for life and wins out against ragweed, the evil source of pollen.
