Detroit Mayor Bing, local leaders to speak on mass transit, urban vitality

Thursday, September 30, 2010 | Source: Metromode

Trucks, trains, boats, and planes are all important to sustainability, and a symposium at University of Detroit Mercy tonight will discuss that.

"Riding Trucks, Trains, Boats, and Planes to Urban Vitality," presented by the university's College of Engineering and Science and its School of Architecture, is the theme for the 2010 Designing Sustainable Detroit Symposium. Detroit's mayor and other business leaders are expected to participate in the symposium, scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight in the Fountain Lounge, on the university's McNichols Campus.

Up for discussion is how transportation initiatives bring about economic development, job creation, and livability to Detroit. Speakers include David Bing, Detroit mayor; Matthew Cullen, president of the board of M1 Rail; Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano; and Melissa Roy, senior director of transportation policy and government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Leo Hanifin, dean of the College of Engineering and Science at UD-Mercy and director of the Michigan and Ohio University Transportation Center, will moderate the gathering. "I think transportation systems have enormous potential for stimulating economic development, making the city more livable -- everything from jobs, entertainment, health care, education," he says. "There's a lot of different impacts."

Other cities, specifically Portland, Ore., have used light-rail transit as a driver for transit-oriented development. Portland put in a three-mile route downtown for $100 million, and within seven years had $3 billion worth of investment within two or three blocks of the system's route. "They realize that once people start circulating on this transit system, they stop, and they shop, and they eat and they drink, and they do all the things that people do in a vibrant city," he says.

The foundations for light rail exist in Detroit, Hanifin says, and he's confident it will eventually come to the city. "It's also very attractive to the young creative class that we want to retain," he adds. "They like that kind of transportation, they like that kind of environment that springs up around light rail."

In addition to transit-oriented development, also to be discussed are The Detroit Aerotropolis Initiative and Detroit's TranslinkeD Strategy, which identifies key projects to stimulate economic development and help the area serve as a port for global trade.

RSVP for the free event at (313) 993-1540 or click here.

Source: Leo Hanifin, dean of the College of Engineering and Science at the University of Detroit-Mercy
Writer: Jon Zemke