The Detroit Works Project is hosting a series of topic-specific meetings to continue gathering community input in the effort to re-imagine Detroit.

Thursday, May 5th from 4pm until 8pm is the Environmental Summit which includes transportation among its many topics. It will be held at the Gleaners Food Bank (2131 Beaufait in Detroit.)

We will discuss: air, waste, water, land, pollution, energy, zoning, green jobs, greenways, environmental justice, remediation, sustainability, energy efficiency, recycling, composting, agriculture, and more…

Share what you are doing to make Detroit a greener city.

Tell the City your environmental vision for Detroit.

Learn about major issues and key opportunities.

Bring your environmental perspective into the Detroit Works Project

Dinner will be provided.

If you’re really industrious, you can review the policy audits which were developed earlier in the Detroit Works Process through consultants. The City Systems – Infrastructure, Transportation, and Sustainability audit covers roads. It’s long and rather dull.

The Landscape, Ecology, and Open Space audit does cover trails, greenways, and parks, while Land Use and Urban Form touches on roads, walkability, bike lanes, and more. The Environment, Remediation and Health audit does connect transportation with health impacts.

There’s much data here and unfortunately it’s spread between these four large PDFs. Still, it looks like a very good starting point.

The Detroit Environmental Summit artwork is by Bec Young. Her artwork is available on-line at justseeds.org.

The Detroit Works Project — the city’s plan for re-imagining itself — has scheduled the next series of public meetings.

But before talking about those, let’s admire this graphic taken from the front page of the Detroit Works web site. No, we didn’t create that graphic nor did we bribe anyone.

And, the Detroit Works team has summarized the comments given during the first round of public meetings.

If you thought Detroiters were indifferent about their future, you’d be wrong. The first five meetings had 4,500 people and produced 1,916 verbal comments and 1,451 comment cards.

Our favorite statistic?

There were many comments on transportation with 42% of those expressing a desire for light rail and 31% making suggestions around improvements for bicycles.

Apparently Detroiters aren’t indifferent about their bicycling infrastructure either!

The next series of public meetings are listed on the Detroit Works web site. They run from January 27th through February 16th. Unlike the first meetings, these are geographically based. They are asking that you attend the meeting that is closest and most convenient to you. Note that space is limited.

The Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance has written summaries on greenways and Complete Streets for the Works Project. The plan is to distribute these summaries (and others) to those attending these upcoming meetings. Doing that should help help build community awareness.