From the DNR:

The Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Division cordially invites you to participate in a Public Workshop on Wednesday, January 14, 2009.

We Need Your Help Planning the Recreation Design and Programming for Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor.

Tri-Centennial State Park and Harbor, located on the Detroit River between Rivard and St. Aubin Streets, is a work in progress. We need your help to complete this park’s recreation plan! Please join the community for a two hour workshop to help decide the future recreation development of Michigan’s only urban state park. Come to share your ideas for this state park.

Where?

Christ Church of Detroit, Ledyard Hall
960 E. Jefferson (Use the Woodbridge St. entrance)
Detroit, MI 48207

When?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 (Alternate date in case of severe weather is January 21). Choose the time option that works best for you!

• Option 1: 3– 5 p.m.
• Option 2: 7– 9 p.m.

Please R.S.V.P. by January 6, 2009, either by email at SenkoL1@michigan.gov, or phone at 517-373-9900. Seating is limited, so be sure to R.S.V.P. and reserve your opportunity to participate!

Group organizations/clubs are requested to limit their member participation to two (2) representatives, to allow as many organizations and individuals to participate as possible. If you cannot attend, you can still share your comments by sending them to: DNR-Tri-Centennial@michigan.gov.

Light refreshments will be provided.

There’s been a big push by many groups to get Green projects in the Obama economic stimulus package.  We’ve already mentioned the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s push.  The DNR Parks division has submitted about a quarter-million in infrastructure projects.  The Detroit Greenways Coalition has their trails submitted as well.

That’s all the good news.

The fear however is this stimulus package will also fund a significant amount of road expansion.

From Bloomberg.com:

While many states are keeping their project lists secret, plans that have surfaced show why environmentalists and some development experts say much of the stimulus spending may promote urban sprawl while scrimping on more green-friendly rail and mass transit.

“It’s a lot of more of the same,” said Robert Puentes, a metropolitan growth and development expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington who is tracking the legislation. “You build a lot of new highways, continue to decentralize” urban and suburban communities and “pull resources away from transit.”

And decentralizing/sprawl also hurts bikability and walkability.

Some local concerns involve planned expressway expansion, notably I-75 in Oakland County and I-94 in Detroit.  Neither project made financial sense long before the recent declines in vehicle miles traveled.  Now they make less sense.

And they’re certainly not green, but they might get in the stimulus package.

The I-94 project is especially bad in that it would remove nine bridges over the expressways — permanently blocking bicycle routes within Detroit’s non-motorized transportation master plan.

And because the highway expansion was planned before the non-motorized plan, MDOT is ignoring the latter.  However, reading their Final Environmental Impact Statement only shows that MDOT wasn’t going to let non-motorized priorities get in the way of an expressway expansion.

That said, there’s not too much we can do until MDOT’s economic stimulus list becomes public and we see what’s on the list.

Detroit now has an Office of Energy and Sustainability.  Mayor Ken Cockrel made the exciting announcement yesterday.

From Crain’s:

Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. said Wednesday he plans to create green jobs and save the city money through a new emphasis on environmental issues.

“Today, we are all a bit more sensitive to the environment,” Cockrel said in making the announcement, “in part because we know the importance of being environmentally conscious, but also because we can enhance economic development in the City of Detroit while generating new jobs by being environmentally aware.”

This is great news from a cycling perspective since we’re obviously a very green solution.

And, in fact, this office is somewhat of an offshoot from Mayor’s Green Task Force, and before that, the Council President’s Green Task Force.  It was the latter that helped us get Detroit’s non-motorized transportation master plan moving through city government.

So, we expect this office has a role in making Detroit more bicycle friendly, and as a result, more green.

MyFoxDetroit has a video story covering this announcement.  The Detroit News, Free Press, and ClickonDetroit also covered this event.

The New York Times recently ran an article on Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple (“Detroit Churches Pray for ‘God’s Bailout’”.)

Greater Grace, the largest church in Detroit, invited officials from the United Automobile Workers union to speak before Bishop Ellis gave his sermon, titled “A Hybrid Hope.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we need prayer,” he said. “When it’s all said and done, we’re all in this thing together.”

Bishop Ellis encouraged the congregation to pray, not that Congress would “do the right thing” and approve loaning money to the car companies, but that Detroiters would “make it” through these tough times.

Some bike blogs (here and here) picked up the article, apparently didn’t read it all that well, and wrote that the Church was praying for the Senate bailout.  Or maybe that just made a better story for them.  Piling on Detroit easy these days irregardless of the facts.

Bicycle Christmas

But on a more positive note, Greater Grace Temple has been a major supporter of bicycling in Detroit through their Bicycle Christmas program.

“For many people, one of their fondest childhood memories was to receive a brand new bicycle on Christmas morning,” says GGT’s Senior Pastor Bishop Charles H. Ellis III. “We want to do something to help those youngsters whose families who are hit hard by this economy and could face having little or nothing under the tree on Christmas Day.”

The church will be giving away 250 brand new bicycles to children from financially struggling families on Sunday, December 21, 2008. The giveaway will begin after the 10:00 a.m. service (approx. 12:30 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.). The church partnered with Meijer Stores and Sinai Grace Hospital to make the giveaway possible. Donations also came from church members.

Greater Grace Temple has given away more than 2,800 bikes to financially struggling families over the last 5 years.

Wow!  What a great program and a great cause.

If you are interested in helping or supporting this program, please contact the Greater Grace Temple.

Certainly the massive looming issue in Detroit is the future of our Big 3 domestic automakers.  It’s frustrating, depressing and much more.

If there’s any silver lining, this crisis might bring the region together as one.  It really does feel like Detroit vs. 49 other states.  It certainly makes the city-suburb divide look awfully trivial.

But this is a bike advocacy blog, so what does this mean for trails and greenways?

No one knows yet.  We do know that the Big 3 automakers contribute to trail development in the area.  Chrysler is a big supporter of DECC and the Conner Creek Greenway.  General Motors has put significant resources into the Riverwalk.  The Ford Motor Company is a partner in the Rouge Gateway project.

However we should note how the housing fallout was a big hit for trails.  Many of the non-profits developing trails in Detroit are also developing housing.  They rely on income from housing sales or other community development.  With the real estate market in the dumps, the income isn’t coming in like it was.  Many are struggling beyond the imaginable.

But fortunately there is still some funding available for trails.

Today the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy announced a $1 million donation from Wayne County.  It did not come from the county budget, according to County Executive Robert Ficano:

“This award to the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy represents the County’s support of the riverfront and how it positively impacts people’s lives. Through grant funds received by Wayne County for public safety and healthy living and wellness efforts, today I announce a $1 million award to the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy made possible from the county departments of Homeland Security/Emergency Management and Health and Human Services. The funds will be used to support the riverfront’s public safety initiatives and health and wellness activities on the riverwalk and its ajoining parks. While we will continue to explore ways support the riverfront project, there are no county general fund dollars being used in making this contribution.”

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan also gave $500,000 for work on the near east-side neighborhoods, which includes the East Riverfront and Dequindre Cut.

Some huge Detroit trail funding announcements are expected in 2009.

Stay tuned, but in the meantime, pray for good news for the Big 3.