The Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan brought Majora Carter to Detroit this week for a series of presentations on her Sustainable South Bronx work. There are a myriad of similar challenges in both the South Bronx and Detroit.

Majora’s efforts have resulted in the area’s first new riverfront park in 60 years, plans and funding for a major greenway/trail system, a green-collar training program, a green roof program, and much more. Her presentation was very inspiring.

Her presentation was similar to one she made in 2006 at TED. I highly recommend devoting 19 minutes to watching it. You will not be disappointed.

This looks like a fine proposal from Senator Tony Stamas. His Senate Bill 1069 would give tax credit to those who donate their land (or an interest in it) to the DNR. The land must be used for the preservation of open space, natural resources, outdoor recreation, farmland preservation, and more. The DNR would manage this donation process, developing donation criteria, and approving them.

It seems like another means for encouraging land preservation and increasing outdoor recreation with the state. Whether it truly gets used, and whether this bill even makes it out of the Michigan legislature remains to be seen.

metromode’s recent interview with Robert F. Kennedy included a question on bike infrastructure investment. (Thanks, Kelly!)

mode: There are other environmental initiatives in Michigan right now, such as the Greenways Initiative, which is investing millions of dollars into a network of trails and bike lanes in Southeast Michigan. Can you speak to how such investment can spur economic development and whether or not such an investment is prudent in a time of recession and high unemployment?

RFK: Let me say this: Good economic policy is, 100 percent of the time, good environmental policy. Conservation produces many more jobs than does the exploitation of virgin resources. If, on the other hand, we treat the planet as a business in liquidation for a few years of pollution prosperity, for an illusion, our children are going to pay for our joyride. It is deficit spending — our prosperity on the backs of our children.

We are not protecting fish and birds here. Nature is the infrastructure of our community. If we want to meet our obligation as a generation, as a nation, as a civilization and provide the next generation with the community that our parents gave us, we have to start by protecting our environmental infrastructure. This is our lakes, bike ways, rivers — the landscapes that connect us to our past, our history, and provide a context to our communities. They are our source, ultimately, of values, virtues, our character as a people.

Investment in the environment does not somehow diminish our nation’s wealth. It is an investment in infrastructure, like telecommunications and roads. It ensures the economic vitality of our generation and the next generation.

Smart Growth America: “Three-fourths of Americans believe that being smarter about development and improving public transportation are better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads, according to a survey sponsored by the National Association of Realtors and Smart Growth America. The 2007 Growth and Transportation Survey details what Americans think about how development affects their immediate community. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are concerned about the role growth and development play in climate change, as well as remaining concerned about traffic congestion. Half of those surveyed think improving public transit would be the best way to reduce congestion, and 26 percent believe developing communities that reduce the need to drive would be the better alternative. Only one in five said building new roads was the answer.”

From the Ann Arbor News:
Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, a proponent of alternative transportation, rides his bike to City Hall from his northside home two or three times a week. He takes the “side path” along Plymouth Road, which was built wide enough to be used by bicyclists and pedestrians alike, until moving into the streets downtown, where he’s careful to obey street signs as if he were driving a car.

Hieftje said the city is rapidly expanding its bicycle path system, which is expected to grow 300 percent over the next five or six years. A recently developed non-motorized plan means that six to eight years from now, 85 percent of the city’s main roads will have bike lanes.

He said drivers should remember that every cyclist is saving a parking space, as well as well as helping the environment.

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