Yesterday I drove to Mackinac Island and arrived in time to bike up to the Grand Hotel, register, bike FAST and UP again to where I am staying, change and make it back for the ‘rookie orientation’ which basically was an excuse to give the rookies a glass of wine before things got started.
There was an opening session that was quite interesting and talked about the current status of the Detroit Region and the urgent needs for a public transport system (of ANY kind) but more concentrating on the challenges that are specific to Michigan like the low value placed on the need higher education and ones that are more global like a ‘flattening world’ where people can work anywhere and the more talented and educated the more mobile they are. So they can work anywhere but they DO choose to work in communities (not on a mountain top via computer like ‘futurist’ thought 10 years ago). The focus of the session will largely be on how to develop the environment to get these communities rebuilt. Not a simple task!