MyWHaT

“What do you want Traverse City to be? What things should we protect? Remove? Make better?”

The City of Traverse City is posing this question to a panel of luminaries:

• Derek Bailey – Tribal Chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians
• Don Coe – Managing Partner of Black Star Farms
• Michael Moore – Oscar-Winning Filmmaker and Founder of the Traverse City Film Festival
• Ed Ness – President and CEO of Munson Medical Center
• Tim Nelson – President of Northwestern Michigan College
• Marsha Smith – Executive Director of Rotary Charities

What will any of them have to say about non-motorized transportation options?

Or general street calming and traffic reduction? Perhaps Ed Ness can speak to Munson’s work on promoting its employees to walk and bike to work.

There will be opportunities for audience participation.

This is a free event and televised live on Up North 2 (Channel 97)
Monday, January 25, 2010
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: City Opera House

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Do you plan on attended?

Who would you put on the panel?

Orson Peck's 1906 Composite Photo of the Streetcar in Traverse City that could have been. Peck was a well-known photographer in the region known for playing with "reality".

According to Lawrence & Lucille Wakefields’ book Sail & Rail: A Narrative History of Transportation in the Traverse City Region there was a 10 year period beginning in 1897 where an electric Streetcar running along Front St.  and continuing out to Old Mission was on the agenda. The idea generated creation of a corporation to promote the idea and bring together the needed investors. The concept obtained a charter to go ahead, but each year passed without any tangible progress and was finally abandoned in 1907.

The automobile soon entered the picture and the idea disappeared.

Perhaps as Traverse City proceeds it might consider the concept once again. If we want to increase pedestrian trips around the city, we will also need to offer some quick & easy “boosts” to help navigate the city.

A streetcar could also help slow and calm traffic.

Could you imagine a use for an electric streetcar running back and forth on Front St. from Division St. to the Holiday Inn or further?

This isn’t such a crazy idea when compared to some of the ideas that the Grand Vision inspired.

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Sail & Rail: A Narrative History of Transportation in the Traverse City Region is available at the Traverse City District Library. To view more historic postcards of Traverse City, go to TC Postcards