A transit forum featuring business leaders, transportation professionals, policymakers, scholars and transit riders will be held at Wayne State University’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center on Monday, Sept. 20.
The purpose of the forum, according to Lawrence Hands of the nonprofit group Transportation Riders United (TRU) — a co-sponsor of the event — is to “educate the public on the regional economic benefits of transit investment.”
Among those featured at the event will be Dr. June Manning Thomas, an urban planner and Michigan State University professor whose keynote address will deal with the role of transportation in Detroit’s development.
Titled “Transit on the Woodward Corridor: Our Economic Engine,” the forum will also feature Douglas Kelbaugh, dean of the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Kelbaugh, the author of several books, will discuss using mass transit to combat urban sprawl.
The daylong event begins at 9 a.m. For more information call 313-963-8872 or e-mail [email protected]. Information can also be found on the Web at detroittransit.org.
Think pink
Human rights activist Medea Benjamin will appear at four events in southeast Michigan on Wednesday, Sept. 22 and Thursday, Sept. 23.
Co-founder of the group Code Pink: Women for Peace, Benjamin holds the distinction of having been removed from both the Democratic and Republican national conventions this year. At the GOP convention, in front of vice president Dick Cheney, she unfurled a pink banner that declared: “Pro-Life: Stop the Killing in Iraq.” The banner displayed to Dems urged: “End the Occupation of Iraq.”
Benjamin is a Green Party member who is urging voters in swing states to cast their ballots for Democrat John Kerry.
“There is no greater political imperative this year than to retire the Bush regime, one of the most dangerous and extremist in U.S. history.”
Benjamin will appear at Ann Arbor’s Common Language Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. on the Sept. 22. The following day she’ll be at Wayne State University, the University of Detroit Mercy and the Birmingham Unitarian Church. Topics of discussion will range from the occupation of Iraq to the effect the upcoming U.S. presidential election will have on global human rights efforts.
All the events are open to the public. For more information contact Katie Reiter at 248-644-9698.
