INTRO: Channel 56, Detroit Public TV, is airing ‘Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City.’ The film looks at how public transit could help revitalize Detroit. And it’s not a debate. It’s a call to action. A light rail project could begin this year. The film airs nationally Monday February 8 at 10pm. Chris McCarus reports from the Detroit Public Library’s basement theater.
About 200 people watched an early screening of the film. They heard narrator Miles O’Brien. He was a CNN anchor…… and he’s a Grosse Pointe native.
The title ‘Beyond the Motor City,’ means using not just cars to get around. The people interviewed say transit will bring rebirth.
“If you could integrate all these different transit visions where you have electric buses, light rail and high speed rail all working as one integrated, seamless mode of transportation that would be my utopian vision.”
Miles O’Brien is 50 years old. In the basement of the main library on Woodward Wednesday night, he mingled after the film.
“I love it here. I feel I’m at home.”
The documentary shows how Detroit was once a model for public transit. In 1922, the Department of Street Railways had the largest municipal train system in the country. Miles O’Brien says bring the trains back.
“If you think about great cities we know and love one thing they all have is a vibrant way for people to get around. They have a functional transportation system that ties communities together. And in the absence of that it’s very difficult to think about other things. It has to be part of a whole plan that marches forward.”
A plan that doesn’t just make another People Mover. But a network of trains, buses, sidewalks and bike paths. So is O’Brien straddling the fence between journalism and advocacy?
“What’s wrong with that? You know journalism is changing in this country. I’ve been a journalist for 30 years. It’s nice to watch events and provide a narrative of events for people. But you get to a certain point in your career when you say ‘I’ve been to this story 9 times now and I’ve reported on this same problem 9 times. I know it cold. You know what actually I’m smart enough now to know some of the solutions. And I want to be a part of the solution, not just telling people what’s wrong.”
Beyond The Motor City was made by Aaron Woolf. He also made the film ‘King Corn.’ That’s about America’s addiction to corn syrup that makes us fat.
“I’m not comfortable with the word activist. I’m certainly comfortable with the idea that documentary can both inform and inspire. It’s never persuasive to feel lectured at. Films should be the start of a conversation and not the end of one. But I do think that this is not a partisan issue.”
Woolf grew up in Baltimore then suburban New York City in the 1970′s.
“New York didn’t seem like there was any way it was gonna turnaround. Think of the film the warriors. Obviously that was a stereotype. But that’s the same kind of stereotype that’s being tossed around about Detroit now. Unbridled urban gangs. The highest violence in the nation. New York’s turnaround was unthinkable. The city bankrupt.”
Bridges crumbling, serial killer Son of Sam on the loose. A heat wave struck. And there was a total blackout. No electricity. Just looting, vandalism and setting buildings on fire. Then by the late 1980′s, seedy neighborhoods became trendy, like the lower east side of Manhattan. Aaron Woolf thinks Detroit could redefine what a city is supposed to do.
“Detroit could be the first major city in the world to feed itself, to provide its own fresh foods. I don’t think that’s just a wacky, hippy fantasy.”
Detroit gave the world the labor movement, the middle class, the traffic light, the potato chip, the electric stove and the assembly line– Cream Magazine, The Fifth Estate, The MC5, Iggy Popp, Aretha, Diana, Stevie, Smoky, Ted, Bob, Alice, The Temps, The Tops, The White Stripes, Madonna and more.
“This is a town with great spirit. And it’s a town of national importance. And I think the nation, whether it knows it or not, is hanging its wishes on Detroit.”
If the nation is tied to Detroit then perhaps the state is too. Detroit public transit could be modeled in Saginaw, Flint or Grand Rapids. ‘Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City,’ airs around the country on PBS TV stations Monday February 8 at 10pm.
Below is the link to an online video trailer:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/reports/beyond-the-motor-city/video-preview/861/
Great article – sorry I missed the documentary itself. any plans for re-broadcast? Thanks!
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