(The following story by Matt Helms appeared on the Detroit Free Press website on January 26, 2010.)
DETROIT — Detroit’s revival could hinge on marshaling industry heritage away from automobiles to designing and building more efficient and high-speed rail and mass transit for the country.
That’s the premise of a PBS documentary “Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City,” a 90-minute film scheduled to air nationwide Feb. 8 on public television stations. A preview is set for 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward.
The city’s 20th-Century legacy is centered on the automobile and highways. But other countries are turning to more efficient, cleaner forms of mass transit, which threatens to leave Detroit and the nation behind, said filmmaker Aaron Woolf.
“We need to reconceptualize the American city,” said Woolf, 45, who wrote, produced and directed the documentary. “I think Detroit is such a poignant place to tell that story.”
The documentary shows, in familiar detail, Detroit’s growth and decline, but notes that the city transformed itself several times with major leaps in transportation — the Erie Canal, railroads and automobiles — and suggests a switch to mass transit could put the city and the U.S. back in the game when it comes to modern mobility.
The documentary juxtaposes American reliance on the automobile against Spain, which is investing billions in an integrated system of high-speed rail, rapid buses and subways.
The film comes at a crucial time in Detroit, when private investors are lining up behind light-rail projects connecting downtown to 8 Mile along Woodward in hopes it will spur a regional transit system.
The documentary is part of a PBS series on the nation’s infrastructure produced by WNET.org in New York. For more on the series, go to www.pbs.org/blueprintamerica. To RSVP for the preview, go to support.dptv.org/site/Calendar.