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Could SE Michigan Aereotropolis be City of the Future?

Fast Company writes of the latest thing on the world stage, the "aerotropolis". They suggest that urban planners in the seem to be ignoring the fact that urban centers have always grown around the dominant mode of travel: by air in today's world. Hong Kong and other nations are basing their development and world-trade strategy on the primacy of the airport. Concept creator John Kasarda looked at the Detroit area with university students and regional planners and found that a new city could be founded with startling implications for Michigan.

Nearly unique among major U.S. cities, Detroit has 25,000 acres of woods and open fields surrounding its main airport, a hub for Northwest Airlines. Just seven miles to the west--a straight shot along I-94--is a second, smaller airport, Willow Run, which caters to the chartered cargo and corporate jets of the Big Three automakers and their assorted suppliers. If one were to link the airfields with the highway, and with mass transit stretching to downtown Detroit, the spine for an aerotropolis would be in place.

This is a great article and we really encourage you to read it!

Read Rise of the Aerotropolis in Fast Company magazine

Posted/updated Jul 25, 2006
by Andrew McFarlane (Absolute Michigan)