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Five Things You Need to Know for Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Today Absolute Michigan (well, me at least) is on the road to Michigan Adventure in Muskegon. What's your favorite place to go for a quick getaway in Michigan? Let us know at absolutemichigan@gmail.com. Speaking of going places: sorry we missed this week's Destination: Michigan (I'll plead overwork).

Could SE Michigan Aereotropolis be City of the Future?

747 by NightrainLane

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

2006 Traverse City Film Festival, Jul 31 - Aug 6

The second annual Traverse City Film Festival. Following the opening night, the TCFF features six full days of movies in three indoor movie houses: the Old Town Playhouse, the City Opera House, and the State Theatre as well as free nightly showings on the HUGE screen at the Open Space. There are also daily panel discussions with directors, writers, actors, and other members of the film industry...

http://static.flickr.com/50/197246485_67e6edba3e_t.jpg

Michigan Bloggers in Blogathon 2006

Blogathon is a 24 hour, worldwide blog-for-charity event that takes place on Saturday, July 29th. There are (at least) three Michigan bloggers that we know will be participating:

Beth Anne of clever titles are so last summer is blogging for the Global Fund for Women.

Jamelah of Jamelah.net is blogging for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Gretchen, the Villain Everyone Wants to Bang is blogging for Hurley Foundation is raising money for Hurley Medical Center of Flint. (given the title, you will not be surprised that the author places an 18+ advisory on her site)

Visit the Blogathon web site

Has Everybody Heard, About the Bird?

The Freep's Michael Rosenberg takes a fond look back at Detroit Tiger phenom Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. In the summer of 1976, the Tiger rookie talked to the ball and generally out-crazied the rest of baseball on his way to a 19-9 season. In addition to looking back, Rosenberg also talks to Fidrych - and even gets the definitive word on the talking to the ball thing.

Read MICHAEL ROSENBERG: The spirit of '76 in the Detroit Free Press
Tiger Tales has a cool Fidrych diary
Mark "The Bird" Fidrych at Wikipedia has the Sports Illustrated Big Bird cover

Bill Would Give Bikes More Rights

The Freep reports that a new bill would give more road rights to cyclists and bring Michigan cycling laws up to par with national standards. While fatalities are down, the total number of accidents is up, especially in high-growth communities where roads weren't built to handle all the traffic. Rich Moeller, executive director of the League of Michigan Bicyclists says "There's this misconception by motorists that bicyclists don't belong on the roads, but a bicyclist who is riding along at a good clip of speed probably isn't a good match for a sidewalk."

Read Bicycles and cars try to learn to share the road in the Freep