20. Todd Scott – Detroit Greenways Coalition
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The ways we live our lives, design our communities, and move around within those communities are all intimately connected to the ecological health of the planet.
Most North American cities are designed around the automobile or at least cars have come to dominate these urban landscapes, far more than in European or Asian cities.
There are few cities in the world more closely associated with the automobile than Detroit, Michigan. Motown.
But the privileging of cars in Motor City, and other cities around the country and around the globe, has had dramatic costs, from polluted air and water and a high number of traffic fatalities, to transportation inequality and high levels of carbon pollution.
The Detroit Greenways Coalition is looking to change all that, right in the heart of the world’s automotive power center. Todd Scott is the executive director of the Detroit Greenways Coalition, and he joins me to discuss how their work promoting greenways throughout the city is improving people’s health and happiness, beautifying a very industrial city, reducing inequality and climate impacts, and a whole host of other benefits, even economic development.
This is a tale about Detroit, but if this work can happen in Motor City, it can happen anywhere, and Todd’s stories will inspire you to go outside, find some green space and some fresh air, meet your neighbors, and explore wherever it is you live.
I’m John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis. You can subscribe at johnfiege.earth, where you will also find show notes and all episodes of the podcast, plus my writing, photographs, and films.
Here is Todd Scott.
Todd Scott
Todd Scott is the Detroit Greenways Coordinator for the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance (MTGA). As coordinator, Scott chairs the Detroit Greenways Coalition, a group of non-profits and government officials working to improve and promote biking, walking and other active transportation options in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park.
Scott also co-chairs the Built Environment committee of the Detroit Food and Fitness Collaborative. The committee’s goals include promoting active lifestyles by building greenways and trails while also advocating for policy changes such as Complete Streets.
In his spare time, Scott enjoys running stupid-long distances and biking between Detroit-area bakeries.
Notes and Media Recommendations
- Detroit Greenways Coalition
- "The Revolutionary Idea Behind America's Urban Trails," by Miles Howard, for National Geographic
- Bicycle City, by Dan Piatkowski
- "Olmsted's Enduring Gift," by Ruth Fremson and Audra D.S. Burch, for the New York Times
- "The Parks That Made the Man Who Made Central Park," by Lisa W. Foderaro, for the New York Times
- "Fix It or Move It," by Todd Scott, for the Huffington Post
Credits
This episode was researched by Lydia Montgomery and edited by Sarah Westrich, with additional editing by Isabella Fleming, Amy Cavanaugh, Arthur Koenig, Kate Fair, and Marta Kondratiuk. Music is by Daniel Rodriguez Vivas. Mixing is by Morgan Honaker.