One D: Public input key to success

Source: The Detroit News
By: David Josar
Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007

Group of six Metro organizations plan to gather feedback as they work to improve region.

MACKINAC ISLAND -- Promising that One D, a consortium of six powerful Metro Detroit civic organizations, would succeed in improving the region in areas where other groups have failed, Edsel B. Ford II vowed there would be annual public report cards of progress.

"We need to make cooperation an ongoing way of life," said Ford, the point person for One D, whose members include the Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan, The Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, Detroit Regional Chamber, Detroit Renaissance, New Detroit and the United Way of Southeastern Michigan.

The group's goals would be steered by already-completed surveys of roughly 10,000 area residents, he said. The surveys, administered by the individual groups, found five areas residents agreed are important: economic prosperity, educational preparation, quality of life, race relations and regional transit.

"This vision is not by us, but it's by the community," said Maud Lyon, counsel for the Cultural Alliance. "It's about elimination of duplication -- when we go to Washington, it's together."

One D will be a major focus of this year's Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference with sessions daily on what the group can do to execute its goals.

By working together, One D hopes to have the region's private sector speak as one voice, whether in Lansing or Detroit; get private-sector funding to back their plans; and foster foundations, businesses and other groups to work together.

Being willing to share the group's successes and failures with the region is one way to ensure progress is made, Ford said.

Ford said the group's members looked at how regions in Charlotte, Denver, Philadelphia and Houston worked together successfully.

"If they can do it, the region that put the world on wheels surely can do it," he said.

Roughly 1,700 business, union, civic and political leaders kicked off the annual Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference on Wednesday.

In the past, the three-day session held at the posh Grand Hotel, had come up with exciting ideas but leaders were criticized for not following through.

In previous years leaders had touted expanded mass transit, such as large, multi-unit buses that would help commuters in the region, to Cobo Center expansion plans.

The group addressed that concern head-on.

"We want a public, transparent scorecard," said Michael J. Brennan, president of United Way of Southeastern Michigan.

That way, he explained, One D is under more pressure to perform.

"One D is all about removing roadblocks and leveraging our champions to do that," Ford said.

Last year, Ford and others used the conference as a forum to tout why a group like One D is needed and this year will use the conference as a forum to address how they will operate.

Detroit Renaissance President Doug Rothwell said progress is being made in all five areas.

"All (the) different priorities are in different stages of evolution, but all have equal weight," he said.

"But some are further along in terms of being resolved."

You can reach David Josar at (313) 222-2073 or djosar@detnews.com.