Tom Henderson, who covers "big bucks and high tech" for Crain's Detroit Business, asks why state of Michigan officials feel it is appropriate to close Belle Isle during a convention of the Intelligent Transport Systems 21st World Congress Sept. 7 to 11.
Actually, as Henderson notes, the island won't be closed to everyone.
He writes:
Those yacht owners with a boat berthed at the Detroit Yacht Club will be allowed on the island. Those more affluent park visitors apparently are no threat to the high-tech demonstrations going on.
The down-market folks who fish and bike and run on the island? They’ll have to wait their turn.
Crain's' Dustin Walsh broke the news that the island will be closed to the public in conjunction with the world congress, which will mainly take place at Cobo Center.
According to Henderson:
The closing is thanks to an offer by the state to the Congress to hand the island over, metaphorically, for four days in late summer.
The event is held every three years, and this is the first time it’s been in Detroit. As many as 10,000 business execs, researchers and politicians from around the world are expected to show up to see the latest innovations in transportation.
The expanded Cobo Center isn’t sufficient to showcase the technology properly. The Congress had been working with the city of Detroit to use some of the streets around Cobo to have live demonstrations of driverless vehicles, including passenger cars, commercial trucks and military vehicles.
But why restrict yourself to city streets when you have a nearby island?
That, I get. But closing the whole island to the public the whole time? The Congress couldn’t make do, say, with 500 acres? It couldn’t have settled for the western half of the island, with its various roads and the huge swatch of concrete near the casino that was laid in recent years for the auto races?
