Dan Bartholomay, CEO of Minneapolis-based Railvolution, is gearing up for his organization's national conference on Sept. 21 - Sept. 24 in the Twin Cities.
He'll have folks like Dr. Beverly Scott, the director of Boston's MBTA transit authority on hand rubbing elbows with directors and engineers from public transit authorities in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and Seattle, to name a few.
Bartholomay, who was once the commissioner for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, helped launch the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative through his previous position with the McKnight Foundation, as well as the Itasca Project. He's all about figuring out how to use public transit to connect workers to jobs and spur economic development.
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A baby watches the Green Line from the outdoor patio of the Cupcake restaurant.
The fact that his group's national conference will be in his hometown next month -- based at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency with events spread throughout the metro -- excites him to no end. "We move from site to site every year, and I expect we won't end up in Minneapolis for another 12 to 15 years," he said.
"We bring together one of the more diverse groups of people anywhere around these issues. The last four years we've been in DC, Seattle and LA and now we're here. We'll have probably 25 or so transit agencies represented, including a bunch of the CEOs, and we also have a bunch of engineering firms."
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"We're growing our envelope and starting to be a resource hub," he said. While the atmosphere will be collegial, there's also an element of competition.
The Twin Cities should make special note of all the representatives of "peer cities that are competing with us for talent and also for the label that this is a great place to live."
As for specific events during the metro-wide conference, there's a handful that especially stand out. A group of Federal Reserve Banks are sponsoring a symposium on "transit-oriented development" and strategies to link low-income or disadvantaged people to transit and transit investments. There will be 19 cities represented.
The 45 member cities of the National Streetcar Coalition will host a discussion on streetcars. Another forum on "creative placemaking" looks at artistic events and projects throughout the country.
A special screening at Minnesota Museum of American Art will feature photo exhibits from along the Green Line. The Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis will host some 85 workshops, as well as three large plenary sessions. And the Union Depot in St. Paul will host a welcome reception on Sept. 21.
More information is online at http://www.railvolution.org/.
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