Regionalism in action: businesses and communities are collaborating to transform our riverfront.

When the Detroit River was designated as one of only 14 American Heritage Rivers in the nation in 1998, it marked the beginning of a regional collaboration that will vastly enhance the quality of life in Southeast Michigan for generations to come.

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Communities and businesses along the 32-mile riverfront are literally transforming the Detroit River in an unparalleled cooperative effort led by the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (MAC) called the Greater Detroit American Heritage River (AHR) Initiative. Under the AHR initiative, MAC is helping public and private partners undertake a great number of projects in a wide variety of areas such as fish, wildlife, and natural habitat restoration, bikeway and greenway development, shoreline rehabilitation and other collaborative efforts protecting our ecology, promoting recreation and highlighting the Detroit River's rich heritage.

One vision at the very beginning of AHR was to create a necklace of riverfront greenways, parks, and non-motorized transportation trails running the full length of the Detroit River--from Lake St. Clair in the north to Lake Erie in the south, as well as along major tributaries of the river. With MAC's help and leadership from organizations like the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and the Downriver Linked Greenways Initiative, that lake-to-lake greenway vision is now well on the way to reality. Riverfront promenades, trails and parks are being developed up and down the Detroit River--from the RiverWalk in downtown Detroit to Trenton's Linked Riverfront Parks, the Elizabeth Park Riverwalk and the Humbug Marsh Greenway in the Downriver area.

MAC is a regional public-private partnership dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and economy of Southeast Michigan by encouraging and promoting regional cooperation. Its latest effort under the AHR initiative is working with communities to create a regional water trail for kayaking on the Detroit, Rouge, Huron and Raisin Rivers.

"Never has working together been so important. It's amazing the results that can be achieved through regional cooperation," says J. Terry McElroy, chair of the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition and senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of The Auto Club Group.

"And there is no better example of that than the transformation taking place along the 32-mile Detroit Riverfront," McElroy adds. "It's a great model of regional cooperation at work that's making the Detroit area a better place to live."