CONTENTS

The ANHA Partnership

Our region loves the cars we produce. However, we have not always appreciated how our shared heritage and industry has influenced our environment, our communities, our collective identity, and our nation.

MotorCities benefitted from the generations of Americans whose relatives immigrated from the American South, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East in pursuit of the American Dream - bringing their rich cultural and social traditions with them.

Right: The planning process engaged the citizens of our region at workshops, public

events, and through an innovative project website.

Cooperative Approach In 1995, an ad hoc group of citizens, public officials, and representatives of the automobile industry and labor formed to advocate support for preservation and interpretation of the region’s automobile heritage. After conceptual planning and considerable organizational effort, a coalition of citizens was successful in securing Congressional designation when an Act of the U.S. Congress (P.L. 105-355/H.R.3910) created the Automobile National Heritage Area on November 6, 1998. The Automobile National Heritage Area Partnership, Inc. (the Partnership) was

ANHA ICON team

established in 1999 as a non-profit corporation in the state of Michigan to serve as the management entity for MotorCities-ANHA. The Partnership evolved from a grass roots effort and includes hundreds of volunteers as well as five key founding partners: DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, the National Park Service, and the United Auto Workers. The founding partners, volunteers, and staff share a commitment to preserve and use our region’s shared automobile heritage for community benefit.

ICON team

The Partnership manages Motorcities-ANHA under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. ANHA’s designating legislation mandated the development and submission of a General Management Plan and Environmental Assessment (GMP/EA) to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior for review and approval by November 6, 2001. This full plan was submitted and subsequently approved. This document is an Executive Summary of that plan.

Who are we? People, places, cars.

ICON team Henry Ford's English School, 1914. Ford had a large immigrant work force and instituted mandatory programs to insure that these workers learned English, kept their households neat, and were socialized about American ways

of life. [ICON team]

What is a National Heritage Area? National Heritage Areas (NHA) are a relatively new concept. Starting in the mid-1980’s, a score of heritage areas have been designated by the Federal government as part of the National Park System to recognize important regions and areas across the nation where natural, cultural, historic and scenic resources combine to form cohesive, nationally distinctive landscapes arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography. By designating a NHA the U.S. Congress and the Federal government recognize that the resources in that area have national MotorCities created the “five dollar day,” the American middle class, the modern labor movement, and numerous wage and benefit advancements that brought dignity and safety to the workplace, influenced the Civil Rights movement, and continues to define the way we live, work, and play.

Four major public meetings and 88 total meetings were held to generate ideas and to review alternative approaches to the plan as part of the public process during the preparation of the Plan and Environmental Assessment. The Preferred Approach balanced opportunities, costs and benefits.

importance. Each NHA seeks to extend the mission of the National Park Service (NPS) to preserve and interpret nationally important resources in these large living landscapes for community benefit and to communicate its unique story to residents and visitors. The Federal government’s role in these NHAs usually does not involve ownership or management, but emphasizes partnership with local communities and businesses, providing technical and financial assistance to local entities through the Department of the

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Interior and the NPS. Each individual area has been responsible for preparing its GMP to respond to its unique circumstances and heritage by defining its resources, objectives, planning strategy, and implementation approach.

HFMGV

This unique Tucker vehicle remains a collector’s item, as only a handful were produced. Tucker grew up in Ypsilanti.

Below: Brightmoor Subdivision was built in the 1920’s to house people moving to the area to work in the auto industry.

Right: A UAW rally in Cadillac Square in Detroit, 1937.

Purpose of the Plan The General Management Plan (GMP) for the Automobile National Heritage Area was created over an intensive one-year effort, with significant public involvement, in Southeastern and Central Michigan. The GMP is intended to accomplish several important functions:

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• Fulfill the requirements of the legislation. • Create a strategic framework for the implementation of MotorCities-ANHA. • Define the projects and programs that will transform the MotorCities-ANHA mission into tangible benefits for the region and its citizens. • Outline a set of strategic, phased investments for the communities of the region. • Propose a regional implementation strategy for education, revitalization, and tourism programs that build upon automobile heritage resources. • Suggest how the organization should evolve to implement the Plan. • Create an interpretive framework to tell the region’s nationally significant story.