LOOK: The Motorless City
- Posted by: Shira Levine
- on May 11, 2009 at 9:00 am
Just a few hours from Detroit lies Mackinac Island, a Michigan town that prohibits automobiles—which is kind of shocking, given its proximity to the world’s longtime car capital. But the 500 residents and thousands of summer season visitors don’t travel in Fords, Chevys, or Chryslers; they move instead on Schwinns, BMXs, and behind some of the 600 horses that pull the town’s quaint Victorian carriages. It’s a place that looks, in some respects, frozen in time.
But while the island might be viewed as either kitschy or Luddite, it is in some ways quite a progressive place. Nearly all of the island is WiFi enabled, the place generates 30 percent of its power hydro-electrically, and low waste is incentivized through a $3 per bag pick-up trash fee (as opposed to a flat monthly rate). What’s more, composting is fully integrated into the town’s public works as all hotel and restaurant scraps—as well as the waste from those aforementioned horses—is used to make rich soil.
The automobile ban goes back to 1898, when residents of the 4.4 square-mile island (the name of which is pronounced Mackinaw) voted to keep the place car-free. Other laws are in place keep out fast food chains (and, of course, drive-thrus) and franchises—with the exception of a lone Starbucks—and ensure that new buildings adhere to a rigid, era-specific aesthetic. You can see it on the walls of the island’s Grand Hotel—one of the only remaining all wood-beam structures in the United States—which boasts an innovative, energy-efficient heating and cooling system, and whose owners are working toward LEED certification and the incorporation of wind turbines. It represents an overall effort to embrace the technologies that improve the quality of life and eschew those that compromise it. And, strangely close to Detroit, it might offer a vision of a hyper-local, post-automobile world, one that seems eerily unchanged by the apparition of cars.
“We don’t want to become another Disneyland or strip mall,” says Bob Tagatz, historian and concierge at Grand Hotel. “We’re not interpretive history, we’re immersion history—we don’t sell historical lollipops to taste. You’re in a place that looks like it did one hundred years ago and will look the same in one hundred.”
Photo (cc) flickr user Mackinac Cowgirl.
DISCUSSION: 168 Comments
Featured on tv show “Dirty Jobs” Very neat place.
I remember reading about this place in Encarta ‘94. That means it must be old.
Very cool. But they let Starbucks come in? Too bad.
The only thing incorrect is that the island is not close to Detroit. Pittsburgh, PA is about as far from Detroit and driving to Green Bay, WI from the island takes about as long as the drive to Detroit.
No car works great when you’re on a small island. They don’t mention that in the winter months, supplies are brought to the town by truck once the lake freezes.
Lets get real 4.4 sq miles I could walk wherever I had to go. 14 miles to work I ride my bike it rains the car.
Mackinac Island is beautiful – especially in the summer! It is true though that it is no where near detroit! Originally from Ann Arbor, I wish it was that close!! I live in California now and always tell people about it when they ask what Michigan is like. See “Somewhere In Time” with Jane Seymore and Christopher Reeves, it was filmed at the Grand Hotel on the island.
Mackinaw was one of my favorite vacation spots…how peaceful
Been there and it is a great place. I wish that all could go back to more slower time.
Aha! That means a wonderful place to invest in the liquor business here. No cars, no restrictions on drinking, No DWI or DUIs! Michigan, I’m coming!!!
I’ve been to Mackinac many times, and I must say it is beautiful. The Grand Hotel on the island is just breathtaking.
This place is wonderful…. rent a bike and cycle around the island… it’s harder than you would think but georgous!!!!
I too have been to mackinaw island and its bueatiful place, and the chocolate fugdge they have is uncomparable to anywehre else.
I used to live in Mackinaw City, which is the mainland city you go to to get to the island. you can get a DUI and a speeding ticket on your bike. AND points will come off your license!!
…we used to vacation there when I was younger–great shops! Lots of stuff to do!
it sounds fabulous. i will have to investigate it further. you make no mention of taxes, public works, general pricing, local grocery stores etc. that would be a very interesting article.
Gobal Warming is not a JOKE! The world needs to retuen to simple transportaion as the Amish. Horses, bikes and old fashion walking. There will be more Jobs to clean after the horses and to have watering holes for them. The problem then will be safety from crime. That is when we would need to help one another as decent/trustworthy individuals. Something has to give eighter its us or the Ozone. I don’t want be around when a catistrophic event that kills half of the world it not all species.
tourists come and they can charge as much $$$ as they want and all the environuts can point to how wonderful it is. ITS MAKE BELIEVE FOLKS! where’s the oil, coal or nuke plant that generates the rest of the electricity? where does the rest of the utilities (water, sewer, gas, propane, cell phones, and cell phone towers) come from? how about the copper, aluminum, steel and plastic pipe and cable that carries it? where’s it manufactured at??? where are the steel plants, oil refineries, manufacturing facilities, ship yards? how do they get their bottled water, booze, food, boats, bicycles, paint and everything else that’s manufactured and used up to the island????? wood sail boats???? and why did they have to cut down trees to make the boat? maybe they should not live on an island – it uses up too many resources – maybe they should come live in a cave and eat bugs and grass like the rest of us
How “old” are we talking here? Are minorities allowed to exist in this city?
I grew up on Mackinac Island and graduated from school there. Let me set a couple of posts straight. The do NOT bring in groceries in the winter by truck. They do however bring them across an ice bridge from the mainland on snowmobiles with sleds hitched to them. Rex Humbard never owned Mackinac Island, he did however own a college there and it operated in the early 70’s, but never got enough interest to keep it afloat.All in all Mackinac is a beautiful place where anyone can go and step back in time. There are only emergency vehicles allowed there, no other vehicles. The best time to go to Mackinac is for the Lilac Festival which happens the closest weekend to the 15 of June each year. That is when there is the beautiful smell of Lilac’s takes over the Island with many varieties of trees all over the island. Be sure to see it at sometime in your life. I no longer live there, but still visit and still have many relatives who live there.
“Global Warming” is a joke. Pollution creates jobs and the place is small enough to ride a bike. The point is, Makinaw City is an island where people have enough $$ to live the life of Ryan because they made their fortune polluting, boozing, cutting down trees and destroying the so called “Environment” somewhere else. Don’t you tree huggers get it?
It is a beautiful place. No where close to Detroit, though.
Simplistic lifestyles aren’t for all of us, and I’d be willing to bet a few dollars there are a few motorized vehicles on the island, only that the article write negelected to mention them. Hello Fire and Ambulance Services anyone. Privately owned vehicles being a distinctly different aspect from municipalities.
I went there for my honeymoon 32 years ago. Highly recommend it. You really feel like you are far away from the everyday world.
Mackinac Island is my favorite place on earth – I worked there the summer after I graduated from college. I met my husband that summer and we are lucky that his family maintains a home and businesses on the Island so we visit them a couple time every summer. It isn’t close to Detroit – about 4 hours north – but it is worth the drive. Northern Michigan is truly a spectacular place – pristine, unspoiled, a slower pace, a simpler life. You really need to visit to understand the charm of Mackinac Island. Our dream is to own a summer place there – big dream as property is limited and expensive, but really, it is a wonderful, quaint place. I can’t think of anywhere else on earth I would rather be.