On June 30, 230 Rochesterians gathered for a screening of the film Beyond the Motor City. The film illustrates the history of Detroit and how both its success and demise were direct results of the automobile industry.

Detroit's Famous Michigan Theater Now a Parking GarageIn response to a frame capturing the once-prosperous Michigan Theater , now a parking garage, Evan Lowenstein writes, "The poignancy and irony just drips down here: the city made wealthy by the automobile was also killed by it; and the betrayer humiliates the victim by literally occupying its body, clueless to the irony."

A panel and discussion following the screening revealed concerns that Rochester and Detroit have uncanny similarities, and had certain initiatives to bring high speed rail to Upstate New York not been taken, Rochester would be dealing with a similar fate.

Project Green, a plan Rochester implemented to balance its Housing Market, also shared similarities with a plan portrayed in the film that seeks to give more land to green space and urban farms.

Overall, the panel proved to be very productive, eliciting many of the key issues facing Greater Rochester, and hopefully promoting the importance or transportation planning all over the country.