17th Annual Malcolm Comeaux Lecture

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
17th Annual Malcolm Comeaux Lecture
Introduction
The 17th annual lecture is presented in the school of Urban Sciences and Urban Planning by Malcolm Comeaux, a professor in the Geography Department and Environment and a transport institute associate. He also happens to be an associate in the University of Denver’s program of urban’s studies. Goek is the author who is one of the researchers in issues concerning transport. He is known for his many books which he has published discussing topics like urban and economic development, infrastructure, transport air planning and transportation, high-speed rail, sustainability, globalization and the geography of transport (Speir, Alan M., et al.10 ). His prowess in writing has won him many awards including the 2010 Edward L. Ullman award given by the geographers from American Association due to his significant contributions in the Geography transport field. His lecture emphasizes on the collaboration that is taking place in the region with an objective of offering support to the rail transit program Denver’s Fas tracks.
Metropolitan Regional Collaboration
The rapid growth of the U.S population has led to the emergence of more counties and municipalities, calling for the need to have regional and unity and collaboration to bring the people together. Moreover, there is a transport finance challenge that has come as a result of an increase in transport demands for the growing population as well as the reduction in the federal and state taxes revenue.

The lecture elaborates on the regional collaboration process in Denver’s Fas tracks. The governance in the Denver region has been significantly influenced by the local collaboration revolving around the improvement of economic status and transport (Speir, Alan M., et al.11). However, attempts made earlier to promote regional and metropolitan bore no fruits due to some reasons which include; Stiff competition among municipalities for growth and opposition from the public as well as harsh environmental shortcomings.
The absence of appropriate governance capacities at the municipal level and the existence of weak regional organizations also made it challenging to make metropolitan plans. From the early 1990s, there has been an organizational unity in promoting regional collaboration which on the other hand has received massive support from the business community, civic groups, mayors and the corporate dealing with environmental issues. Numerous benefits have been noted from the regional collaboration such as easy access to sources of financial aid in the region, developments in the economy and transport of the area, substantial funding by the federal government to make various component projects successful. Regional transport initiatives promotions have been the stepping stone for Denver to achieve the regional collaboration. The infrastructure, transport and economic development have more regional partnership than the land use and housing sector.
Conclusion
The Denver’s rail transit history is subdivided into three categories which are electric streetcars, rail transit resurgence, and abandonment. The recent challenges that affected regional growth, sustainability in the environment are seen to have been solved by the Fas tracks. Fas tracks provided a transport solution to heal the challenge that had been a stumbling block to the economic growth of the region due to inadequate transport system in the area. (Speir, Alan M., et al.12).Nevertheless, there was the low political ability in the region to fund such a project and the several attempts made in the infrastructure area to foster regional collaboration did not succeed. The program development was marked by problems in the growth of the region, which went on to the 1990’s.

Works Cited
Speir, Alan M., et al. “Regional collaboration as a model for fostering accountability and transforming health care.” Seminars in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. Vol. 21. No. 1. Elsevier, 2009.