If you go to this event tonight, from 7:30 to 9 at Town Hall, and learn about what happens when cities tear down freeways for yourself.

The event, which costs $5, is sponsored by the Transportation Choices Coalition, Mithun, the Sierra Club, and the People’s Waterfront Coalition. Speakers include John Norquist, former mayor of Milwaukee and current director of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Many, many more details after the jump.

Where Seattle Meets the Water: Expressway or Avenue?

A presentation and discussion with John Norquist, director of the Congress for the New Urbanism, and Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, on their work "Highways to Boulevards: Reclaiming Urbanism & Revitalizing Cities."

Monday evening, May 22, 7:30 to 9:00 pm
Town Hall (upstairs) 8th and Seneca
$5 at the door

These two national organizations have joined forces to study the economic, community, and environmental benefits of replacing urban highways with at-grade streets in six cities. Could this work in Seattle? What happens to the traffic? A lively roundtable discussion on the viability of this approach for viaduct replacement will follow the presentation, moderated by David Brewster and featuring Anne Vernez-Moudon and Bruce Agnew.

The evening's speakers:

John Norquist: When he was Mayor of Milwaukee, John led that city to remove a waterfront elevated highway, and the community is now beginning to reap significant economic and civic benefits. As
>> Director of the Congress for the New Urbanism, John is a wealth of information on the connection between vibrant urban centers, street grids, and urban mobility.

Scott Bernstein: Scott has been a hero in the world of smart growth and integrated transportation and land use planning for decades. He was Co-founder of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, was on President Clinton's Council for Sustainable Development, and is a board member for the Brookings Institute Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

Anne Vernez Moudon, Ph.D.: Anne is a professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design and Planning at th University of Washington. She is Director of the Urban Form Lab, a Fellow of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C., and a National Advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program on Active Living Policy and Environmental Studies.

Bruce Agnew: Bruce is director of Cascadia Center, of the Discovery Institute, and former president of Puget Sound Regional Council.

David Brewster: David is the founder of Seattle Weekly, the founder and former director of Town Hall, and a great thinker about public life and politics in Seattle's past and future.

For directions: www.townhallseattle.org

Sponsored by Transportation Choices Coalition, Mithun, The Sierra Club, and the People's Waterfront Coalition

Mithun supports community dialogue around all solutions that will limit Alaskan Way traffic to just four lanes and gives the waterfront back to an increasingly pedestrian, bicycle, and transit oriented city in a beautiful and ecologically intelligent way.

Transportation Choices Coalition is a coalition of citizen groups, businesses, public agencies and concerned individuals working to expand transportation choices for everyone -- real opportunities to ride buses, take trains, walk, bicycle and carpool -- as well as drive alone. TCC supports a tunnel option that improves transportation choices in the downtown core and creates a vibrant, attractive waterfront.

Note: City Council is also hosting a brown bag lunch discussion with John Norquist and Scott Bernstein at noon — 1:30 in Council Chambers on May 23, if that fits your schedule better.