INTRO: Politicians talked Transit on Mackinac Island last week. Wealthy businessmen and foundations have put in $125 million for the first part of a light rail line on Woodward. Construction is supposed to start at the end of next year. But it’s unclear if politicians and the public will green light a whole new transit system for metro Detroit. If not, that will lessen the value of the project that’s been approved. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports.
At the Grand Hotel, overlooking the Straits of Mackinac, a live band played in the parlor. Mounds of shrimp, caviar and smoked fish were gobbled up. Then an open bar washed everything down. It would seem any problem could be hashed out in this atmosphere. But public transit is an old Detroit debate. And L. Brooks Patterson is in it.
“If you go back in your clips over the last 4 or 5 years we’ve been on Mackinac Island, I’ve always said and I will say again in the Big 4, I don’t care. Build a railroad up and down every mile road in Oakland County. Just tell me how you’re gonna pay for I and how you’re gonna maintain it. Now that’s come home to roost. They don’t have the money to build it let alone maintain it. Hidden in all these proposals is a regional tax. I don’t think the public is ready for another tax.”
Patterson is the Oakland County Executive. He went on to speak as 1 of the Big 4. WJR broadcasted it live on the Paul W. Smith Show. Patterson said he’s negotiating every detail. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing was more positive.
“We think we’re very close. We’re pretty much on the same page. I think we all agree that regional transportation is needed. It’s coming. There are a couple of issues that are unresolved. But from my vantage point I think we’re gonna be there short term.”
Several pieces to a public transit system are planned. One is privately funded. That’s the 3 mile leg from New Center down to Campus Martius. But transit advocates want spokes coming out from the hub of the wheel. Think Ann Arbor and Pontiac and for Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Paul Gieleghem, Mt. Clemens.
“The —1 rail project, a line going from downtown to New Center. If it’s not connected to anything then it’s a line to nowhere. It needs to be part of an overall regional system.”
Gieleghem has been touting a golden triangle from Gratiot to downtown Detroit. Then up Woodward to Pontiac. From there he would go east across M59. At least two of the triangle legs would be made of bus rapid transit: big buses with their own lanes so they can be predictable. They’re one-third the price of light rail.
“You can’t have a major industrial city or a major metropolitan center without a mass transit system.”
That’s Congressman John Dingell of Dearborn. He says he could deliver more federal funding for transit if metro Detroit officials got organized.
“Well we have federal funding for these things. A lot of it lies with the community. They’ve got to settle on what it is they want and have public acceptance of it. Until that occurs, you’re not gonna have a whole lot of federal assistance.”
On January 29, The Oakland Paper published a letter to the editor. It was titled ‘Transit Brings Crime.’ This voice is not of the person who wrote the letter.
“I will remain anonymous because this is not politically correct in our new
socialist society. However, we don’t need public transportation to Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. It brings in the wrong people from Pontiac or Detroit or Southfield.Sorry, I am tired of losing property value and safety. Look at the crimes so often
committed in our communities which are now reported so frequently in the paper.
Who do you think are the people robbing us? They are the people who can’t
afford cars in our economy, but can afford the bus. They are the people who live outside of our cities. The people who have traditionally been able to afford the privilege of living in these communities can afford cars and don’t need public transportation. We don’t need “brother’s keeper” here. If you want that, move to Detroit and you may find fulfillment.”
This journalist showed the letter to Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
“They’re talking about the heroine express. If you go to Detroit and buy drugs and get caught, they confiscate your car. So now they’re saying they’re riding the bus lines to avoid that. There may be some validity to that. But that’s getting close to a racist position where we don’t want to create any kind of bus service so we can keep them from coming out to the suburbs and I’m not in that camp.”
In the past, Patterson has promoted a tax hike for the regional bus system. He told the public it would help get workers to their jobs.
“So I’ve been in that tax fight. I’ve led that tax fight on a modest basis, 2 thirds of a mil. I’m talking about the kind of taxes these guys are talking about for light rail. It would dwarf 2 thirds of a mil.”
At 7 am Friday morning, The CEO of Chrysler Fiat was smoking a cigarette on the front porch of the Grand Hotel. He said if the car companies had thwarted rail transit in the past, don’t blame him or Chrysler. Sergio Marchionne says any big city needs trains to help people move around.
“There are places and times where cars are not necessarily the ideal way to get that done. ”
Marchionne has lived in Canada for years.
“In Toronto both through the subway system and through above ground transport it has not diminished car sales. I wouldn’t be that worried.”
The Big 4 leaders from Detroit, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb are scheduled to talk about transit again next week.MackinacTransit duration 5 min