Economic growth is inching up and unemployment is inching down. State republicans say credit their $1.7 billion tax cut last year. Now they want to cut $400 million more. They want to eliminate the tax on new business equipment like a lathe, a saw or a drill press.  State Senator Mike Nofs is a republican from Battle Creek. Nofs and the lieutenant governor spoke together to mayors, managers, and city council members. Nofs says small manufacturers deserve tax cuts now.

“They’re the sustaining groups that we need in our communities that help us provide the jobs and once you have the jobs you know people are working. They can pay for the schools and government and everything else that we cherish every day. So we need to give them relief.”

Mike Nofs and the lieutenant governor are asking for local governments to have faith in small manufacturers. Here’s the chain reaction they describe: a local machine shop can avoid new taxes on a drill press. The shop makes more money. The shop hires new workers. New businesses start up. More money is circulated. Local governments are able to bring in taxes from a larger pie. Then most budget problems will be solved. Senator Nofs says:

“It’s going to keep our businesses on the cutting edge and be competitive. If you stay back and use the old presses maybe it takes a lot longer to make that widget. Well with a new press you could make 5 widgets compared to what it used to take where you could only make one. Now you can sell 5 and you can make more money but we’re going to tax you today because you bought that new press. But under this package of bills we won’t say that. We’ll say thanks for buying that. Thanks for staying competitive. Thanks for staying in Michigan.”

Senator Nofs and the lieutenant governor mentioned replacing the income local governments would lose. But they didn’t explain how. People at the Michigan Municipal League Conference are worried. Rogers City would lose $112,000. The city manager would have to lay of 2 of his 24 city employees.  The Mayor of Dearborn said he would lose about $15 million. Summer Minnick is the MML’s director of state affairs. She disagrees with the senator and lieutenant governor’s proposals.

“This is a problem they’re creating. And right now we have a pot of money that is retained locally and spent locally that they want to take away, shrink and redistribute.”

Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley told the audience that Michigan can’t run fund state and local governments in the same familiar way, hoping things will improve. Calley said it will just mean more budget deficits. The Municipal League’s Summer Minnick says:

“Since 1939 we’ve been giving up local taxing authority for a revenue sharing agreement and we keep getting cut. So that’s our position as well. We can’t keep signing on to that type of agreement.”

State Representative Bob Constan came to the conference. His district is in Allen Park, Inkster, Garden City and Dearborn Heights.

“Changing the current way we tax industrial personal property, it’s my opinion that will not create one job. It will not make any difference to any manufacturer to employ more people here in the state of Michigan.”

Constan argues that government can fall victim to companies who say they’ll invest only if they get tax cuts. They can be manipulative and play governments off against one another other. Such accusations were made against companies like Electrolux and Federal Mogul in the last few years. Constan describes a negative experience with the movie industry.

“I had in my district, Unity Studios. We were always in these meetings with this scam artist who was the head of Unity Studios, Jimmy Lifton, and he was talking about, well we’re gonna go to Shreveport Louisiana.”

Representative Constan says that businesses chose a location based on the quality of the workforce and quality of life in the area.

“I believe a business, if they’re gonna locate in the state, looks at a variety of things and the industrial personal property tax is way down on the list.”

The MML’s Summer Minnick agrees with Constan. Her organization has spent years trying to convince the state legislature that tax cuts don’t create jobs. Instead, vibrant cities attract smart people who then create jobs. She says Michigan should not throw out the tax on equipment for manufacturers.

“The fact still is, 37 states still has some form of PPT. So the vast majority of states still tax that industry. And the other thing is, instead of comparing ourselves to Ohio and Indiana we really need to start talking about how we compete globally. And the only way to compete globally for the best and the brightest ideas and people is if we start making investments in those places where people want to be.”

Governor Snyder sent an emergency manager to Flint in December. In February, the manager held community meetings. Residents raised many issues. One was crime. Wantwaz Davis helps convicted felons when they got out of prison.

“What are your plans in having a pro-active program instead of a reactive program in dealing with the crime rate in our community?”

The emergency manager stood at podiums in 9 different places. His name is Michael Brown. He held this meeting last week at Bethel United Methodist Church, 1309 N. Ballenger Hiway.

“That’s a good question. I think we need more than just police officers and jail space.”

Though more jail space is what Governor Snyder could be announcing. Flint has revitalized its downtown with the multi-story, century old brick buildings around Saginaw Street. But on the north side, empty malls and torched homes are easy to spot. Carter McWright has run his record and CD shop on the north side for 30 years. He asked emergency manager Michael Brown:

“On a scale from 1 to 10, ten being the highest, how safe are the citizens of Flint.”

“One,” says someone else in the audience.

“Depends on what part,” says another.

“Not just the Northside,” says McWright.

Carter McWright stayed at the microphone amidst the other 100 or so people in the audience.

“You know when we hear all this crime. We see this crime. We witness this crime. We live in these crimes. It’s almost like as soon as it gets dark people stay home anyway. So are we close to having the National Guard come in? Something has to be done in the City of Flint. We can talk and have all these sessions. But we want to see some action.”

The National Guard quelled labor unrest in 1937 and racial unrest in ’67. Now, with 90% of the GM jobs gone, there’s more crime. People don’t want to lose their lives too.

Michael Brown answered the store owner’s question. Brown said he just had a meeting with….

“Colonel Etue of the State Police this week. They have some presence in the community. We’d like to see that expanded. The governor has some plans for urban areas around crime. We’re hoping that will mean more resources for us. Obama has put out some federal funds….”

McWright, the music store owner says preventing crime is still not enough. He says Flint could hire a lot of:

“Police officers and whatever. But we need jobs.”

McWright returned to his question. Grading public safety on a scale of 1-10.  Emergency Manager Michael Brown said,

“I give it a four.”

Flint police have said they’ve done community policing for years. At other community meetings, the police chief said witnesses are protecting criminals. But several people at the meeting didn’t agree.  Eric Mayes says residents like him are willing to solve disputes in the neighborhood. But police ignore their help.

“Now remember. When we talk black and white that don’t mean I’m racist or prejudiced. I’m just telling you it’s a different understanding of the community. See I go into the Palm Tree Club. I go into the Van Club. I’m out there around people who people are scared of when they see them on the sidewalk.”

Mayes pointed to Brown then a well dressed white woman in the audience.

“If indeed you want to know, and they told us at all the forums, tell on the people who’s shooting and killing. Tell on the people who’s selling dope. She don’t know who that is. She can’t call them by name. You’ve got to include us.”

Emergency managers are forcing Michigan cities to do more with less. Flint police have been cut 30% in the last couple years. Eric Mayes told Brown he’d donate his time to police.

Another man said he has a master’s degree and once worked at GM. Michael Brown makes $170,000 a year. The man told him:

“I’m a retiree. I’m concerned about the city of Flint and I would have done your job for nothing.”

For Michigan Now I’m Chris McCarus.

The law allows an appointed person to cut teachers, police and firemen and sell off public assets. About 300 people denounced the law at Central United Methodist Church across from the state capitol. Pastor David Bullock was one of them.

“Joe Harris in Benton Harbor closed down the public radio stations. Stole the park from the people….still has a budget deficit in the city. So not only is it anti-democratic. But this public policy doesn’t work.”

Bullock and others carried 226,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. That’s enough for repeal of the emergency manager law to get on the ballot in the November. If the Secretary of State approves the signatures, Public Act number 4 will be suspended until then at least.

The secretary of state has 60 days to respond. But petition organizers believe that they’ll all decide on exact ballot language much sooner than that.

Michigan has almost 7 million eligible voters. So 51% of those who show up, perhaps about 1.6 million, will be needed to overturn the law.

Both Pastor Bullock and fellow organizer Brandon Jessup said the issue should not be framed in terms of black versus white or even city versus suburb. They said Traverse City and Ann Arbor provided a lot signatures. They said the issue is about the powerful versus the powerless.

Leo Hanefin, is the Dean of the College of Engineering &  Science at University of Detroit Mercy. He’s on the board of the M1 Rail project. He says the city and state’s economy have little chance of growing without decent mass transit.

He spoke at SEMCOG headquarters Downtown. About 120 attended and 25 testified.  Governor Snyder has put a regional transit authority high on his agenda.

Former State Representative Marie Donigan championed transit more than any other legislator.

Diane Bukowski is the editor of VoiceofDetroit.net. She was a city employee and an elected union official.

Rick Santorum came to a hotel off interstate 496. Eaton County Sheriffs guarded the roads, the doors and the podium. Several of the 250 people held babies in their arms. Santorum spoke without a teleprompter or notes. He addressed a broad range of issues, from his refusal to rescue GM and Chrysler to his call to help Israel attack Iran.

“This is a role that America must play. And you know what I do believe there is a difference between good and evil in the world.”

Santorum wants the Keystone Pipeline to be built and 20,000 potential jobs added. President Obama has put the pipeline on hold. It would extract oil from tar sands in Alberta Canada.

“We have coal. We have gas. We have oil. We have other types of fuels that can be used here in America. This president is systematically trying to shut down all of it.”

Tar sands mining is like strip mining for coal. It destroys the land. The oil doesn’t just pour out like a liquid. It needs extra energy to be squeezed out.  Then, when the fossil fuels are burned, the pollution is added to the atmosphere. The former Pennsylvania Senator has been calling climate science political science. He describes himself as a man….

“On the issue of the environment and energy, who didn’t buy into cap and trade and man made global warming. When I was in the senate I didn’t go out and try to put caps, CO2 caps on power plants in my state as another candidate in this race did in Massachusetts.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists says:

The ice is getting thinner on the inland and Great Lakes. This been recorded over the past 120 years and is expected to continue. Michigan will have Ohio’s weather 20 years from now. By the end of the century, winters could be 10 degrees warmer and summers 13 degrees warmer. Extreme heat will lead to more drought and destruction of crop land. Heavy rainstorms will be 50% bigger. Homes, roads and businesses will be destroyed by flooding. Rick Santorum says:

“I believe that we are put on this earth to be good stewards of this earth. We are not here to serve the earth but to be stewards of the earth for the purpose of ….

Journalists from around the world stood waiting to interview the candidate. Robert Stacy McCain grew up in Georgia and worked at the Washington Times. The Reverend Sun Yung Moon owns it. McCain’s website says it gets 1 million visits a year. One of his friends and co-authors wrote the book about Sarah Palin called ‘Going Rogue.’ McCain asked me what I cover for public radio. I said land use. Land use involves zoning to prevent farmland from being turned into shopping malls. Local governments use zoning so a gun store can’t open up next to a school or a strip club next to a playground.  McCain said he’s supporting Santorum and that:

“Zoning is fascism.”

McCain’s article on yesterday’s event appears on the American Spectator website. Sadoko Shimbori and her cameraman work for Japanese television.  Their country was the site of the Kyoto Protocol in 1996. Japan and 100 other countries wanted the U.S. to agree to cut carbon emissions. The U.S. Senate failed to ratify Kyoto. Shimbori says:

“Japan is such a small country. We are so environmentally conscious.  We should save the energy. We should save the resources of the earth. So we Japanese people are very conscious of that. So we don’t spend a lot fuels and we these eco cars and an eco system for the entire house.”

According to the World Watch Institute, Americans consume 5 times more energy than Europeans and Japanese and 10 times more energy than the Chinese.

Journalist Sadoko Shimbori says people back in Japan are following the U.S. election process. They want to know how American policy will affect them.

“People are caring about the environment. So the anti-environment type thing? I don’t think it’s going to be welcomed by the people.”

That may be the case in Japan. But here in Lansing at the Lexington Hotel the day before the election, Santorum’s message received applause.

The governor’s staff is focused on bus rapid transit. BRT has dedicated lanes so cars and stop lights can’t mess up the bus schedule. BRT has stations that make getting on and off the bus quicker and easier than with regular bus shelters. Before anything is bought or built, the
legislature will debate a regional transit authority for Southeast Michigan. Joe Calabrese said it’s time Detroit did what his city did.

“It was mentioned that 35 years ago, 37 years ago, the voters of Cleveland voted to form a regional transit authority and consolidate what was then 13 independent systems into one. In doing that the system would operate more seamlessly, efficiently, better for the customers. The thing just makes a whole lot of sense.”

Detroit once had the largest municipal railway system in the country. 300 miles of tracks, nearly all within the city. It didn’t need a regional authority. Thursday, transit advocates brought a busload of people to the capitol. They all got advice from men who manage transit systems in other states. Anna Holden is in her late ‘70′s. She traveled from Grosse Pointe. She asked how a transit system…

“contributes to the economy, economic development?”

Light rail has brought neighborhoods back to life in several American cities. Detroit transit advocates have criticized bus rapid transit because it only moves bodies. But Joe Calabrese says that’s not true. He described Euclid Avenue as the Woodward of Cleveland. It’s the most important road in the city.

“I’m proud to tell you that the economic development that the health line, our BRT project, stimulated was 10 times greater than any other rail system we generated in Cleveland. It’s had a tremendous benefit, over $5 billion in economic development so far along this corridor on bus rapid transit. People feel it’s a superior, first-class rail like service.”

Setting up a modern mass transit system take years and billions of dollars. Jacob Snow manages the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. He says pay attention to details and aim high.

“And so as part of our bus rapid transit projects, we need to act not just as a transit authority but as a bicycle pedestrian authority and put in sidewalks and make the curb cuts compliant so that people can access the system. If they’re not there it’s not gonna happen. We need to look at this from a more wholistic standpoint. It’s really a complete street effort.”

The advocates and the ordinary citizens knocked on lawmakers doors. They asked them to vote yes.  The RTA will include 36 communities in four counties. One advocate said for every $1 million in taxes, the private sector will invest $4 million in businesses along the bus line. State Senator John Gleason from Flint wanted the microphone. He says that jobs and health care are the two biggest problems in his area. And mass transit would solve one of them.

“My greatest hope would be that one day we would extend this to Flint. That’s what I think about it. I’m not only encouraging this. But I’m encouraging an expansion. This is vitally needed. Every single day thousands of people leave my county to go to Oakland County searching for work.”

Some of those job seekers are handicapped. They need sidewalks connecting to curbs up to the steps of the bus. Paul Ecklund came from Kalamazoo and the Disability Network of Southwest Michigan.

“And if you had a more regional system dictating to the smaller companies that this is an expectation, a standard, you could encourage more effective use of the transit system. Is that part of what we’re looking at with the regional authority? Setting standards and not just coordinating?”

Then a woman named Linda McDonald said:

“Do you have power? Is what we’re asking. Does the authority have that kind of power.”

Dennis Schornack answered. He’s the governor’s transit point man. He hosted the event.

“The legislation, I can assure you, puts the A in the regional transit authority and it has sufficient teeth to encourage, enforce, direct coordination and establish high standards for service. So yes and yes are the answers to your questions.”

In Los Angeles, jobs have moved out to the suburbs. Much like they have outside Detroit. Scott Page is with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

“Century City, Santa Monica, San Fernando Valley, people are branching out to all these different centers, Warner Center, where downtown is no longer the focal point of employment for Los Angles. Public transit has to get those people there. They can’t do it all on freeways.”

The all freeway plan is about what Michiganders are relying on these days. Bus systems keep getting cut. Jack Gonsalves is a transit engineer from Portland, Oregon.  He’s with the firm Parsons Brinckerhoff.

“Once that inertia gets started, once you have a first starter line, like I think in Detroit, if you had a good BRT or transit starter line that is highly successful it would be easier to get funding for the next line and the next line after that both locally, a local match and with federal eyes looking upon you too.”

The chair of the Senate Transportation Committee is Tom Casperson. He’s from the U.P.  His name is on the regional transit authority bills. He’s doing what the governor and Dennis Schornack are asking him to do. Though he doesn’t sound like he’s been forced into it.

“To me we’re trying to centralize it or localize it to the Southeast side of the state and let them decide their destiny. And so with all that in place if they say yes then let ‘em go. And that’s what I would share with my caucus too. I’m not voting for a tax increase that we’re gonna force on Michiganders across the state and make them take care of Southeast Michigan. But to not let Southeast Michigan decide their own destiny doesn’t seem to be fair to me.”

Senator Casperson hasn’t tried to line up the votes for the RTA yet. He’ll need his fellow republicans and fellow non-Detroiters.

Dave Hildenbrand is a very conservative republican from Lowell. In the morning he told Kent County advocates he was favorable to the RTA bills. Here’s what he said in the afternoon.

“We’re going to get public input from all sides and then I’ll make a decision at that point. So I’m in the study and learning phase right now of the governor’s proposals on both regional transportation issues, funding of the transportation system, public transportation, kind of a larger broader scope of transportation needs in this state.”

The RTA is supposed to be able to get money and lay down tracks or buses at least. But the debates in the legislature will still be a power struggle between city and suburbs and even Southeast Michigan versus the rest of the state. The stakeholders aren’t yet recognizing that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Most of us don’t cross from Detroit to Windsor very often. But the people of Ontario are right there looking at us. Watching Michigan tv stations, listening to Michigan radio stations and trying to absorb the pollution we send them.

In the time it takes to drive from downtown Detroit to the Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, you could drive to Henry DeNotter’s farm. 35 miles from the Ren Cen. Just two miles from Lake Erie. DeNotter and another farmer are cranking a machine to load soybeans.

“Well I’ve seen the algae blooms and I don’t think you need to blame farmers, Canadian or American for doing that because I think all farmers are being a lot more conscientious about how fertilizer is being spread.”

Fertilizer contains phosphorous. Scientists say that’s what’s feeding the algae that looks like spilled green paint on the surface of Lake Erie.

“Pay attention to what’s going on when it’s wet. Don’t get out on the ground and some of the nutrient placement we’re more frugal these years. We don’t just go and dump a couple hundred pounds of fertilizer on the field. We really look at the field, test it and put the fertilizer where we need it. And try to put it right next to the plant so we can use it up right away.”

The town of Kingsville is nearby and right on Lake Erie. It’s frozen over and boats are up on shore. But when the ice is melted off, Henry DeNotter says, algae blooms will again be hurting fishing and tourism.

“Just big green globs of algae that they’ll stall an outboard motor.”

According to this scientist, Henry DeNotter and most farmers are not to blame.

“Well Henry scores very high. Henry is one of those really special farmers. He has a very close connection with the land. He understands a great deal about the interaction of soil, sunlight, moisture etc.”

Matthew Child is with the Essex Conservation Authority, a half hour east of Windsor. Child is less worried about the total volume of phosphorous. Some of it doesn’t even create the algae problem.

“Of the total phosphorous load that is going into the lake it consists of both an inorganic form that is difficult for life to access and use and a bio-available form which is much easier for plants to uptake. And that bio-available form has been increasing as a proportion of total phosphorous loads. Why? That is a very big science question.”

Southwest Ontario is a peninsula. It’s got water on 3 sides. The Essex Conservation Authority has modeled how fast pollution can get into drinking water.

“You spill a contaminant somewhere on the land and it can make it to that water plant intake within a couple hours and virtually the entire region is within three days.”

All of metro Detroit’s water drains to Lake Erie. The Belle, the Black, the Rouge River the Raisin. Paint Creek. 4 million people along these waters have the power to help or hurt Erie and Ontario.

“Many studies show that most urban land owners apply up to ten times the recommended rate of fertilizer. You get huge quantities of fertilizer being placed in urban areas where there’s a catch basin literally just a few feet away from the lawn. It gets flushed off in a rainfall. It all goes out into a water course that eventually drains to Lake St. Clair or Lake Erie in the case of our region and that adds to the algal issue. So it’s not strictly a rural issue.”

In 1969, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire from oil and chemicals.

In 1971, this public service announcement was made for the first Earth Day. A man appears in moccasins, buckskin, long hair and a feather. He canoes past smokestacks then pulls to a riverbank strewn with trash. He’s called the Crying Indian.

In ‘72, The U.S. and Canada reached the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. It cut pollution from factories and sewers.

Phosphorous seeps through millions of square miles.  A new U.S./Canadian agreement will target it in 2012. But to get ordinary people’s attention, it will need more of the drama found on the water 40 years ago.

Craig Fahle ended his show on WDET saying:

“This question came from Dan in Ferndale who wants to know how Oakland County can position itself as a leader in ending sprawl and encouraging reconstruction of areas that have already been built up, reinvestment in existing areas…”

“Well. We’re doing that through our main street program,” said Patterson. And the Oakland County Executive touted reinvestment in the bricks and mortar of places like Ferndale and Holly. Then Patterson said:

“But contained in his question was a pejorative. He calls it sprawl.  I don‘t want to end sprawl. One man’s sprawl is another man’s economic development. He sees it as sprawl. I see it as the people exercising their free choice to move any place they want in my county or Livingston County and Lapeer and open up a business. And that’s their right as citizens. If they want to live outside the perimeter of the City of Detroit or the surrounding suburbs. They got a right to do that.”

But not everyone has that right, says Thomas Sugrue, author of the 1996 awarding winning history book ‘Origins of the Urban Crisis.’

“Beginning in the 1920’s, in Detroit, realtors and housing developers began to put into place racially restricted covenants. They were attached to the deed of the house. It said this property may not be used by someone of the non-Caucasian race.”

Sugrue was 5 years old when he watched the 1967 riots from his yard near Fenkell Street on Detroit’s west side. He ended up at Brother Rice High School in Birmingham.

“Racial restrictions still remain in deeds in many places up to today even if they’re not enforceable any more in a court of law.  So they were an important device not just for keeping blacks out but for sending a signal that these neighborhoods would be inhospitable to African-Americans. They shouldn’t even try to move in.”

As the county prosecutor in the 1970’s, L. Brooks Patterson led the fight against busing for racial integration.  Back on WDET Thursday, Patterson said,

“They call it sprawl. No no you stay here! We’re gonna force you to do your development in the city of Detroit. That’s undemocratic and it’s not gonna happen. I think their sprawl… I love it. Because I call it economic development.”

“One thing I want to do is see more urban development in terms of rebuilding our cities and stop some of the urban sprawl, have less of that.”

That was Governor Rick Snyder a year ago at an agriculture conference.

“and have more opportunities to put land into use. I think there’s opportunity for agriculture to grow in our state.”

Last fall at a conference on high speed rail, Snyder said Oakland County supports his bus rapid transit plan for linking the city and suburbs.

“Brooks Patterson is being a good member of that.”

Patterson is supporting buses but not trains. He believes places like Walled Lake and Oxford can thrive when surrounded by strip malls and subdivisions. Governor Snyder, by contrast, created an office of urban initiatives.

“No one benefits by the continuing sprawl. The real goal is how do we rebuild our central cities and at the same time encourage good rural development.”

During his campaign, Rick Snyder spoke to the Urban Land Institute. And to the Michigan Municipal League where Rick Cole also spoke. Cole was born in Royal Oak. He’s been manager and mayor of 3 California cities, including Pasadena.

“We build our cities around 6,000 pound behemoths. That’s great if you’re a car. Not so good if you’re a human being.”

Cole says sprawl has forced urban planners like himself to follow a form based code so cities are good for walking not driving.

“And the result is you have to have a code for the kind of city you want to be. Otherwise you become the kind of city that is placeless that has no value.”

Rick Snyder is assessing the crises in banking and real estate. L. Brooks Patterson must be too. But this week, Oakland County has got 185 tax foreclosures in Bloomfield Township, some with Bloomfied Hills addresses. They’re on streets like Charing Cross, Ardmoor and Country Club Drive.

In his state of the state address last month, Governor Rick Snyder said:

“It is important for all Michiganders to understand that having a thriving growing Detroit is critical to all of us.”

Most of the applause was from democratic legislators, not republicans like Snyder. He pressed on.

“We’re working in partnership with the city of Detroit, the four surrounding counties and the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop a new Bus Rapid Transit system, a BRT to service the entire region. It’s 40 years overdue. I encourage your support.”

The drive for decent mass transit between the city and suburbs has failed 23 times. Snyder is reportedly, wary of failing for the 24th time. The suburbs and the city need to share power and raise money. A regional transit authority bring both. Snyder has brought back a policy expert from the  John Engler era. His name is Dennis Schornack.

“The ultimate details, where stops occur, what the routes are, will be left up to transit professionals engaged by the board.”

That was Dennis Schornack last week  at a meeting with TRU, Transportation Riders United.

“The legislature, as much as I love them, are not transit professionals. I’m not a transit professional either. So don’t ask me about stations and stops. But once this thing gets rolling, those things will be contemplated.”

Since at least 2007, Detroiters have been waiting for a light rail line on Woodward. Avenue. Some felt anguish and betrayal when the governor and the mayor scrapped a 9 mile long plan and then, under pressure, only agreed to a 3 mile plan. Yes they want mobility. But they also want light rail for attracting investment in real estate. They want it for economic development. Dennis Schornack is not selling light rail either. He’s selling BRT. That means buses with their own lanes. Buses that don’t get stuck in traffic. Bus stops with clocks showing bus arrival times.

“For the same price, close to the same price, that you could build a light rail line from 8 mile down to Jefferson, you could put in a 110 miles of Bus Rapid Transit throughout the region. You’re shaking your head but I’ll show you the numbers.”

Schornack never showed numbers exactly. Nor did he say when the bus rapid transit system would be built. But transit advocates like TRU welcome new laws for a regional transit authority. Here are the roadblocks even with an RTA: suburbs opting out like Farmington has from SMART, suburbanites getting more votes on the RTA board than Detroiters, and suburban veto power against light rail.

“You know everybody has some place to go. I’ve even had buses pass me up because they’re so crowded. They don’t have any room for any other passengers so they just ride right by you.”

Patricia Ketzner was waiting at the bottom of Woodward near Campus Martius. It was windy and ten degrees. Ketzner and Keyarea Banks shivered alongside each other in the bus shelter.

“It’s even worse on the weekends. When I used to go to work. I was waiting for the bus at 12 O’clock just to make it there at 4. I was waiting for the 7 mile bus for 3 hours and it still did not come. I did not make it to work.”

“I mean, people are suffering.”

Benjamin Fields left the state and came back. Most Michiganders don’t.

“As much transportation as we can get we should have it. New York transportation system. I used to live in California. The BART system is off the chains. You don’t even need a car in Oakland California. If we get transportation like trains, cabs and better buses it will bring stuff into the city. You’ll have people moving back into the city and places to go because we can get to jobs. Right now people have lost jobs because of the transportation system.”

If what Benjamin Fields and Rick Snyder say is true then all Michiganders will benefit from mass transit in Detroit even if they never go there.

About 100 people filled the auditorium of Freeman Elementary School in Flint. They’d seen Mike Brown before. He was an interim mayor in 2009. But since Governor Rick Snyder appointed him the emergency manager in November, this was Brown’s first town hall meeting with citizens. Brown is trying to shrink an $11 million budget deficit.

“We have 3,000 retirees and about 750 employees. We’re challenged. That’s one of the structural problems that we have.”

Health care costs keep going up. While tax revenues keep going down. Brown’s job is to cut costs. Public Act #4, passed into law a year ago, allows Brown to renegotiate labor contracts with city employees. He could even cancel them. Though his mild manner didn’t reveal that Thursday night.

“We’ll try to continue this dialogue throughout the community to have an open and fair exchange of ideas. We’ll listen to you. We’ll try to implement some of those ideas and try to do the best job we can moving forward.”

Some residents are upset that Brown is their un-elected leader. And that he already sent his plan to the Michigan Department of Treasury before he talked to the community. Chris Del Morone says that makes this series of meetings even less democratic. And:

“My concern is they will attempt to regionalize what’s going on in the city of Flint and Flint will lose much of its autonomy in regards to quite possibly police and fire. We’ve seen the loss of our paramedics. There’s concern of our water plant being sold or given away.”

Emergency Manager Brown’s plan is to help the water department fill a $6 million hole from last year. Flint’s water comes in a pipeline from Detroit. Detroit raised its rates and Flint residents are paying 30% more this year. This woman says water bills have become inaccurate.

“I don’t use $91. It was $80 last month and then it just keeps going up. I have a friend. She’s a widow. She hardly uses any water at all. Her water bill is more than mine.”

Emergency Manager Brown might cancel the water contract with Detroit. Then Flint might make a deal with Genesee, Lapeer and Sanilac Counties. They would all pay for a future pipeline from Lake Huron. The last question of the night came from a resident named John Fennessy.

“This is a question directed to the chief. What exactly are we trying to do to deter the high homicide rate with Flint being number one?”

When Michael Brown was interim Mayor in 2009, he named Alvern Lock as chief of police. Lock still has the job. Lock says if witnesses are scared of being snitches then criminals won’t be punished.

“We as a police department have been doing all that we can do. Initially we got some help. But then again now no one wants to call and give us the information to go in and help them. But we need everybody in here’s help.”

In the last couple years, The Flint PD has shrunk from 180 to 125 officers. 40 years ago, Flint had a population of almost 200,000. Now it has about 100,000. 40 years ago, General Motors employed about 80,000 people in Flint. Now it employs about 7,000.

“One of the consistencies that we’re seeing in a lot of the local units that do fall under review is there is a loss of residency, a loss of citizenry.”

Terry Stanton is a former tv anchor who works for the Treasury Department in Lansing. He didn’t mention that these communities are mainly black. But Stanton agrees they need jobs and downtown revitalization.

“The most important thing is to get a local unit on firm financial footing. That is the key. Because without that you may not be able to attract residents or business investment those critical pieces that important for all local units.”

Flint is attracting college students on several campuses. Suburbanites in Flint and Detroit are doing reverse white flight. They want mass transit and they like gardens and old buildings. These look like the only ingredients for economic growth. But emergency managers don’t use them.