Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus reports.

The Brookings Institution studied two Michigan cities: Grand Rapids and Detroit. They determined that a person has access if a bus route is close to their home. Half of folks in metro Grand Rapids can catch a bus. Yet only 22% of Detroiters have access to DDOT or SMART. Adie Tomer wrote the study for Brookings.

“Detroit is a pretty big place but also has intense amounts of job sprawl. Out of a 100 metropolitan areas, Detroit has the 98^th worst amount.”

Workers inside the city of Detroit are dependent on buses to get to jobs in the suburbs. The combination of far away spread out jobs plus poor bus service is hurting the economy.

Adie Tomer says transit can allow people to get and keep jobs and then create new ones….not just for bus drivers.

“Density equals dollars. Density can also mean convenience. So when it comes to a place like let’s say Detroit that has lost a lot of population but also has a lot of land opportunities maybe building a denser community can let transit be the facilitator of that kind of development.”

Density equals dollars, Tomer says. In other words densify or die. Historians and urban planners say Detroit has been dying since the 1950’s. So how do you reverse the trend? Do you try to fill in the empty spaces first or build a permanent transit system to connect the emptiness? I asked Adie Tomer, will mass transit in Detroit trigger a real estate boom?

“I wouldn’t stretch it that far but it can work. It’s really about how the planning works together as puzzle pieces. It could be that building transportation projects first drives certain development projects that bring more people and a denser community and that starts building on itself. For other communities they may actually need to have denser buildings and then folks are more willing to get rid of their cars or keep them parked in the garage and try taking transit maybe for the first time in their life.”

The Brookings study found that in Los Angeles, 90% of the wealthy have access to transit. Access doesn’t mean rich people are riding the bus. But they can see it in their daily lives. And they can accept tax money spent on it. In metro Detroit, only 30% of the wealthy have access to transit. Michigan transit advocates want to increase that percentage. They are targeting Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills for 3 reasons. They are the wealthiest. They speak loudly in the republican-led state and local governments. And they could save the Woodward Avenue light rail line from being a train to nowhere like the People Mover.

Brian Larkin is representing Governor Snyder’s office of Urban Initiatives. He was born and raised in Flint.

“The most important thing is constructing a transportation system that gets people to where they need to be. That was a key point in there earlier: getting individuals to jobs, destinations and points of activity.”

Detroit is the motor city and Flint is the birthplace of General Motors. But 90% of Flint’s GM jobs are gone.  Brian Larkin says the new way to invest in your community is through mass transit, not buying a new car.

“At one point everyone grew up thinking that if I buy this certain car, I know who makes it, I know where the money is going.”

“You mean the buy local movement for cars?”

“And so thinking beyond cars. Thinking beyond that as the way to drive our economy. And I think as a result of time and the current economic conditions people are coming to that conclusion on their own. They’re looking for new opportunities. They’re not looking for the next manufacturing plant. We’re looking for redefining ourselves as a city, a system and a region.”

For decades, urban planning has been done in silos. Transportation’s purpose was to move vehicles. Thousands each hour. Adie Tomer from the Brookings Institution says this should change.

“It can be desiloed and not thought of as its own entity. How can we start planning for housing, economic development centers so the multiple different silos, if you will, can kind of merge up, and really public policy can work for holistic economic development.”

This year, the three counties of the Lansing area are beginning a three year plan to integrate housing, trailways, health care, education and mass transit. They plan to tear down the silos.

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation funded the Brookings Institution study and invited them to town.

“We have in this community a large school system that has lost so many students. And what ends up happening is that students today are going to the charter or private schools. So they need a transit piece. They’ve come to us to create public routes that will support that activity. In order to provide that service we’ve developed routes that are paid by the users. That is one where receive the amount back that we actually put into that service. ”

“So this is service on top of the regular public fixed routes?” asked Ruth Johnson of Transportation Riders United, TRU, in Detroit.

“That’s right,” Benning said. He is executive director of The Flint Mass Transportation Authority.

McCarus said, “today we are in a workshop organized by the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation here in Flint. What was it about?”

Ruth Johnson answered, “they had released a report some time ago Missed Opportunities, to talk about transit and not just mobility but access to jobs. They did a really nice study across 25 metropolitan areas including metro Detroit and metro Grand Rapids. Looking where the jobs were, the skill level of those jobs, the availability of public transit and the connection job access performance indicator.”

“What did the Brookings Institution tell us?” asked McCarus. “What was their conclusion?”

“My takeaway,” said Johnson, “is that we have some powerful data to talk about transit in a way that is more than transportation but it’s actually a tool for economic vitality through job access.”

“Ed can you add to that?” asked McCarus.

“I think that was a great summary,” Benning said.  “I think the tool is very helpful. It talks about how important public transit is in the future of Michigan and how transit could be the one piece that pulls it all together. The study could be across not only metropolitan areas.  It applies right here in Flint, Michigan. Even though we’re not metropolitan we are in fact a feeder service. We take some 1,500 workers a day to jobs outside our county. It’s very important. Not just those at the lowest end of the spectrum. We have salaried employees opting to use mass transit as their transportation of choice.”

Flint residents are becoming more dependent on jobs in Oakland County.

“The fifty or so people in the room today, many of them from non-profits who are already working on the mass transit issue, they would say that if you build and invest in mass transit in all of our cities of Michigan that will improve our economy more than any other investment.”

“I think that’s true,” Benning said. “For every dollar spent on public transit there’s a return of $6.”

“Who says that?”

“That comes from the American Public Transit Association,” Benning said.  “They’ve conducted studies to back up those numbers. Many people think this is an opportunity to spend more money. That’s not true. There are public private partnerships that can grow communities. We just need to take away some of the barriers that don’t allow us to do some of those things. We need to grow the opportunities. I think the opportunity is there. A friend of mine and a consultant, Doug Edy, who deals with governance, talks about operating within the resources you have to do more.”

“But Ed and Ruth if a county or the state says let’s have a millage in November so that each property owner is gonna pay an extra $80 so that a public transit system can be built in metro Detroit, Grand Rapids or Flint, how is that not extra money that your regular guy is going to have to pay?”

“I think that we have to look at that multiplier as this is both direct and indirect economic activity as a result of the investment in transit,” Johnson said.  “We need to reframe it. We are investing in lots of things. The question is having smart investments where we have an even greater and better rate of return that will provide the infrastructure and transportation options that will encourage the growth we need. So the report entitled “Missed Opportunity” is I think a telling one because we are missing out on the opportunities to make money.”

“Absolutely,” said Benning.  “I think millages are not the only way to fund transit.”

“So how else do you do it?” McCarus asked.

“There are many opportunities to look at, sales tax could be one. Today that’s not possible,” Benning said.

“Aren’t there several constraints in the state of Michigan because of the 1963 constitution and some other things that prevent mass transit money from being raised publicly?” McCarus asked.

“Yes, said Benning. “We’re a donor state. We send money to Washington and we only get back about 90% of what we send. And that needs to be looked at. We need to look at other ways than millages. Obviously people don’t want new taxes.”

“Sales tax?”

Benning said, “sales tax or could be where businesses flourish they have an interest in making sure public transit is viable.  That’s been proven around the country.”

McCarus asked, “so can five counties around Detroit and Wayne County propose to their residents to raise a sales tax or have a sales tax part of which is just going to go to transit?”

“Not currently,” Benning said. “There would have to be some changes in state law. However, there would be an opportunity to increase the motor vehicle registration fee as a funding source.  We need to think creatively about what we can do. Public-private partnerships is one. Millages may be still a viable way. We need a revenue mix. We can’t look at a single solution. We also need to look at our policies to make sure they are not impediments to smart growth and smart investment.”

“I’m still coming away with the impression that Michigan is limited in its ability to raise money for mass transit.”

“Yes. We need to be creative,” Benning said. “We need to look at every opportunity to grow transit not only for transit’s sake. It does create so many jobs. People say oh those are jobs in transit. But they’re indirect too. In this community in Flint, public transportation is extremely important. But for those who want to live here and may be under water with their homes and may just want to live in this community having transit as an option is huge and they recognize it.

“Currently we’re limited from our ability to bring new equipment in and the amount of resources we have to fund it. It’s gonna take a creative approach. We need to think differently and we need to remove these impediments.”

McCarus wondered if cars are still an impediment.

“We’re in the city of Flint and we have the city of Detroit, the birthplaces of the auto industry. Why is it that the birthplace of transportation that seemed to liberate us then are emptied out and destroyed by that transportation solution that was the automobile.”

Ed Benning answered:

“Let’s remember for a moment that fuel prices are all over the map. And we’re all concerned about that. But we’re also concerned about the carbon footprint. I think transit is leading the way along with the car manufacturers to reduce our carbon footprint. We will become one of the greenest industries around. I can tell at the MTA here in Genesee County, May 21 we will open up our new alternative fuel facility.

“We’ll introduce a new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with hydrogen we generate with natural gas that we compress and propane for our small vehicles so where I’ve watched my fuel prices go from 3.5 million a year three years ago to 5.2 million today. We’re looking to become much more sustainable, reduce our costs and also help our environment.”

Last night, travelers loosened ties that had gotten drenched in sweat all day from the 85 degree heat. They had been waiting for buses in the city of Detroit. They unwound at the Reserve restaurant near the Birmingham Amtrak station. That spot was chosen as a symbol of what could and should be, in the eyes of mass transit advocates. It is the spot that the Cities of Troy and Birmingham have spent a decade planning as a multi-modal transit center.

Birmingham pulled out of the project in 2011 after it couldn’t buy a key parcel of land on its side of the tracks because the owner, Edgemere Enterprises, wouldn’t sell it for the price the federal government was willing to pay for it. Troy Chamber of Commerce President Michelle Hodges remains in the fight for the transit center while the tea party espousing elected officials in Troy fight against it.

“We’ve made an anti-intellectual approach to decision making,” said Hodges, referring to the anti-tax faction in Troy. She spoke on a panel of five to an audience of 130 people. She said the dollars and sense case for mass transit is obvious. She said it could improve Troy’s bond rating.

Despite leaving Troy by itself to pursue $6 million from Washington, Birmingham has not lost interest in the project. This largely republican, tax-worried community of professionals that is still dependent on the auto industry, has brought to power a stunning duo for city government. Bob Bruner was named city manager last year. He was an assistant city manager in Ypsilanti. He was city manager of Ferndale, stepping into the shoes of the giant Tom Barwin who was pro gay, pro-bohemian and pro-transit. Barwin is widely credited with the recreation of Ferndale. Barwin left Ferndale for Des Moines, Iowa and resigned February 29 as manager of Oak Park, Illinois. Bruner, who’s married with children, tried to carry forth, in a quieter way, all that he inherited from Barwin, despite dealing with budgets that have shrunk at a sharper rate.

Last night, Bruner came to listen to speakers and individuals that showed up randomly. Birmingham’s form of government allows for an elected mayor who cedes significant authority to the city manager. But if power issues ever arise they won’t stem from ideology. Bruner and Mayor Mark Nikita think alike.

Nikita was the host of last night’s event at the Reserve, next to the old train station on S. Eton. He said he has lived half his life in Birmingham and half in Detroit, growing up in the Warrendale neighborhood. He owns an architecture firm in downtown Detroit and a condo in downtown Toronto where he works once a month.

“What kind of Michigan are we interested in for this state?” Nikita asked.  He said that multi- modal walkable communities are the most valuable. As University of Michigan real estate professor and Brookings Institution fellow Chris Leinberger says, “transportation drives development.” Since the 1950′s, Michigan’s government officials and real estate developers have worked hard to make cities great for driving. They’ve wound up with the negative effects without knowing why.  If expressways and 50 mile per hour avenues cut through your city then you’ll have cheap real estate, potential for high crime, low walkability and poor uneducated residents.

However, a few government officials, in this one suburb at least, do understand why.

Like Leinberger and Troy Chamber of Commerce President Hodges, Mayor Nikita works with dollars and sense. “Walkable places tend to get stronger and thrive. They’re passing up the non-walkable oriented places. Even in this difficult economy, Birmingham has 90% occupancy in commercial and residential.” Leinberger wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly in 2007 called ‘The Next Slum.’ He predicted that tract-housing in the exurbs would become ghettos and only a couple places in Michigan would remain intact. One is Birmingham. That’s due to the town’s sense of place, parks, shopping and residential construction in town that goes up not out. Birmingham is ripe for transit.

Nikita thinks Birmingham and the other suburbs along Woodward Avenue should learn lessons from what’s happening between suburban and urban Toronto. “The suburban office market is losing ground to the downtown office market in Toronto even though downtown is increasing in price by 17%. Why? Because the downtown is surrounded by transit. So collectively we’re seeing this as a pattern.”

Mayor Nikita read questions from the audience written down on note cards.

One question was “how important is transportation and transit to the future prosperity of the state?”

Oakland County Commissioner Dave Potts answered the question. He sat on the panel last night. He’s a lawyer in Birmingham and a republican. He said, for 11 years, he’s been on the transportation committee of Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s Business Roundtable. Patterson’s Roundtable is intended to be a mechanism for blue chip businessmen to attract new colleagues to the county. But Dave Potts is not pleased. “Employers have been taking a second look at Oakland,” he said. New businesses aren’t moving to Oakland County because it lacks mass transit. “Players are saying we’re not coming. We can not get our employees to work. We have wonderful places to live. But if employers can’t get their employees to work, if coming from Plymouth (which is in Wayne County) takes two hours then we’re not coming.”

County Commissioner Potts says things that would get him thrown out of office at any level higher than county government. He welcomes high gas prices. He believes that over time, they could make Michigan richer because they will force us to change our priorities. We will be forced to divest from current infrastructure and invest in mass transit.

“We don’t have European style $15 dollar gas. But we’re headed there,” Potts said. And then he argued that public investment in automobiles has made people poor.

“For a long time the mantra in Oakland County was we are the richest county in the country. What is it now? 61^st.  The wealth has left us. It left with the children. It left with people moving to Florida.” It left because there is no real mass transit. “These magnet issues become pocketbook issues.”

On could suggest to Patterson and others in Oakland to stop fooling themselves.

The transportation odyssey crowd will meet up again tonight in Grand Rapids at the Rapid, the public transit agency that has helped revitalize the city since Peter Varga took over a decade ago. The T4M coalition of non-profits is supported by the Kresge Foundation. Laura Trudeau is the Director of the Detroit program at Kresge. She grew up in Roseville and Warren. But she says that doesn’t mean anything. “I’ve always been personally committed to Detroit.”

Trudeau said that the Kresge Foundation remains committed to spending $35 million on the M1 Rail project on Woodward. She believes mass transit can get workers to work and it can attract people who don’t need to travel very far. They just want to be near a rail line. It’s exciting. It makes you feel cool. If you need it you can just hop on and not have to drive your car every darn mile. Trudeau laments, “We’ve watched our region grow at the edges and leave the core empty.” She adds that cities are “where our ideas come face to face.” And if we don’t fill the city up with people then we won’t have any ideas and “we’re gonna fail.”

Trudeau has a 35 year old son who lives in New York City. Potts has a daughter the same age who has lived all over the country. Thousands of middle aged parents in Oakland County have children who’ve left for New York City. Young, smart, educated people can’t socialize the way they want in Detroit. They choose the place that fits their lifestyles. Then they find a job there or create a job there.

Governor Rick Snyder’s legislative liaison for transit was part of the event last night too. His name is Dennis Schornack.

“When you hang around younger kids you find out that driving is a distraction to texting,” Schornack said.  “There has been a generational change.”

As the evening went on, speakers spoke deeper from their hearts. Mayor Mark Nikita challenged the audience to reject the balkanization that the pro-car anti-transit politics have produced in the last 30 years.

“I don’t live in Southeastern Michigan. What are we afraid of? Call it Detroit.” As for anyone traveling out of state and telling people where they’re from… don’t say Birmingham, Troy, Roseville or Dearborn. Just be genuine.  “They might not even know what Michigan is. But they know Detroit.”

Investing in mass transit would allow the term Southeastern Michigan to fade away.

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.

The governor’s office wants the city and suburbs to support bus rapid transit. They invited transit managers from Cleveland, Portland, LA, Tampa and Las Vegas where Jacob Snow comes from.

“On bus rapid transit, instead of building one light rail line we had enough money build 7 bus rapid transit lines or to build a system.”

Snow was part of a presentation to transit advocates and curious citizens. Governor Snyder unveiled his bus rapid transit plan in October. He got it from Scott Anderson who is a math professor at UD Mercy. Anderson says the plan will give metro Detroit more bus routes.

“So there’s an opportunity here for DDOT, SMART and AATA to reallocate service to provide more feeder service and allow people more access to the rapid transit so they can get where they’re going quicker.”

36 stations will be built in 40 communities. The buses will run for 110 miles.

“We’ve got the political capital now and the will to actually do this.”

Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh attended the session. He said he didn’t agree with Mayor Bing’s decision to trim down the plans for light rail on Woodward.

“I saw a little video when the governor first announced plans for bus rapid transit. But hearing from the people who run the systems, fund the systems, maintain the systems, it seems more realistic. I was a big proponent of light rail and was really disappointed when the city, the mayor, decided to pull back from light rail. But seeing this, it has a rail-like feel. I’m not as disappointed anymore. In fact I’m close to being on board to bus rapid transit after having seen this presentation. It’s not perfect. But it’s also not just another bus. We need mass transit for the region. We’re the largest region in America that doesn’t have it. Until we get it our economy will be stymied.

“It kind of seems though,” McCarus said, “that this is more of Detroit aiming low.”

“I wouldn’t say aiming low,” Pugh said, “Because you can add other pieces of this. The comprehensive regional transit plan includes rolling rapid transit (BRT). So there are other pieces you can add: light rail, heavy rail. You can connect to the railroad, the AMTRAK and others, high speed rail. This would be the first piece. We need to get a first piece.

“The good thing to hear about this is you can add many more BRT lines for the cost of building one light rail line. So we could have a pretty expensive rapid transit with several lines for the cost of one light rail. Although I think the M1 folks, the privately conceptualized run light rail in the downtown area may still happen. They’re fighting real hard to keep it alive.”

“May still happen?” McCarus asked.

“Yes. Obviously the FTA has to approve it. And the City of Detroit would have to approve it. As one potentially voting member of a body that would approve that I would have no problem with also having light rail. In fact I’m a big proponent of light rail.”

“How much are the state, federal and M1 authorities keeping you in the loop?” McCarus asked.

Pugh said, “I had a presentation Wednesday from M1. I go to the neighborhood forum which is all of the area’s foundations.”

“Where was that?”

“At the DAC,” said Pugh. “Because they have a 90-day justification of the M1 line so they’re working very closely with the state and the FTA to show that they can be coordinated with the planned bus rapid transit for Woodward Avenue and spark economic development and be relevant. But then the question is how are you going to pay for the operating costs.”

Mass transit helps people get to and keep their jobs. It attracts young educated people. And it raises real estate values. But before that happens the state legislature will have to create a regional transit authority for metro Detroit.

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.

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.

Thanks to Sean for this photo.

You can hear his appeal for mass transit as a way of retaining young people like him in Michigan. He’s 26.  Click on audio on the right side of this screen.

The photos don’t include the space that trains or street cars take up on a typical street. But they show how much space cars take up. Any form of transportation other than personal cars will allow buildings to be built closer. This creates a safer walking environment. More people on the street encourage businesses to operate and criminals to go away.

It’s a basic principle of urban development known for more than a century with cars present and for thousands of years before cars appeared.

Anti-tax, anti-transit mayor Janice Daniels said little during the meeting. She knew that one of the councilman had changed his mind. Councilman Wade Fleming voted for the project because it shrunk from 8 to 6 million dollars.

The bottom line is this is federal money. Like it or not, it’ll be spent on a transit center somewhere in this country if we do not use it in Troy.

The transit center building will be smaller under the new plan. The train platform will be shorter and the heated sidewalks won’t be built. Councilman Dave Henderson was on the mayor’s side.

“I think the whole project is suspect. I don’t see the benefits.”

The Troy Chamber of Commerce has been promoting the transit center for 7 years. To get it approved, they’re now in charge of finding money for the operating costs so taxpayers never pay anything. A final resolution says that the project can not exceed $6,272,500.  15% contingency padded into that budget.

When the meeting ended, Mayor Janice Daniels told reporters why she voted against the transit center.

“I had a lot of concerns on the business model. And the more I read the more concerns I had. But the underlying concern of mine is as a nation we are drowning in debt. I think it’s more important that we recover from this position we found ourselves in rather than continue this debt load upon our future generations.”

In December, Governor Rick Snyder wrote a letter to Mayor Daniels. He asked her to approve the project. Snyder’s point man for transit in Michigan is Dennis Schornack. He came over from Lansing for the meeting.

“We’ll we’re grateful for the passage of the resolution and the opportunity to build this transit center. It’s a very key part of transit in SE Michigan. And we’re grateful that the business community in Troy Michigan stepped up to the plate and made a real difference here.”

Daniels has been a hero to tea partiers in Troy. But she’s become a villain for her comments about gay teenagers, defunding the library and rejecting mass transit.  On December 3, she allowed David Wisz to make a power point presentation. Wisz is a patent lawyer who lives and works in Birmingham. He donated to her election campaign. Here’s some of what he said that night.

Attorney David Wisz didn’t show up at Tuesday’s Troy city council meeting. But I asked this of Mayor Daniels:

“Isn’t the crux of this matter, as it’s been in the Detroit suburbs for 40 or 50 years, to try to keep poor people and black people out of these fancy suburbs? That’s absolutely untrue, unequivocally untrue.”

Some residents of Troy say this is true. Sue Martin is with the citizens group called TRUST, Troy Residents Unified for a Strong Troy. She’s pleased the city has approved the transit center.

“I think that some people who were against it definitely had the impression that it would bring an element to the city that they did not want. And they couched it in other ways. They used other arguments against it but at the end of the day when you got someone spewing racist comments at a city council meeting you can’t cover that up.”

For Michigannow, I’m Chris McCarus in Troy

Dennis Schornack is Governor Snyder’s point man on transit in Southeast Michigan. He’s promoting a bus rapid transit system that would run along Woodward, Gratiot, Grand River, Michigan and M59. Buses have their own lanes that cars can’t veer into. Arrivals and departures can be tracked on clocks inside bus stations.

“They’re more sophisticated than a bus. They have wifi capability. They are very comfortable vehicles that move at the same speed as light rail at much less cost. For example, for the proposed Woodward light rail system, for the same price you can deliver a 110 mile system that reaches 4 counties and 4.2 million people.”

The titans of Detroit business had pledged to spend $100 million of their own money for the light rail line from downtown to 8 Mile. It would cost about $600 million. Light rail could trigger investment in housing, stores and restaurants. It’s been touted more as an economic development tool. On November 7, Dennis Schornack held a meeting with Mayor Bing and the leaders of all 4 surrounding counties. They all agreed to bus rapid transit. But they didn’t all know that the light rail plan would be dropped. Schornack said that was Bing’s decision.

“So no we’re not rejecting anything. We’re just saying that it can be accommodated by this flexible system.”

Flexible in that light rail could be added later. But private investors, the city and the federal government already had the rail money lined up. And according to Edson Tennyson, a former Pennsylvania transportation director, light rail is about 20% cheaper to operate than bus rapid transit. When the governor and the mayor went to Washington, state Senator Coleman Young was surprised by the result.

“You know I just what the conversation was between the governor and the mayor when they went up there to Washington to talk about this to say they were going to nix it for buses. I mean you know. What is that all about. I felt that was real sad because it’s something the City of Detroit wanted for a long time.”

This year, funding and service for city and suburban bus service nose dived. Federal officials wanted to see a solid bus system before funding light rail. So transit czar Dennis Schornack is moving ahead with plans to create a regional transit authority. The RTA would have 10 members split between Detroit and 4 counties. Schornack says their job will be…

“To specify exactly what services people will be paying for. Because people don’t vote to tax themselves if they don’t know what they’re buying. They have to understand what they’re buying and what value it will deliver to them and then have the opportunity to say yes I will help pay for it or no I won’t.”

The regional transit authority bills will be introduced in the state senate transportation committee in January. The last light rail lines were torn from Detroit streets in 1956. It appears they won’t come back for at least a few more years.