Share your dream project

[wanderinglady]

I would like to revitalize the neighborhood shopping areas. Not only the Avenue of Fashion, but Grand River/Greenfield, Six Mile/Schaefer, and whatever the east side equivalents would be. [[You can probably tell I grew up in Northwest Detroit.) Start a small business incubator and encourage larger businesses to come to town. Adequately fund public services such as police and trash pickup, to restore a sense of security. Improve the school system by looking at what has worked in other places and trying it out. Giving incentives to Detroiters who have gone outside the city for higher education to return.

And that's just off the top of my head!

[Hermod]

Buy the Detroit water and sewage system. Then abandon all lines north of 15 mile, west of Farmington Rd, and east of Gratiot.

So the price of water to Detroiters would go up to spread the system fixed costs over fewer customers while the northern burbs would just run an intake out to Lake Saint Clair.

[Hermod]

I would like to revitalize the neighborhood shopping areas. Not only the Avenue of Fashion, but Grand River/Greenfield, Six Mile/Schaefer, and whatever the east side equivalents would be. [[You can probably tell I grew up in Northwest Detroit.) Start a small business incubator and encourage larger businesses to come to town. Adequately fund public services such as police and trash pickup, to restore a sense of security. Improve the school system by looking at what has worked in other places and trying it out. Giving incentives to Detroiters who have gone outside the city for higher education to return.

And that's just off the top of my head!

Seven Mile and Gratiot, Harper and Chalmers, Houston between Kelly and Hayes,................

[mwilbert]

If I had a very large amount of money, I would endow public boarding schools open to any student in Detroit.

If I had a less large amount of money, I would restore Belle Isle.

There are lots of other things I would like to do, but they are harder to explain.

[Patrick]

I want a 500-lane bowling alley....we'll call it..."Polish Gardens" and put it on the sport of the Ford Auditorium.

[Magnatomicflux]

I've got unlimited funding? How about:

- HSR/regional rail center on the site of the existing Amtrak New Center station
- Transit center under Campus Martius

HSR to Chicago targeting two hour travel time from New Center to Chicago Union Station [[cruising speed of 175-180 mph). Keep the existing extension through Birmingham to Pontiac, and extend to Flint via Holly and on to Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland. Not true HSR on the extension, but cruising speed around 80-100 mph. Would require something be done about the at-grade running through Detroit, Ferndale, and Royal Oak.

Rail at 80-100 mph via the CSX right-of-way through Plymouth and Lansing to Grand Rapids.

Regional rail:
- The CN ROW out Groesbeck through Mount Clemens to Port Huron
- The old Conrail ROW between Van Dyke and Mound to Utica
- CN ROW through Ferndale, Royal Oak and Birmingham to Pontiac
- CSX ROW through Plymouth to Howell
- Former Michigan Central/Conrail ROW through Dearborn and Wayne to Ann Arbor, with a rail spur to the airport
- Via Downriver and Monroe to Toledo
- Using the CSX ROW, a link from the airport to Plymouth, Northville, and Wixom
All regional rail links to be electrified [[this is important later)

Urban transit [[all subways at least in the downtown area)
- East Jefferson/Lake Shore to the Pointes
- Gratiot to Eastpointe/Warren
- Van Dyke or Mound to the GM Tech Center
- Woodward to Ferndale
- The Lodge to Northland
- Grand River to 8 Mile/Inkster
- The Jeffries to Inkster
- Michigan Ave to Dearborn
- West Jefferson to Southfield Road in Ecorse
- Southfield Road/Freeway from Birmingham through Dearborn to Ecorse [[Ford is where it is, they're not going anywhere other than Dearborn, so we might as well deal with it and make Dearborn easy to get to)
Where appropriate [[the Gratiot, Van Dyke/Mound, Woodward, Jeffries, Michigan, W Jefferson, and Southfield lines) all lines to terminate at stops of the regional rail system to allow across-the-platform transfers from one system to the other and even allow trains to run through to downtown from the regional rail to the subway [[hey, they do it in Tokyo)

Buses to handle crosstown traffic as well as act as feeders from the neighborhoods to subway stations [[again, see how Tokyo does it)

Well, there's my wish list. How much have I spent - $100 billion? Well I can dream, can't I?

I'm sure you'll think of something

Nice list!

[woodwardboy]

So the price of water to Detroiters would go up to spread the system fixed costs over fewer customers while the northern burbs would just run an intake out to Lake Saint Clair.

Right. L. Brooks Patterson tried to do this a few years ago by proposing the northern counties run a pipeline from Port Huron. When the estimated costs ran over $1 billion dollars Ole Brooks decided to continue sucking up to Detroit.

[rhythmc]

If I had unlimited funds, I would:

1) Purchase all the properties in the neighborhoods with the most abandonment in the northwest and eastside of the city. Anything that I could keep standing, I would. Where a home would need to be built, I would rebuild. I would then trade all the properties in the Boynton and Oakwood sections of SW Detroit with homeowners. I would work with renters to purchase in the new neighborhood. I would then demolish every home in those areas turning the neighborhoods into green spaces planting grasses, trees, and bushes resistant to the effects of the pollution in those neighborhoods. Then I would donate it to the city with the requirement that those areas be maintained as such, not allowing for any expansion of industry into the newly greened space.

2) I would purchase DDOT and SMART and merge them into a single comprehensive system until a similarly comprehensive rail system was completed.

[DetroitPlanner]

If I had unlimited funds, I would:

2) I would purchase DDOT and SMART and merge them into a single comprehensive system until a similarly comprehensive rail system was completed.

uhh you do realize that there is a very good reason why all public transit in the country has public subsidies don't you? I would consider this to be a money pit, remember privately owned transit companies do not qualify for operations funding, dollars for capital improvements. The only thing this would do is make other transit agencies in the state filthy rich.

[rhythmc]

uhh you do realize that there is a very good reason why all public transit in the country has public subsidies don't you? I would consider this to be a money pit, remember privately owned transit companies do not qualify for operations funding, dollars for capital improvements. The only thing this would do is make other transit agencies in the state filthy rich.

With unlimited funds, this would not matter to me. It's not like I would need it to make money. This would be done simply from a philanthropic stance. The hope is that it would be an indicator of why comprehensive, high-speed, local transit would be necessary and get the ball rolling.

[DetroitPlanner]

With unlimited funds, this would not matter to me. It's not like I would need it to make money. This would be done simply from a philanthropic stance. The hope is that it would be an indicator of why comprehensive, high-speed, local transit would be necessary and get the ball rolling.

Being that transportation funding is not unlimited, you would free up tons of dollars to be spent on widening roads or making other fifedoms better than ours statewide. There would be better ways of leveraging your dollars. For example you could lobby state reps and senators on why enabling transit authorities would be beneficial to not only the transit user, but to the taxpayer, then you could use other dollars to help stimulate some much needed improvements that would be beneficial to transit regardless of ownership. Not to mention you would free yourself from having to deal with all of the politics and union contracts. The politicians would be sniveling to you under my scenario, under your original one, you would be subserviant to them.

[Downriviera]

I would buy back the Strohs and Vernors brands and make them in Detroit again, and of course, I would utilize the original recipes.

[rhythmc]

Being that transportation funding is not unlimited, you would free up tons of dollars to be spent on widening roads or making other fifedoms better than ours statewide. There would be better ways of leveraging your dollars. For example you could lobby state reps and senators on why enabling transit authorities would be beneficial to not only the transit user, but to the taxpayer, then you could use other dollars to help stimulate some much needed improvements that would be beneficial to transit regardless of ownership. Not to mention you would free yourself from having to deal with all of the politics and union contracts. The politicians would be sniveling to you under my scenario, under your original one, you would be subserviant to them.

Point taken.

[slick]

And I would also make parking around juvy court better.

I would rehab all the juveniles so there would be no need for better parking.
There would be no juvy court.

[slick]

I want a 500-lane bowling alley....we'll call it..."Polish Gardens" and put it on the sport of the Ford Auditorium.

uh, unless you made it a 10 story building you could not sport a 500 lane bowling alley at Ford Auditorium. Besides we have bowling lane capacity not being utilized.

[Junkin4Life]

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthread.php?t=7015

Detroit should install these traffic signals on mast arms ALL across these following Streets:

-Rosa Parks & 14th [[Throughout)
-2nd & 3rd [[Throughout)
-Charlevoix & E Vernor [[Throughout)
-Dexter Ave [[from Grand River to West Davison)
-Davison Both E & W [[Throughout)
-Forest and Warren [[from 14th to Cadillac)
-Fort [[Throughout)
-Gratiot [[Throughout)
-Grand Blvd [[Throughout)
-Grand River [[Throughout)
-Greenfield [[Throughout)
-Harper [[Throughout)
-Jefferson [[Throughout)
-John R & Brush [[Throughout)
-Michigan [[Throughout)
-Plymouth [[from Greenfield to Rouge Park Dr)
-Trumbull [[from Fort to I-94)
-West Vernor [[Throughout)
-Warren E &W [[Throughout)
-Woodward [[Throughout)

[Crew]

I tell ya what I'd do. I'd throw away all the cars and the bars and the wars and I'd make sweet love to you.

[Hypestyles]

...too many things.. but to select one suggestion from a letter i've been sending to city/area leaders..

If Detroit is to get competitive in the contemporary entertainment industry, it should have at least one active/operating movie studio. I'd raze the entire Packard Plant grounds, and convert most of it to TV/Film studio production & post-production warehouses, including backlots for external shoots. The city can own the studio facilities, and rent them out for film/TV operations to do movies and TV shows. There can also be a vocational facility that is partnered with Detroit Public Schools that teaches students the production disciplines of TV/film for school credit, and leading to jobs in the industry.

[DetroitPlanner]

I tell ya what I'd do. I'd throw away all the cars and the bars and the wars and I'd make sweet love to you.

Ha this song reminds me of the Holden theatre at the Detroit Zoo. When I was a youngster they had the chimps out there dancing to this song, riding mini-bikes and go carts.

They don't make zoos like this anymore.... Thank God!

[Junkin4Life]

Its to give this city its uniformity, like NYC

[showstoppa]

this is a good one, and I had to think creatively for this but here goes:

the large, unutilized land that is the old Brewster Projects. [[across I-75 from Comerica Park and Ford Field) I would build a new Piston/ Red Wings arena, mixed with retail, restaurants, movie studio development. Similar to the LA Live complex that houses the Staples Center and other attractions !

[HazenPingree]

If I was, say, a billionaire owner of an international bridge crossing who had more money than I could spend in my lifetime, I would rehab the MCS.

[Junkin4Life]

Do you think most people who move from here to places like New York do so because of how the traffic lights are mounted?

it all depends how the significant number of people would envision this city

[313WX]

They don't call it gra-SHIT for nothing!

Couldn't resist that one....

Grosse Pointe would beg to differ.

[dtowncitylover]

it all depends how the significant number of people would envision this city

I don't think a city's traffic lights is on the top of list of why to move to a particular city. If it is, that person has major micromanaging problems.