I put that last sentence only hyperbole purposes. I am quite aware of why people aren't coming to Michigan and it is not because of not having a light rail. Thank you for noticing it......:)
" Oakland County perennially was one of the five fastest growing counties in the US. Macomb County was not far behind. Both were growing in population much faster than the population decline of Detroit."
Not true. The population in the Detroit MSA has been stagnant for almost 40 years. As people left Detroit, they moved to the suburbs. The growth in OC and MC wasn't from attracting a lot of new people, it was from the population exodus from Detroit.
http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/popm/pm2160.htm
"A streetcar system in Detroit is not going to turn this around."
SE Michigan needs a regional transportation system that works. I'm still waiting to hear of any major American or world city that functions well without one.
How many millions of dollars was Cobo draining from the city's general fund every year? Wasn't it between $10 and $15 million? The regional boogey men that have JT1's grapes in a bunch can do what they want with it, for all I care. I'm glad it's off the city's books.
"A good majority of the people here would say we function just fine without a mass transit system [[or the bus system is enough)."
If they do, it's against all evidence to the contrary.
Now back in 2000 when Michigan's unemployment rate was 3% we had great transit. Then we did away with that fantastic transit system and unemployment rose to 15%. If we'd just build a great transit system again then everything would be fine. See, it's all about transit.
I think it's a combination of things, but it all boils down to fear. Fear of government. Fear of taxes. Fear of "socialism". Fear of having to share public space with people. Fear of having your car taken away. Fear of having your "freedom" taken over by "social planners." Fear of big, bad black people getting off a light rail vehicle near your house ... just fears. That's all.
Given all those fears, it begins to look safe and sensible to design an all-car system that probably less than 75 percent of us can use.
Reminds me of all the "tea party" protests with all of the rampant fear of over taxation. It's hilarious because you know that probably every single one of them, save the congressmen/women preaching to them, got a tax CUT after Obama took office. They don't even know what they're afraid of anymore.
The fact is, like R8RBOB shows in his story, the citizens of Metro Detroit don't know any better. They've been forced to become accustomed to this environment [[And we must admit, this potential doom & gloom that's been predicted hasn't really impacted folks as badly as one thought) so as long as they can reach ponit A and point B themselves, they believe it's sustainable.
We did not have great transit in 2000. We had really shitty traffic. If we'd just build a great transit system, then we'd at least have a chance at attracting new businesses and residents to the area instead of letting other metro regions bleed us dry because we are only capable at expressing total incompetence on this subject.
Bullshit.
First of all, I thoguht we were only talking about Metro Detroit, not ALL of Michigan. Even Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor have far better transit than we do. Second of all, Metro Detroit never had "great" transit. The buses and its system were just as ragedy in the early 2000s as they are now. Even the streetcars still had their faults.
That said, we did have heavier congestion back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Of course that was because he had an ok economy. I do remember I-75 & The Lodge out of Downtown actually being congested duirng rush hour back then.