I'm gonna try to go to tomorrow's evening meeting.
But some of those meeting times are ridiculous, especially if you live in Detroit/Highland Park and work.
I'm gonna try to go to tomorrow's evening meeting.
But some of those meeting times are ridiculous, especially if you live in Detroit/Highland Park and work.
I plan on going to the one in Birmingham. It's been such a disappointment for transit ever since 2007/8 when the Woodward Light Rail project seemed legit and SEMCOG was putting out their plans. It's 2012 and it seems like this will be the same presentation they presented then and still not going to do anything about it. SEMCOG could be a great voice for regionalism, but alas no.
They're gonna give a presentation, we will view some white boards with fancy diagrams and information, and be allowed to jot down some opinions, questions, and concerns [[all of which will be ignored), just to give us transit supporters a peace of mind that transit will come.
LOL, sad but true.Quote:
Originally Posted by dtowncitylover
I completely understand your cynicism, and share some [[but not all) of it. The one big difference is that this will actually connect multiple communities. Woodward Light Rail, as the City styled it, would have been useful if it had gone at least as far as downtown RO to the north. Go stand at the corner of State Fair and Woodward, and try to say, with a straight face, that this is where my transit system should start: between a cemetery and an abandoned fairgrounds.Quote:
Originally Posted by dtowncitylover
SEMCOG seems structured to get in the way in a lot of respects, since it gives disproportionately "equal" influence on key issues to outer-exurban towns vs. the core hub city, i.e., Detroit.
Hype, SEMCOG is an MPO [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropo...g_Organization) and is necessary to receive certain buckets of federal dollars for a number of things and required to be balanced region-wide.
When I worked at the Chicago RTA, we had to deal with CMAP [[http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about) on a number of issues, which was their SEMCOG.
CMAP was regional and balanced as well, but it worked, because most of the suburbs wanted transit dollars for the region because they would also go to Metra, the commuter rail, and Pace, the commuter bus system, typically by formula. Here, we have no commuter rail unless that I-94 line kicks in, and hardly anyone uses SMART, so there's little push from those regional stakeholders to "grow up" as a region.
Interesting and informative meeting tonight.
There were representatives from SEMCOG, the Feds, and the RTA.
Answered a lot of my questions, and illuminated some new info.
Will post more details later.