Transit helps drives Michigan's 'prosperity agenda'
Article in today's Free Press
By JEFF GERRITT
FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER
Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff was in Detroit last week to meet with shot callers from the city and state. He made it clear that the Obama administration wants to help metro Detroit build transit. Given our history, we could still blow it, but there's reason for optimism, including support from business leaders and young people who want to live in a walkable central city. Dan Gilmartin, CEO of the Michigan Municipal League, will look at why transit matters to Michigan’s and Detroit’s future in the next part of "Michigan Prosperity Agenda" on WJR-AM [[760) at 7 p.m. today.
I acted as cohost for the show, which includes Oakland County developer Alan Kiriluk, University of Michigan instructor Peter Allen and Don Stypula, executive director of the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council. During a taping last week, I was struck by the support Kiriluk, a successful businessperson, had for transit that would shape more sustainable development patterns in the region. He even said he would consider supporting a regional tax to pay for the system. It’s worth noting that business groups like the Detroit Regional Chamber have long supported transit, understanding its importance to economic development.
Allen described how amped his students were about Detroit, and for living in a central city that has mass transit. I’ve stayed in downtown Detroit for more than a decade and noticed a big increase in the number of young, single people moving in. They want to live in an urban setting where they can walk or ride transit to clubs, coffee shops and work. I walk to work and get here a lot less stressed than most of my coworkers.
Whether metro Detroit can take advantage of a new federal commitment to cities and transit will depend partly on whether we can get our regional act together. Healthy metro regions like Denver, Portland, Ore., and even Grand Rapids are spots where the central city and suburbs have learned to work together. The Obama administration has made it clear that's important for getting federal assistance.
The Michigan Municipal League is on point in trying to lay out a new agenda and growth strategy that focuses on investments in cities, transit and education in building a knowledge-based economy for the 21st Century. For the last 20 years, Michigan’s economic growth strategy has centered on tax policies, and it’s pretty easy to see what we got for it. Businesses, investors and entrepreneurs look at far more than tax rates. We need to move the debate from taxes to jobs, and from cutting back to growing forward. Transit is one piece of that pie.
