Dequindre Cut Expansion Coming - Connecting to Hamtramck and Midtown

**jpbollma** · June-20-12, 10:34 AM

DETROIT [[AP) — U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin say the federal government is giving Detroit a $10 million transportation grant to improve public access to the city’s historic Eastern Market and other central city attractions.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...eastern-market

**jpbollma** · June-20-12, 10:45 AM

More info here:

http://www.michigantrails.org/news/c...reenways-more/

Detroit residents, how do you feel about this use of funds? Appropriate? Helpful?

**Lowell** · June-21-12, 08:03 AM

Another Little Victory for Detroit. The Dequindre Cut greenway / bike trail system is set to expand following the award of a $10 million federal grant.

This promises to connect vibrant districts via healthy [bicycling and walking/jogging] arteries. Detroit has great opportunities to enhance bike transportation due to wide avenues now underutilized by cars due to population decline and former rail lines. Dedicated and safe bikeways offer great economic potential for fair weather commuters and recreation. And did I forget the environmental pluses too?

It calls for extending the Dequindre Cut trail from Gratiot to Mack Avenue and two extenders: one would link the Dequindre Cut with the Midtown Loop, and the other would use bike pathways on surface streets to connect the cut to the Hamtramck trail, Carmody said.

The project envisions a continuous greenway system connecting the riverfront to Eastern Market and also to Midtown and the Wayne State University and Detroit Medical Center campuses.

“My guess would be the bridges and the Dequindre Cut extension would come first, [[but) we’re meeting to determine how best to proceed with the money we have available,” Carmody said.

The city and nonprofits now will complete final design work and put out a request for bids. Construction should be under way a year or so from now, given that the terms of the grant require funds to be committed by then, Carmody said.

From Crains discovered via DeadlineDetroit.com.

**Hamtragedy** · June-21-12, 09:27 AM

oh please, oh please, oh please, please, please, please, pretty please with sugar on top, please, uncle, please!!

**townonenorth** · June-21-12, 09:30 AM

It's an expresway for bikes! Where's the outrage? Won't this rip out the urban fabric connection with the streetwall?

Next thing you know, there'll be bike paths leading out of the city, via rail trails. If it has something even remotely to do with a train, you know DYES will be all over it. People powered sprawl... the next frontier.

**rb336** · June-21-12, 10:27 AM

What is the Hamtramck trail???

**ScienceFair** · June-21-12, 11:18 AM

Anyone have a master plan map of this?

**Hypestyles** · June-21-12, 11:51 AM

...could bicycle manufacturing ever take off in michigan?

**Detroitnerd** · June-21-12, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by townonenorth

It's an expresway for bikes! Where's the outrage? Won't this rip out the urban fabric connection with the streetwall?

Next thing you know, there'll be bike paths leading out of the city, via rail trails. If it has something even remotely to do with a train, you know DYES will be all over it. People powered sprawl... the next frontier.

Honestly, I am sort of ambivalent about it. Though I know you're overstating things for comic effect [[it doesn't rip out any existing infrastructure or streetwall, and I doubt any but the hardiest cyclists would use a "bikeway" to commute in and out of the city), it does reinforce this idea that bikes need special infrastructure. They really don't. They can just use the road as any other vehicle does.

You might be interested to know that there is a lively debate about this within the "cycling community" [[whatever that is). For more about "vehicular cycling," read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_cycling

**Zozo** · June-21-12, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

...could bicycle manufacturing ever take off in michigan?

Maybe. Fossil, the company that makes watches and apparel, is opening up a bicycle factory in New Center.

**Detroitnerd** · June-21-12, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

...could bicycle manufacturing ever take off in michigan?

Interestingly, a lot of the infrastructure [[roads, wheel factories, etc.) that benefited the emerging auto industry was put in place by bicycle advocates and companies. Hines drive is named after the guy who ran the Michigan bicycle club at the turn of the last century, a major part of the "good roads" movement that raised early automobiles out of the muck. And the [[now demolished) Uniroyal [[earlier, U.S. Rubber) plant near the bridge to Belle Isle was originally the Morgan & Wright bicycle tire manufacturer, once the largest maker of bicycle tires in the world.

Could it happen again? That's anybody's guess.

**RO_Resident** · June-21-12, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Hypestyles

...could bicycle manufacturing ever take off in michigan?

There are a number of niche/custom builders in Michigan, such as Quiring, Bob Keller, Sisu Cycles, 616Fab, Slingshot, and a few others that I can't think of right now...

**Wheels** · June-21-12, 01:59 PM

Is it a little ironic the Fed's will pop for 10 mil to rip rail tracks out of Detroit but wont pony up to install new?

**jpbollma** · June-21-12, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Wheels

Is it a little ironic the Fed's will pop for 10 mil to rip rail tracks out of Detroit but wont pony up to install new?

Yes. I think this is great and a nice thing, but the street car would have been better.

**rb336** · June-21-12, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by Zozo

Maybe. Fossil, the company that makes watches and apparel, is opening up a bicycle factory in New Center.

it's not Fossil, it's a company created by the former owner/CEO

**mikeg19** · June-21-12, 04:34 PM

That would be cool if it went to Midtown. I'd like to see a proposed map of the trail. Anyone have some phoposhop skills and time on their hands tonight to make that happen

**stasu1213** · June-21-12, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by jpbollma

Yes. I think this is great and a nice thing, but the street car would have been better.

I had always thought that the Dequindre Cut would had been perfect for light rail. Feeder busses could had traveled along atwater bringing passengers from downtown to the train. I hope that it doesnt take long to replace the bridges. The other bridges that were removed were never replaced as promised. I wonder if a steel cagey like bridge would be cheaper as a replacement.

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · June-21-12, 05:04 PM

I think this is cool. I love the DC. I ride my bike on it when I get the chance, and going further would be neat. I think it would be awesome if it paralelled Woodward all the way to 8 mile, so you could go fully North/South in the park. And it could connect with other parks and attractions along the way. My goal is to get the world's longest ice rink built in the DC next winter. That would rock.

**Mark Smiles** · June-21-12, 05:32 PM

Where is the Federal Government getting the $10,000,000 from?

Last I saw the Feds owe a boat load to repay the Social Security IOU's.

Lets assume the Federal Government is going to borrow the $!0,000,000, what will be the total cost of the money including the interest charges?

Oh yeah, who really cares? It is free money so why not spend it?

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · June-21-12, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by Mark Smiles

Where is the Federal Government getting the $10,000,000 from?

Last I saw the Feds owe a boat load to repay the Social Security IOU's.

Lets assume the Federal Government is going to borrow the $!0,000,000, what will be the total cost of the money including the interest charges?

Oh yeah, who really cares? It is free money so why not spend it?

I am not in favor of federal money being used for local parks. But this money is going to be spent despite my opposition to that expenditure. I will full enjoy the expansion once built. When I lived in New York, the transit system wasted SO MUCH MONEY you would not even believe it. But I lived there and still rode the subway. When I am a member of Congress [[note: I am never running for Congress), I will not vote to spend national money on local projects. But I will enjoy the amenities of my community, even those whose funding source was not the one I would have employed to get such a project built.

Shollin · June-21-12, 07:00 PM

LOL 10 million to the federal government is like buying a dollar cup of coffee. Why must me assume it's being borrowed? It's like from the billions of dollars the federal government collects.

**Detroitej72** · June-21-12, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by rb336

What is the Hamtramck trail???

My thoughts exactly!

**jtf1972** · June-21-12, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by townonenorth

It's an expresway for bikes! Where's the outrage? Won't this rip out the urban fabric connection with the streetwall?

Next thing you know, there'll be bike paths leading out of the city, via rail trails. If it has something even remotely to do with a train, you know DYES will be all over it. People powered sprawl... the next frontier.

For clarification to anybody who needs it, it is more than an "expressway for bikes." It's a little park. It's using land that was going completely to waste. The only other proposal in recent memory for it would have turned it into an exclusive driveway for casinos to be built on the warehouse district [[thanks for destroying it for absolutely no reason, Mayor Archer)

In a way, it's Detroit's version of New York's "High Line"

**Detroitej72** · June-21-12, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn

I am not in favor of federal money being used for local parks. But this money is going to be spent despite my opposition to that expenditure. I will full enjoy the expansion once built. When I lived in New York, the transit system wasted SO MUCH MONEY you would not even believe it. But I lived there and still rode the subway. When I am a member of Congress [[note: I am never running for Congress), I will not vote to spend national money on local projects. But I will enjoy the amenities of my community, even those whose funding source was not the one I would have employed to get such a project built.

If you drive on roads, that are paid for with federal dollars, shut the hell up!

We all pay taxes!

**MikeyinBrooklyn** · June-22-12, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitej72

If you drive on roads, that are paid for with federal dollars, shut the hell up!

We all pay taxes!

I neither see a direct connection nor understand the source of your anger.

Local public parks, in my opinion, are the function of local and state governments to maintain and provide, where they so choose. Local roads, in my opinion, also should not receive federal dollars. Interstate highways should, as a function of the federal government's constitutional function to manage interstate commerce. I reject entirely the notion that local [[and state) governments are there merely to be the branch office of the federal government, dispensing national money. While that is my argument for constitutional roles for various levels of government, it is also practical. When localities take money from the feds for projects, they can't afford them once the federal money shrinks or disappears. Moronic governors of California and Illinois in 2009-2010 applied a massive amount of federal stimulus money to fund their operations, and now have catastrophic budgetary problems. California actually has more unfunded mandates than Greece, where there is now a lot of commerce taking place with bartering. In other words- free money can cost you more than you can afford in the long run.