GoFundMe for rapid transit funding?

[Jayp213]

okay, i may be a little far-fetched here in my thought process, but I was thinking if there was a way to get more public interest and public funding/money for an expanded m1 rail than what is already in place? sure, tax dollars come into play to fund these projects, already, but what about concrete money towards funding for the project [[if concrete money even has a stable meaning). They're already taxing us on the money we make to build this thing, why not reverse the money into the actual project and show them we NEED an expanded transportation system that just up and down woodward avenue. Lets capitalize on being the bosses of light rail or maybe even magnetic high speed transportation [[google MagLev) and be the first to implement that here in America... DETROIT, just like how we birthed the auto industry into existence. Any thoughts? I know I may have pipe dreams here, but we have to wake up and take action to be a part of a better detroit and not wait on elected officials to do something about it. it starts with us!

[RO_Resident]

Start here:
http://www.woodwardanalysis.com/

[Junjie]

okay, i may be a little far-fetched here in my thought process, but I was thinking if there was a way to get more public interest and public funding/money for an expanded m1 rail than what is already in place? sure, tax dollars come into play to fund these projects, already, but what about concrete money towards funding for the project [[if concrete money even has a stable meaning). They're already taxing us on the money we make to build this thing, why not reverse the money into the actual project and show them we NEED an expanded transportation system that just up and down woodward avenue. Lets capitalize on being the bosses of light rail or maybe even magnetic high speed transportation [[google MagLev) and be the first to implement that here in America... DETROIT, just like how we birthed the auto industry into existence. Any thoughts? I know I may have pipe dreams here, but we have to wake up and take action to be a part of a better detroit and not wait on elected officials to do something about it. it starts with us!

This sounds a little ridiculous to the average person, but actually I think the idea of crowdfunding might have potential. The biggest crowdfunding campaign I'm aware of is for a video game, Star Citizen, which has raised close to $70 million[[!). You see tons of comments whenever transit gets brought up in the news about how people should "pay for it themselves!", but coming into the conversation with say a $50 million check in hand sourced from private individuals who want transit would do something to balance out that reflex.

Admittedly the cost of real transit is so high that even a huge crowdfunding amount like $50 million wouldn't get you very far on its own, but as we saw with M1 an initial private capital investment of around $100 million was the seed for additional federal and state funding that's getting the first 3.3 miles constructed. It's definitely an interesting idea.

[Jayp213]

i know it may be a little ridiculous, i admit, but who knows?...maybe it might spark enough attention for news coverage and rich investors looking to have a name in something could contribute and benefit everyone? you never know until you try, right? i just want the most for this city and it just upsets me that they are building another bridge to canada thats a 2.1 billion dollar deal and yet we still have this void in transportation in a rapidly growing city core.... am I the only one upset about this or am i just ignorant to the reasoning for this? either way, we need to beat congressmen/women over the head about expanding the rail around the city and not ONLY UP AND DOWN WOODWARD.... it has no other choice but to spark expansion because once the red wings district gets finalized and things pop up from that and gilbert does what he is going to do, people are going to say: "umm hello this m1 thing only goes up and down woodward? wtf?"

[ABetterDetroit]

i know it may be a little ridiculous, i admit, but who knows?...maybe it might spark enough attention for news coverage and rich investors looking to have a name in something could contribute and benefit everyone? you never know until you try, right? i just want the most for this city and it just upsets me that they are building another bridge to canada thats a 2.1 billion dollar deal and yet we still have this void in transportation in a rapidly growing city core.... am I the only one upset about this or am i just ignorant to the reasoning for this? either way, we need to beat congressmen/women over the head about expanding the rail around the city and not ONLY UP AND DOWN WOODWARD.... it has no other choice but to spark expansion because once the red wings district gets finalized and things pop up from that and gilbert does what he is going to do, people are going to say: "umm hello this m1 thing only goes up and down woodward? wtf?"

Apples and oranges comparasion. The Canadians are financing the new bridge and the Canadians are not going to finance public transportation in metro Detroit ever. It's like manned space flight or the next aircraft carrier no matter how much the proponents of public transport would like that money diverted here for buses and trains in this region it's not going to happen period. In order to solve this problem we need a real solution not irrelevant B.S. rhetoric.

[123456789]

If there is ever going to be a transit improvement in metro Detroit it will definitely come from crowdfunding, also known as taxes.

/thread

[ABetterDetroit]

If there is ever going to be a transit improvement in metro Detroit it will definitely come from crowdfunding, also known as taxes.

/thread

I agree with the above, a tax that supported the RTA directly and continuously would be the right way to solve the problem of a lack of quality public transportation in the metro area. Exactly how to do this is the elephant in the room. The far right is against any tax all the time. The far left loves to tax everything even to failure. Lansing has a proven track record of wanting all tax revenue to run through their hands. If only hypothetically those three previous statements are accurate what would be a tax that would that would be sensible? Let's hear them.

[Lowell]

We have crowd funding for mass transit. It's called government and it provides millions yearly. Not nearly enough unfortunately but that is where the energy needs to be focused. Hopefully the James Robertson story will shame those in power.

[Dexlin]

We have crowd funding for mass transit. It's called government and it provides millions yearly. Not nearly enough unfortunately but that is where the energy needs to be focused. Hopefully the James Robertson story will shame those in power.

You're adorable, Lowell. You know as well as I do that this particular crop in the legislature are beyond being shamed. The Robertson story will do nothing. I can see that almost everyone short of Stephen Henderson at the Freep took the wrong lesson out of that story. I see the mayor of Rochester Hills wanted to meet the man to talk with him about things, but when directly confronted about perhaps starting a dialogue about his city joining SMART? Yeah, crickets.

The funding for the RTA, which comes up next year in November, is really the region's only hope. And, given how thoroughly the SMART millage passed, last year, and 2016 being a presidential year, I'd actually say the RTA tax is more likely to pass than not. It just sucks that the body has almost no support from the state. They had to beg the legislature just to get money to hire the initial staff, which is a f%cking disgrace.

If you do this on a community-by-community basis, you'll get exactly the results we get now. Macomb was smart to do it on a county-wide basis.

[ABetterDetroit]

You're adorable, Lowell. You know as well as I do that this particular crop in the legislature are beyond being shamed. The Robertson story will do nothing. I can see that almost everyone short of Stephen Henderson at the Freep took the wrong lesson out of that story. I see the mayor of Rochester Hills wanted to meet the man to talk with him about things, but when directly confronted about perhaps starting a dialogue about his city joining SMART? Yeah, crickets.

The funding for the RTA, which comes up next year in November, is really the region's only hope. And, given how thoroughly the SMART millage passed, last year, and 2016 being a presidential year, I'd actually say the RTA tax is more likely to pass than not. It just sucks that the body has almost no support from the state. They had to beg the legislature just to get money to hire the initial staff, which is a f%cking disgrace.

If you do this on a community-by-community basis, you'll get exactly the results we get now. Macomb was smart to do it on a county-wide basis.

Has the RTA already decided the tax vehicle they are going to go for in the Nov. 2016 ballot?

[Dexlin]

Has the RTA already decided the tax vehicle they are going to go for in the Nov. 2016 ballot?

No. Though, I imagine the assessment vehicle would be more popular than the additional vehicle registration tax. But, who knows.

[Junjie]

If there is ever going to be a transit improvement in metro Detroit it will definitely come from crowdfunding, also known as taxes.

/thread

Well, sure. But the original question was whether there could be "...a way to get more public interest and public funding/money for an expanded m1 rail than what is already in place". I didn't read that as funding a regional transit system with a Kickstarter page. If you had a limited, well-defined capital construction project, a public fundraising campaign could be useful. Say an extension to Belle Isle or something.

I remember such a campaign for the construction of a new community museum in Kalamazoo [[Kalamazoo Valley Museum) back when I was a kid that was ultimately successful. Here's from their website: "In February 1996, the College opened a new 60,000 square foot state-of-the-art museum facility, designed by noted museum architect E. Verner Johnson, that was funded by a $19.6 million dollar private capital campaign. Over 11,000 donations, ranging from $10 to $4.5 million dollars were contributed to build and furnish the new museum."

But of course Detroit isn't big and rich like Kalamazoo, so anything like that is probably just pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking...

[professorscott]

If you had a limited, well-defined capital construction project, a public fundraising campaign could be useful. Say an extension to Belle Isle or something.

Shoot, why reinvent? Take the pages directly from the M1 playbook. Find business interests whose assets would benefit from extending M1 down Jefferson [[or further up Woodward, or both) any particular distance, and see how much investment would be forthcoming. Once M1 is up and running we are going to have very good recent data points as to exact costs, and the M1 folks have figured out how to leverage the private investment, deal with the various levels of government with regard to permits and so forth, and so on.

By the way I refer to the private M1 funding as an "investment" because it is. Mr. Penske is to some extent a philanthropist, and so are some of the others, but this isn't pure philanthropy. Good thing, too, because if this was a pure goodness-of-their-hearts donation, we couldn't replicate it. The projectors of M1 Rail invested in it because it aligns with their business interests, in addition to being good for the City and other nice things about it.

Find similar people who have money and who would benefit from increased activity along Jefferson or the next leg up Woodward, and approach them. This is how we got M1 started in the first place, and here we are, with bulldozers and orange cones all over the street.

[wolverine]

It isn't funding the construction that's the problem, it's operating they system.

[Bucket]

OP's idea is being tested in Boston.