Quote Originally Posted by hudkina View Post
The bus system doesn't pay for itself and is a huge drain on the city's general funds. SMART and DDOT need to be merged under a regional authority. There's absolutely no reason why the two systems need to be separate.


First, it’s not a drain, it’s an operating expense. Less than 40% of the citizens in the "Motor City" own cars so I do believe the bus system is the main artery of the city's economy. A SMART and DDOT merger would only drain resources from one to prop up the other depending on who’s in worse shape. That’s a reason, here's another: Suburbanites bitch profusely when any of their tax dollars are spent on the city. Imagine what the bus map would look like after you merged the systems and local communities started having votes on their bus millages. You would have a lot more fucking Livonias, Lathrup Villages, and Cranbrooks dropping off the map. Merging them looks good number wise on paper, but you have to consider racism, classism and isolationism in order to make things work around here.

For Bing to threaten cutting bus service right before an election is political suicide. Besides if Kriminal Kwame couldn’t do it then there’s very little chance that Bing’s Secret Covenant can either.