The Future of Coleman Young Airport

**K-slice** · August-21-22, 09:53 AM

Gotta get some of those federal dollars like Oakland County does. Lots you could do with this airport but it all starts with competent, committed leadership and a plan for the future.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...t/10285918002/

**bragaboutme** · August-21-22, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by K-slice

Gotta get some of those federal dollars like Oakland County does. Lots you could do with this airport but it all starts with competent, committed leadership and a plan for the future.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/loc...t/10285918002/

Lol, this is why our area is soo behind. Oakland county should be embarrassed. This article is for them to justify to keep getting the federal funding over the City Airport. They even have a family fun day for a place where families will never fly out of. Everyone with half a brain can see through this. Oakland County should be giving that 175 they gross to Pontiac, but nope! They give it to Waterford?

**K-slice** · August-22-22, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by bragaboutme

Lol, this is why our area is soo behind. Oakland county should be embarrassed. This article is for them to justify to keep getting the federal funding over the City Airport. They even have a family fun day for a place where families will never fly out of. Everyone with half a brain can see through this. Oakland County should be giving that 175 they gross to Pontiac, but nope! They give it to Waterford?

$175 million isn't profit, it's economic impact. In other words without the airport the GDP for Oakland county would be $175 million less than it is. There is no money to "give" to anyone...

And what exactly should they be embarrassed about? Proper management? Effective leadership? General success?

This isn't an us-vs-them issue. There is plenty of federal money to go around, but the city doesn't seem interested in chasing it down Like OC does. Detroit has no one to blame but themselves for the disparity.

Agree with Meddle too, if they do ever want to do something with it, the first step should be renaming it... Detroit City Airport, simple.

**KnnNike** · August-25-22, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by K-slice

Detroit has no one to blame but themselves for the disparity.

Mmm...I'll still happily put a ton of blame on OC for this. The airport at Waterford is the culmination of 50 years of Brooks Patterson-style fear mongering. In the minds of most economic development officials in Oakland county, Detroit is dead...they want to position themselves as the economic center for the region, rather than trying to carve out a niche for themselves in a region anchored by Detroit.

I am certain that some version of the "don't fly to City Airport, it's in the middle of a terrible ghetto city and you'll probably be robbed or shot" conversation happened many, many times over the years as the OC airport tried to recruit new business.

**softailrider** · August-26-22, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by KnnNike

Mmm...I'll still happily put a ton of blame on OC for this. The airport at Waterford is the culmination of 50 years of Brooks Patterson-style fear mongering. In the minds of most economic development officials in Oakland county, Detroit is dead...they want to position themselves as the economic center for the region, rather than trying to carve out a niche for themselves in a region anchored by Detroit.

I am certain that some version of the "don't fly to City Airport, it's in the middle of a terrible ghetto city and you'll probably be robbed or shot" conversation happened many, many times over the years as the OC airport tried to recruit new business.

You can happily put a ton of blame on Oakland County for the demise of City Airport but please do not absolve the City of Detroit for allowing it to sink to the level it is at now. That airport has been in terrible condition for 20 years maybe longer. I would say whatever government entity disallowed the lengthening or adding a longer runway is way more to blame then Oakland County is.

Do you think Oakland County would allow that abandoned two-story motel on Conner and Gratiot to just sit there for the last 10 years? It's an important corner. For openers, how about getting rid of that? It's just not a good look.

**K-slice** · September-03-22, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by KnnNike

Mmm...I'll still happily put a ton of blame on OC for this. The airport at Waterford is the culmination of 50 years of Brooks Patterson-style fear mongering. In the minds of most economic development officials in Oakland county, Detroit is dead...they want to position themselves as the economic center for the region, rather than trying to carve out a niche for themselves in a region anchored by Detroit.

I am certain that some version of the "don't fly to City Airport, it's in the middle of a terrible ghetto city and you'll probably be robbed or shot" conversation happened many, many times over the years as the OC airport tried to recruit new business.

The existence of a competitive alternative wasn't the death knell for city airport though. The two are far enough away from each other that both could have survived.

To an executive privately flying in to visit GM or another downtown entity back in 2000, it would be much more convenient to fly into city airport than any other.