State offers to help fix lights, demolish buildings... [[Detroit)
Read this whole thing. Some pretty interesting and helpful ideas that will get you thinking "why didn't they do this earlier?"

Quote:
State offers to help fix lights, demolish buildings -- but more money isn't guaranteed

By M.L. Elrick, Chastity Pratt Dawsey and John Gallagher | Detroit Free Press

March 30, 2012

One portion of the financial stability agreement highlights the state's ongoing efforts to help the city, as well as a few initiatives that appear to be new.

But it contains few, if any, promises of additional funds for Detroit.

Many of the activities cited stress the state's efforts to work with the city and other entities to improve city services, schools, transportation, economic development and collection of taxes.

For example, the state says it will help improve street lighting by helping the city create an authority that can get its own bonds. Separating the authority from the city's general-fund budget will "make financing more attractive to bondholders and thus lower the overall cost of the upgrades," the state said.

The state also said it would help the city streamline and accelerate the process for demolishing abandoned buildings, as well as evaluate the redevelopment potential for state-owned land in the city.

Touching on an issue that has long vexed Detroiters, the state said it would reduce auto insurance rates through the Michigan Automobile Insurance Placement Facility, "creating a base rate that reflects a more neutral score, resulting in noticeable rate reductions."

In addition to its efforts to help reform Detroit Public Schools and improve failing schools, the state said it will move Department of Human Services specialists out of county offices and into 50 Detroit elementary schools.

"This will help eligible families access resources immediately, before barriers such as transportation, child care, housing instability, food insecurity and access to health care impede a child's learning process," the state document said.

Transportation initiatives that the state touted include building a new international bridge, expanding a city freight terminal, creating a regional transit authority and creating a commuter-rail station on the old state fairgrounds. The state also said it would start construction this summer on a rail project that will relieve congestion for freight trains and shorten travel times for passenger trains while helping "lay the groundwork for future commuter-rail service between Ann Arbor and Detroit."

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Some of these plans would have near instant quality of life improvements such as the lowering of auto rates in the city.

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