Ziggy how dare you distort lies with facts!

Some folks think that if we have streetcars we could return to the Detroit of 60 years ago. Most cities these days DO NOT have streetcars and many are extremely successful. Every city that still has street cars are not like they were 60 years ago either. The folks that think we can return to Detroit of 60 years ago are not bus dependant and probably never rode one. If they did, they would know that a the bus and the street car are pretty much the same type of conveyance.

Street cars themselves will not do jack to reduce strip malls. To reduce strip malls you need to increase the value of the land, making each parking spot added to greatly increase the cost of the development. This can be done first through proper management of land by both the market forces and the local government.

A couple of months ago I visted my sister who moved to a part of Orange County California which looked a lot like Canton, but more hilly. I thought I was going to hate it there. Yhey have super wide streets with landscaped medians and strip malls everywhere. However, the streets are wide because they have sidewalks, bike-lanes and bus turn outs. The Strip malls were well landscaped [[making even our better commecial areas like Ann Arbor, Troy and Bloomfield Hills look shabby). All the buildings in the strip malls were pulled forward to service the pedestrians and those using the bus, but they still had parking available. Pathways connected the strip malls to the neighborhoods and offices nearby. I was expecting to hate it, but I ended up loving it.

The point I am trying to make here is that we have learned to settle for the lowest common denomenator. This is why our transit system is lacking, our strip malls are poorly designed and landscaped and only function for cars; and we are a dying City.

We should strive to make every development like Campus Martius, the Riverwalk, preserving places like Eastern Market. Until then, we are just pissing in our own well.

What can you do? Instead of bitching about planners attend commission meetings and make your voices heard. Planners in most places are only as good as the public that support them. Planners work for elected officials, planners execute, they do not make decisions. They can suggest things however these are often over ruled because they cost too much, or that it would be a hardship on a business.