http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...y-amid-dispute

The saga continues! Bad government policy- be it in the city or the suburbs- should always remain on our radar screens to remind us of the kinds of things we should avoid. The proponents of this project are continuing to make several non-sensical arguments. Among them:
1- One of the main reasons to build it was that federal funding was available. I think that is one of the stupidest and most jack-assed reasons to support something. If the transit center wouldn't have been on the horizon without federal money [[and with the number of potential users, it wasn't), it should not have been built just because someone else was willing to pay the tab. Would we take money to build Hoover Dam in metro Detroit if the feds would fund it?
2- More money should be spent to prevent the already spent money from going to waste. Similarly, Wayne County should pay to finish the jail, because if we don't spend $200M more then we wasted the first $200M. This point fails to realize lost money is lost and cannot be recovered with further spending.
3- Going to court to condemn and claim the property will just be a formality that we regret having to go through. In reality, the city might in fact lose the lawsuit since eminent domain lawsuits normally include a demonstration of the public necessity of the project. In the case of transit projects, that would include an expansion or improvement of the transit operations; the Troy transit center does not add any service or capacity. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the project actually is worse for pedestrians than the old station.

Grand/Sakwa, among other things, is holding out for detailed plans about future operations and finances. How the project ever broke ground without such a plan being already established is a demonstration of an absurd level of hubris and irresponsibility. I am concerned that no one in Troy government really seems to be acknowledging what has gone wrong here. Adding together the cost of the station's construction with the current property cost estimate, the project's cost [[not including operating costs) will amount to about $40 per paying rail customer, spread out over 10 years. We could have just hired them all a cab to downtown and saved money, with no messy transit project. Spend the money now, politicians! Worry about the details later, if at all. If your intentions are noble the realities are completely unimportant!

At this point the city will probably eventually gain control of the land, but boy it will be expensive, further undermining any logic the project may have once had. As someone who supports transit in the real world and not responsibility-free fantasy land, I know that transit funds are and will remain finite. Terribly planned and executed white elephant projects set back our region's efforts to build mass transit. When it eventually does open [[assuming it does), the Troy Transit Center will have spent in excess of $8M to serve a small pool of users without expanding capacity, usage, or better integrating our region's various systems. That is a victory for no one. We need no further projects like this in Metro Detroit.