Detroit council endorses move to regional transit

[Dexlin]

Just did a bit more research. It seems I was partially wrong about something. The Oakland County Commission actually did pass resolution [[a bipartisan one, at that), last week, calling for the implementation of of a regional transit authority. That said, I'm still under the impression that the executive's office [[i.e. L. Brooks Patterson) is ambivalent about this issue, at best, and at worst, still pretty hostile to the idea.

In fact, it seems that every major county commission that would [[or could) be involved has passed a resolution supporting this or will very soon. That includes the Detroit City Council, the Oakland County Commission, the Macomb County Commission [[the executive's office has also been pretty favorable to the idea), and the Washtenaw County Commission. The Wayne and St. Clair county commissions are expected to pass resolutions very soon, though, I'm not sure what Wayne County's executive office's [[Bob Ficano) position on this is, though, I'd imagine he'd be fully behind this.

[professorscott]

JI'm still under the impression that the executive's office [[i.e. L. Brooks Patterson) is ambivalent about this issue, at best, and at worst, still pretty hostile to the idea.

Not at all true. The last time the state legislature got pretty far toward passing an RTA bill - what was it, two or three years back - Mr. Patterson's deputy executive, Jerry Poisson, wrote a very detailed critique of the legislation. It was very well thought out and well written, and my recollection of the essence of it is "we aren't opposed to the idea of a regional transit authority, but we are opposed to many of the specific details of this particular implementation of it."

I haven't spoken with Mr. Patterson about this in a few years, and I haven't had the chance to talk about it with Mr. Poisson at all, though I'd like to. But I think Oakland County's overriding concern has been with the cost and with who would pay. Specifically, because Oakland County has more money than the others but fewer transit-dependent people, they were concerned they would be putting more money into any kind of system than their people would get from it, relative to the rest of the region. This is a legitimate concern and one I think that needs to be addressed to some extent.

[Dexlin]

Not at all true.

How is what I said not true at all? How can you be for the idea, but be critical of anything that would pay for it? The council that was held on Friday or Saturday featured one of the Oakland County representatives basically saying that he supports the idea of an rta...as long as it doesn't mean any additional taxation. That's not support. That's not being intellectually honest. The counties are going to have to pay more for transit than they do now...all of them. Period. Metro Detroit spends the lowest of any major metropolitan area in the country on mass transit. You can't say you're support this and then turn around and deride the only option for getting it done. How convenient a position to have and hide behind, because it basically means nothing gets done.

Patterson's demeanor and style may have softened over the years, but he's as ideologically rigid as he ever. Now instead of scowling at your when he tells you to 'eff of, he does it with a grandpa's smile. The result isn't any different even if the style is.