 
Pete
Member
Username: Pete
Post Number: 79
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:18 pm: |    |
There is no prize for the winner, but guess which well-known local pinko said this:
"Southeast Michigan is the only major metro area in the country without any light-rail system connecting its citizens, businesses, school, and hospitals. Light-rail service is a critical piece of the puzzle as we push to drive our economy back on its feet and then onto a substantial growth trajectory.
If we're ever going to become a first-class region capable of competing with other big cities for the talent that will be needed to create new companies and jobs, we've got to stop thinking an acting like a bunch of victim crybabies whose first reaction is always to point the finger at each other's cities and counties.
This is one region Drawing mythical lines on maps does not change that fact. The vast majority of people in this region would overwhelmingly support a 21st-century way of moving around our region in fast, wireless and Web-enabled state-of-the-art trains that move them, their families, their employees, and their business associates in a safe, easy, convenient, and inexpensive mode of transportation."
An no, it was not a quote from livernoisyard. Any guesses? I'll give you the answer (and source it) later. The answer is very interesting. |
Iheartthed
Member
Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 1199
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:28 pm: | |
I know one name to cross off of the list:
L Brooks Patterson |
Scs100
Member
Username: Scs100
Post Number: 1241
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:32 pm: | |
I'd say Trainman, but it's not about buses in Livonia, so that can go as well. |
Tetsua
Member
Username: Tetsua
Post Number: 1270
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:32 pm: | |
Penske? |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1190
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:35 pm: | |
I wouldn't be surprised if a card-carrying member of the Republican party said that. Somehow, they manage to get these projects built in heavily Republican cities in the Southwest... |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1230
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:46 pm: | |
It has to be someone you could imagine saying "crybabies"
Was it Lessenberry? |
Jerome81
Member
Username: Jerome81
Post Number: 1583
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 3:51 pm: | |
Karmanos? |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 3296
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 4:26 pm: | |
Me?
Seriously, I don't know which person that we wouldn't expect to say that sort of thing would say that sort of thing. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1315
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 5:08 pm: | |
Jenn Granholm |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1240
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 6:09 pm: | |
Pete, come on, we've waited all day. Spill it. |
Danindc
Member
Username: Danindc
Post Number: 2874
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 6:27 pm: | |
There's no way this is a Granholm quote. This statement was made with conviction. |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1244
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 6:30 pm: | |
It's gotta be Lessenberry. I can actually HEAR him saying those words as I read it. |
Pete
Member
Username: Pete
Post Number: 81
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 6:58 pm: | |
Sorry for the wait - just checked in here again now.
The quote is from......
Dan Gilbert
(DBusiness, May/June 2007, page 80) |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1247
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:01 pm: | |
Oh boy... Let the speculation begin! |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5821
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:10 pm: | |
No one man or woman can build a regional rapid transit system. Gilbert can say what everyone knows all that he wants, unless municipal governments agree to get on board, Gilbert is just a cheerleader like countless other business persons and community leaders around the metro. |
Yvette248
Member
Username: Yvette248
Post Number: 756
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:21 pm: | |
Just give every working person a car who doesn't have one. It would be less expensive than a rail system.
As an added bonus, think of what it would do to the automotive-based economy around here? We would put laid off workers back to work and send sales through the roof. I was just joking at first but, wow, this might actually be a good idea! |
Lmichigan
Member
Username: Lmichigan
Post Number: 5823
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:34 pm: | |
I hope you're still joking. |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 3300
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:41 pm: | |
Cool.
This harkens to that newspaper story about how he wanted commitments for new transit to downtown if he built his hq downtown.
(Message edited by mackinaw on July 20, 2007) |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 444
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 7:59 pm: | |
The top leader of SEMCOG ? |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 445
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 8:04 pm: | |
Or the top leader of Ford ?
I enjoy contests which is why I want to publicly debate our leaders on television and challenge them.
In the mass transit contest, we must all work together if we want a world class mass transit system. Thus, I'm seeking good friendly debates that don't cut down anyone and build on everyone's knowledge and abilities to get the public mass transit system the taxpayer's deserve with our limited tax dollars. |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1251
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 8:07 pm: | |
Uh, Trainman, he already gave the answer. It was Dan Gilbert.
PS you are a little obsessed. You should really get a job in mass transit somewhere in a city that has one. |
Yvette248
Member
Username: Yvette248
Post Number: 758
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 8:31 pm: | |
Aw come on LMich! You KNOW that's a novel, creative idea. You just don't wanna admit it cuz it came from a girl! |
Danindc
Member
Username: Danindc
Post Number: 2875
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 10:20 pm: | |
quote:No one man or woman can build a regional rapid transit system. Gilbert can say what everyone knows all that he wants, unless municipal governments agree to get on board, Gilbert is just a cheerleader like countless other business persons and community leaders around the metro.
True, but Gilbert and other business leaders are free to take their companies to cities that are more economically efficient, and have a higher quality of life, in order to find the talent they desire. Bright, ambitious people don't tend to live amongst seas of parking lots.
quote:Just give every working person a car who doesn't have one. It would be less expensive than a rail system.
This is completely unfounded, and an outright lie. Show us your numbers. If it were, in fact, true, then you wouldn't see every other major city in the U.S. scrambling to rebuild their rail systems. If it's cheaper to buy cars for everyone, then why is New York City spending billions to build the Second Avenue Subway, and to create a tunnel for the LIRR to service Grand Central?
Even still--where the hell are you going to put all those cars? And who pays the sky-high Detroit insurance premiums???
Of course, you're right, and Dan Gilbert is wrong. Detroit is the only city that handles transportation correctly. It's everywhere else that has it wrong. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 446
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 10:26 pm: | |
Johnlodge, I have a job in mass transit and am not obsessed. I'm the one who filled the SMART buses in Livonia and I can fill them all up very easily. But the truth is that most of us would rather pay higher taxes for mass transit then to get someone like myself to run SMART. |
Iheartthed
Member
Username: Iheartthed
Post Number: 1201
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 20, 2007 - 11:23 pm: | |
"Even still--where the hell are you going to put all those cars? And who pays the sky-high Detroit insurance premiums??? "
And how much will it cost to replace them every 5 years? |
Cabasse
Member
Username: Cabasse
Post Number: 49
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 12:12 am: | |
danindc,
it's time to rally together for the creation of a parking city, in addition to giving all those cars away. we need to build skyscraper garages! one suv per person! gas will never get more expensive, it will actually get cheaper!
even though you're a girl, yvette, i'd still consider actually slapping some sense into you. (not that i'd expect it to actually work) |
Kid_dynamite
Member
Username: Kid_dynamite
Post Number: 159
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 12:33 am: | |
Danindc... It pains to me to admit I agree with you on almost all of your points and observations regarding mass transit. Keep speaking my mind. |
Eric
Member
Username: Eric
Post Number: 901
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 1:04 am: | |
We need far more statements like this, it's going to take a collective effort from people like Gilbert to move this issue forward. We need someone from the business community who can cross political boundaries to be the public face for the issue, people like Gilbert, Penske and Karmanos are more highly regarded regionally than any political leader. It's easy for Brooks Patterson portray light rail as the unneeded, folly of Detroiters with many in the 'burbs already reluctant to work with Detroit . It wouldn't be easy to do that if some as respected as Roger Penske, you'd break down those anti-regionalism attitudes and get more supporters outside the city. You'd gain more GOP support at all levels of government if they saw this as something the business community wanted. The groups pushing this issue need to get one of them to get to be the front man and all of them involved in some visible way |
Johnlodge
Member
Username: Johnlodge
Post Number: 1252
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 8:28 am: | |
"Johnlodge, I have a job in mass transit and am not obsessed. I'm the one who filled the SMART buses in Livonia and I can fill them all up very easily. But the truth is that most of us would rather pay higher taxes for mass transit then to get someone like myself to run SMART."
Oh good Trainman. I am glad to hear you are working in the field, as you definitely seem dedicated to it.  |
Yvette248
Member
Username: Yvette248
Post Number: 765
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 10:20 am: | |
Dan, you need a beer, some drugs or a woman!
It's obvious to anyone with a brain that my "brilliant idea" was very tongue in cheek. How many people do you know with a job that doesn't have a car. Not too many, right? |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 447
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 10:58 am: | |
Detroit needs good jobs and not more transit proposals that don't work and higher taxes.
The regressive and illegal DARTA agreement was a "sin of omission" and is exactly why Livonia lost the SMART buses.
The november 27, 2006 SMART bus service reductions are open discrimination against the low income and minorities.
See the website under DETROIT LINKS for complete information |
Focusonthed
Member
Username: Focusonthed
Post Number: 1166
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 2:03 pm: | |
quote:It's obvious to anyone with a brain that my "brilliant idea" was very tongue in cheek. How many people do you know with a job that doesn't have a car. Not too many, right?
I don't think you want to go down this road, Yvette. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6244
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 4:27 pm: | |
You and your fight to bring the SMART busses back to Nazi-Livonia, Trainman. Those folks in racist city will not bring back the SMART busses. So they are doomed as a shrinking bedroom suburb of 95,000. |
Danindc
Member
Username: Danindc
Post Number: 2878
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 21, 2007 - 6:28 pm: | |
quote:it's time to rally together for the creation of a parking city, in addition to giving all those cars away. we need to build skyscraper garages! one suv per person!
Unfortunately, Detroit has already started down this path. The only other place I've been that has parking garages as large as those in Detroit is Chicago. The difference is that Chicago will have 30 or 40 stories of residences above those garages.
quote:It pains to me to admit I agree with you on almost all of your points and observations regarding mass transit. Keep speaking my mind.
Why is it so painful? I hope it's not personal! LOL
quote:Dan, you need a beer, some drugs or a woman!
All of the above.
quote:It's obvious to anyone with a brain that my "brilliant idea" was very tongue in cheek. How many people do you know with a job that doesn't have a car. Not too many, right?
Actually, it wasn't obvious. Hence my response. The post you made above is virtually identical to quotes from anti-transit ideologues like Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole.
I actually know quite a few intelligent, well-paid, college-educated professionals who don't own a car, including Yours Truly. |