Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning July 2006 » Detroit's future is looking brighter: Transit, people are key « Previous Next »
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 1681
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 8:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit's future is looking brighter: Experts: Transit, people are key

"Downtown Detroit is on a roll.

Even with the Tigers' stumble in the World Series, the team's resurgence all but guarantees that the glow of this year's magical baseball season will brighten downtown's fortunes next year and beyond.

At the very least, the Tigers' success means more than 2 million fans will visit Comerica Park next season, after a record 2.6 million came this year. That will create a stronger customer base for everything from restaurants and parking lots to taxis and souvenir hawkers.

It also validates the view of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and other boosters that downtown -- a cold, empty symbol of urban decay for decades -- is on its way to a warmer, livelier, more entertaining future.

Lisa Rush, who works for data processing firm EDS in Auburn Hills, lives in Troy but just bought a small condo to use on weekends in the Lamar Building in the Brush Park area north of downtown.

"When I first told people I was buying a summer home in Detroit, I got totally different reactions," Rush, 51, said last week. "My suburban friends thought I was nuts. My Detroit friends said 'Awesome!' But once my suburban friends understood the reasons and saw the place, they now say 'Cool!' " ...."

Full article and sidebars at http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20061106/NEW S05/611060337
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Kgrimmwsu
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Username: Kgrimmwsu

Post Number: 93
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 11:35 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

bump.
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Danindc
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Username: Danindc

Post Number: 1897
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 4:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh gee, how long did it take the Freep to figure this one out? :-)


quote:

At the very least, the Tigers' success means more than 2 million fans will visit Comerica Park next season, after a record 2.6 million came this year. That will create a stronger customer base for everything from restaurants and parking lots to taxis and souvenir hawkers.




That's a misrepresentation if I ever saw one. You have to compare this number of fans vis-a-vis the number of fans that came to see the Tigers in previous seasons. It's not as if 2.6 million new people magically showed up this year. Even still, a meal or a beer here-and-there is no substitute for a taxpaying resident.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 3034
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 7:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow that's Preservation Wayne's Lisa Rush... she's in charge of the Downtown Movie Palace Tours, and used to be my co-guide at the State Theatre for those tours. Lisa is a sweetheart! Hmmm, now to get an invite....
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Aguide
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Username: Aguide

Post Number: 6
Registered: 01-2004
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 8:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hi Gary - please correct your post. I am not in charge of the Downtown Movie Palace tours - Mike Hauser is the wizard of those tours. (Didn't you read the schedule!! ;-) That's his official title.)

I help (along with SO many others), but Mike is really the glue that keeps that great tour running year after year.
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Gistok
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Username: Gistok

Post Number: 3035
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 11:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sorry Mike. But Lisa, you're the one that keeps us in line!! :-)
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Trainman
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Username: Trainman

Post Number: 240
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - 12:31 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The key to Detroit's future is a county sales tax to pay for mass transit. We need to pay a tax on fast food to pay the hard working bus drivers because the state gas tax is not enough.

And remember, someday industry will pay a decent wage out the kindness and Generosity of their big hearts. Yes, it's TRUe if we all just pay a little more to big government and let the trucking industry and Wal-Mart make more money, we CAN bring back Michigan and get more jobs in our beautiful state.
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Trainman
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Username: Trainman

Post Number: 254
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 11:33 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There is much evidence that mass transit is moving forward in Detroit to become similar to Paris, France. As we build larger freeways and raise more money for federal transit grants for light rail, Detroit's downtown grows while cities such as Livonia are decaying with store vacancies and many Livonia families moving further away cause they know that the new M-53 freeway is fast to allow them to live near forests and away from the giant new Wal-Marts that are replacing the old malls.

In 2064, sleek fast commuter trains will serve the rich who live in Jackson County thanks to new rail service and the wider I-75 and I-94 freeways will move both cars and truck faster allowing Oxford in northern Oakland County and the city of Lapeer to be the richest cities in Michigan and also the entire world. The failure of those who want to stop the I-75 freeway to bring back state funds for the large buses in Livonia and the rest of the region will be long forgotten as many of us will by then have moved on to meet our maker by this time.

Detroit's population will likely return to one million and will have a fantastic downtown complete with casinos, fine dining and sports and multi-million dollar new condos and homes. Detroit will be surrounded by vast slums and among the worst of them will be Farmington Hills, Livonia and Warren. The one percent county sales or higher property tax for public bus service will have long replaced the tax on fuel and will likely not be enough but to serve only a few people because we rejected competition and the free enterprise system by voting in higher transit taxes to pay for the six digit salaries of transit professionals and SEMCOG employees who sit in their cozy offices and continue to do little or nothing to lower the per passenger costs of transporting people.


Yes, Paris has a great mass transit system but today they have bus burnings because the poor want the government to do something to protect jobs so they can feed thier children. We should ask themselves, where is the industry support for mass transit? And also ask, should we really be replacing the tax on fuel with regressive tax increases without more job growth? Also ask, when will our regional leaders at SEMCOG stop making more promises and do something about inner suburban decay and the destruction of farmlands and forests instead of doing more useless studies and making great speeches?

In 2010, please vote NO for the SMART property tax renewal.

A NO vote will not shut down SMART or mean a decrease in funding to them but will only cap this tax. Local and regional transit taxes only work with strong business and government supports and this is not the case with SMART and DDOT.

The choice is yours and I welcome all to challenge me, if you can.
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Toog05
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Username: Toog05

Post Number: 63
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 11:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I ain't challenging, I have good hopes.
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Trainman
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Username: Trainman

Post Number: 255
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 - 7:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That's the problem, no one challenges then we all pay for the shutting down of public bus routes and the large tax increases and the job losses.

We will get more transit tax increases and less service until someone has the courage to speak and take action.

In 2064, Detroit will be much like Paris is in 2006.

We will have bus burnings.

But, no one cares.

Except me, but I'll be an angel by then and I'll protect the little children by looking down on them and watching them.
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Eastsidedog
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Username: Eastsidedog

Post Number: 823
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 4:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

Talking about downtown's future during the World Series, Kilpatrick vowed to make even the derelict Capitol Park district west of Woodward into a Greenwich Village-style enclave of lofts and shopping.



Wow. I want to see it. I really, really do. Please Mr. Kilpatrick. Make it happen!
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 1778
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 5:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Isn't KK a politician? Politicians say all sorts of things that people want to hear. Even if it's total BS.
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Eastsidedog
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Username: Eastsidedog

Post Number: 826
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 5:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Don't you think I know that Livernoisyard? Do you think KK would rather it stay the way it is? I don't think so.

Either way, it's good to know that Capitol Park is near the top of his agenda.

(Message edited by eastsidedog on November 20, 2006)
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Eastsidedog
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Username: Eastsidedog

Post Number: 827
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 5:12 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"A nationwide trend toward urban living"

IMO, this is the number one reason the greater downtown area is coming back. The other reasons cited in the article have helped kick start a few things but soon even their contributions will fade.
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Dougw
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Username: Dougw

Post Number: 1431
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 - 10:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

"A nationwide trend toward urban living"

IMO, this is the number one reason the greater downtown area is coming back.



Agreed.
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Danny
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Username: Danny

Post Number: 5223
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - 8:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

SORRY Trainman!

I'm voting yes on the transit tax in 2010.
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Eastsidedog
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Username: Eastsidedog

Post Number: 833
Registered: 03-2006
Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - 9:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

But it doesn't get nearly enough attention or credit Dougw.
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Trainman
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Username: Trainman

Post Number: 273
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, December 01, 2006 - 9:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Danny,

In 2010, will you be voting YES to bail-out the Detroit Department of Transportation? Or, will your YES vote actually work to improve public bus service?

In 2006, the majority of the YES votes failed to improve public bus service and will fail again and again until SMART and DDOT cooperate to share bus schedules and routes and increase the number of people who use bus service to help lower costs.

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