Produced by Jerry Paffendorf
What did your city do last week?
Chicago killed it. A snapshot of recent city building action:
Saturday - Announced "the largest public housing redevelopment effort in the history of the United States."
Monday - Directed $11 million to support the growth of women- and minority-owned business.
Tuesday - Announced five new schools focused exclusively on tech skills and career readiness.
Wednesday - Unveiled forward looking Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs. Also announced agreement to retire two coal-fired power plants.
Thursday - Joined with President Clinton and announced the Chicago Infrastructure Trust to invest more than $200 million in energy efficiency, generate 2,000 jobs and save taxpayers some $20 million annually.
Friday - Announced $25,000 signing bonuses to recruit top performing principals to under-performing schools. Also annnounced the City website is available in 64 languages.
The perfect place for patents
Eric Markowitz reports the United States Patent and Trademark Office is opening it's first-ever satellite office. His lead source explains why Detroit emerged as the preferred location:
"The USPTO considered many factors before making its final decision to locate its first new satellite office in Detroit. The city fulfilled a number of critical criteria, including a high percentage of scientists and engineers in the workforce; access to major research institutions; a high volume of patenting activity; and a significant number of patent agents and attorneys in the area."
Idea tweet of the day
You know what I want to see @MichiganLandUse & @pattycantrell? Vending machines around #TCMI that sell local food.
— MyWHaT/G. Howe (@glhjr) March 2, 2012
Realistically, when will Detroit build BRT?
When one observes all the energy pouring into the movement to establish modern transit for metro Detroit, it is natural to ask: when will the new system be up and running?
The answer from local leadership frequently signals that, on matters of public transportation, metro Motor City is at once highly ambitious and overwhelmingly unrealistic. Gotta wonder if those tendencies help sabotage success.
In the spring of 2008 I stood in the parking lot of the Revival Tabernacle Church on Woodward Avenue chatting with a well-known local transit consultant. We were leaving an open house for the Detroit Options for Growth Study. The initiative, he confidently stated, would have several miles of light rail built and operating on Woodward in early 2010 - just two short years.
That seemed a high aspiration. Salt Lake City hustled to establish its first light rail line in the wake of winning the bid to host the 2002 Olympics. The project - backed by a decade of discussion and planning - still required nearly four years to complete.
So, back in Detroit, it came as no surprise that Mayor Bing wasn't cutting the ribbon on a new Woodward rail line in early 2010. Instead, he confidently pronounced "light rail will soon be available" in his State of the City.
That seemed a high aspiration. Salt Lake City hustled to establish its first light rail line in the wake of winning the bid to host the 2002 Olympics. The project - backed by a decade of discussion and planning - still required nearly four years to complete.
So, back in Detroit, it came as no surprise that Mayor Bing wasn't cutting the ribbon on a new Woodward rail line in early 2010. Instead, he confidently pronounced "light rail will soon be available" in his State of the City.
Two years later discussion has turned from light rail to streetcar. Leaders of the now-called M1 Rail group have yet to present the plan to fund, build and operate the urban circulator. Yet the CEO of the group says they expect to break ground by the end of 2012.
That's certainly a stretch goal, especially if the project depends on federal funding. Cincinnati for example first approved a transportation plan calling for downtown streetcar in 2004. But it would take nearly 8 years for the city to break ground on the project.
That's certainly a stretch goal, especially if the project depends on federal funding. Cincinnati for example first approved a transportation plan calling for downtown streetcar in 2004. But it would take nearly 8 years for the city to break ground on the project.
The latest big idea for modern transit in metro Detroit is 110 miles of 'rolling rapid transit' that would connect Detroit, its expansive suburbs and Ann Arbor ... all for less than $500 million. The expectation - if press reports are accurate - is the system can be built within three years.
Such an accelerated schedule will be difficult to achieve. The City of Cleveland chose BRT for the Euclid corridor in 1995, began project design in 1997, secured federal approval in 2002, started construction in 2005 and cut the ribbon in 2008. In other words, more than 13 years (many more if you count the early years of dialogue and study) to build a BRT line of approximately 7 miles (a fraction of what Detroit envisions). This for a transit authority with a proven record of accomplishment, including the construction of several light rail lines.
Which brings us to step one for Detroit: establish a proper regional transit authority. Michigan's Senate Transportation Subcommittee today holds a public hearing on proposed legislation to do so. Still it's uncertain whether the collective will exists to act.
But let's assume they do, and the region finally establishes a modern governance structure to study, plan, design, fund, build and operate a successful public transportation system. And let's assume leadership unites behind the idea of the proposed 'rolling rapid transit.' Let's even assume, hopefully, that voters in the region agree to fund it. When realistically will the system - or at least its first critical piece - be ready to ride?
My prediction: within six years. By the end of 2018 is perhaps an ambitious yet attainable goal. Difficult to see how it could happen sooner.
Political will to modernize Cleveland schools?
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's plan to reinvent public education "has the potential to become a model for changing education in urban America," according to Brent Larkin's Plain Dealer column yesterday. But it will challenge defenders of the status quo at the state capitol:
Problems loom in Columbus. Democrats fear the political clout of teachers unions. And for some Republicans, anything that demands positive results from their deep-pocketed contributors in the charter school crowd makes them skittish. If Democrats or Republicans attempt to significantly dilute Jackson's proposed changes, the plan won't work.Jackson's plan (PDF)
A Michigan Moment?
Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution says it could be. He joined the Business Leaders for Michigan in proposing an Urban and Metropolitan Strategy to focus and accelerate reconstruction of the Great Lakes State.
"Michigan is poised to lead [America's] shift back to an innovative and productive," Katz said. "This could be a Michigan moment if you seize it."
"Michigan is poised to lead [America's] shift back to an innovative and productive," Katz said. "This could be a Michigan moment if you seize it."
Three for the money
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today recommended federal capital funding for 29 major American transit projects. Three are in the Great Lakes region:
- $625 million for Southwest Corridor light rail (PDF of project overview) in Minneapolis
- $478 million for Central Corridor light rail (PDF) in the Twin Cities
- $28.2 million for Bus Rapid Transit (PDF) in Grand Rapids, MI
Mitt Romney is in Michigan...
... and apparently driving himself around the D. He also penned a folksy op-ed for the Detroit News pledging "the dream of the Motor City" can finally be realized "with a Detroiter in the White House." New polling suggests Michiganders remain skeptical.
Detroit transit and presidential politics
Jeff Wattrick observes an interesting political thread that may (or may not) be running through Detroit transit talks:
(Michigan's) Republican (Governor Rick) Snyder and President Obama’s Department of Transportation are seen as BRT champions while local businessmen, including Mitt Romney’s Michigan finance chair Dan Gilbert, and several high-profile local Democrats like Carl Levin and John Conyers want M1’s (rail) plan incorporated into the larger transit strategy.
Whether that interesting political dynamic proves to be relevant or just curious remains to be seen. Metro Detroit’s transit discussion has long seemed less about differing political ideologies and more about a conflict of purpose.
A message from Dirty Harry
In last night's Super Bowl spot featuring Clint Eastwood, Chrysler continued to lead the pack in the race to frame the master narrative for the revitalization of the auto industry, Michigan and ultimately America. The car maker got in the driver's seat last year in a similarly compelling spot with Eminem.
After the Factory
Philip Lauri's new documentary premiers this Thursday at the Detroit Film Theatre. Here's the trailer...
After the Factory Film Trailer from DETROIT LIVES! on Vimeo.
After the Factory Film Trailer from DETROIT LIVES! on Vimeo.
The vision for the new Michigan
The Business Leaders for Michigan earlier this week introduced their 2012 Turnaround Plan. Get past the excessively dramatic musical score in this video overview and it sounds to me like their message drops the needle on the record.
How younger people in Toronto see transit
Good commentary from next gen Toronto thought leadership on the state and future of the city's transit-building movement. Derek Flack at BlogTO offers a little more reflection.
Hat tip to My City Lives for producing the vid.
Hat tip to My City Lives for producing the vid.
Framing Michigan's energy debate
A coalition of advocates for energy innovation in Michigan is pushing a proposal to raise the state's renewable energy goal from 10 to 25 percent by 2025, the Detroit Free Press reports. The article also reveals an interesting choice of messenger to lead the charge:
"This initiative will ultimately save lives by giving Michigan cleaner and healthier air and water, reducing asthma and lung disease, and protecting our Great Lakes," said Joyce Stein, a board member of the Michigan Nurses Association.
Toronto: Balanced and Bolder
Councillor Peter Milczyn issued a research paper (PDF) to inform bolder and more creative planning for the future of the City of Toronto. The Concillor believes his city lags behind such global cities as London, New York, Singapore, San Francisco and Melbourne. A sample of the recommendations intended to help Toronto keep pace:
- Transform active thoroughfares to car-free pedestrian boulevards, shared zones and transit malls.
- Offer land use and housing credits to developers proposing multi-use developments in transit-supportive areas to encourage a balance between employment and residential growth.
- Re-develop "dead" urban space, including alleys, passageways, parking lots, utility corridors, and other underutilized interstitial spaces as active and functional components of the urban fabric.
- Encourage the construction of iconic and identifiable buildings as gateway elements throughout the City.
- Redefine the "base building" and "middle (shaft)" elements of Tall Buildings as a "streetwall zone" and "pedestrian zone", respectively, to reinforce the defining role of the street.
- Establish maximum parking standards within a 500m radius of mass transit stations for retail, office, institutional, industrial, and public facilities.
- Establish a system of Transit Revitalization Investment Districts to encourage density increases, redesigns, and infrastructural improvements in the areas surrounding mass transit stations
- Develop a View Management Framework to support the preservation of significant views and vistas within the urban landscape.
- Develop a detailed food policy for the City to encourage the growth of an accessible, resilient and sustainable City food system.
New plan for downtown Minneapolis
The Minneapolis Downtown Council has a new 13-year, estimated $2 billion plan of action to build a "flourishing 21st century city."
- Double downtown population
- Transform Nicollet Mall into a must-see destination
- Build Gateway Park
- Create a consistently compelling downtown experience
- Establish a downtown sports district that includes a new Vikings stadium
- Lead the nation in transportation options
- Create and sustain green infrastructure
- Forge connections to the University of Minnesota
- End street homelessness
- Launch a festival of ideas
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