Quote:
Originally Posted by subterranean
Democracy is dirty. I don't know a lot about DEGC, but I don't necessarily like the idea of there being virtually no checks and balances. Economic development types usually give me the heebie jeebies with what they're willing to do in the name of "growth" or "attracting talent".
Although I'm really hopeful, I don't think we'll see anything close to a regional authority until south Oakland gets the funding this year to do a study, decides if it's feasible, and go from there--they'd probably have to partner with Detroit to make any application have a shot at winning federal funding. Maybe at that point they'll realize, "Hey, wha? We can't have our own?". Ha. I think they are slowly--very slowly--starting to see the big picture, and there is a changing tide. The Woodward Corridor is so incredibly valuable to the region.
Riddle me this--could Detroit form a regional rail authority with just the cities that the rail will touch? Detroit-Ferndale-Royal Oak-Birmingham-Troy regional rail authority? It sounds kind of ridiculous, but if you can't get all of Oakland Co. on board, what are the disadvantages of trying it that way? Too cost prohibitive? And perhaps if it is successful, it could prove to neighboring communities to "jump on board"? There will always be the Livonia's of the world, but why make everyone else suffer if the county is dysfunctional?
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The DEGC is only supposed to be a placeholder until a regional authority is formed. I doubt the feds would even recognize the DEGC as a "regional authority" if the city tried. I wouldn't even want the DEGC managing the system long term, because they aren't a transit agency nor would they be accountable directly to the ridership. That said,
anyone who can take this out of the hands of the city council and mayor, temporarily, is a good thing, because they've been dicking around with this for
years now, arguing over petty minutiae.
As for the last part, sure, they could work with individual communities. In fact, the Woodward suburbs raised the idea months ago about studying going in alone if they have to, though, I'm not sure where that ended up. SMART is currently just like this; cities can opt in or out of the authority. As you said, though, this would really be better by county to spread the price. I'm not sure if those small communities could come up with enough to justify building an extension given that the line is already going to start out financially squeezed.