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The streetcar will have little to no impact on Detroit. It's just replacing existing bus service. There is no real transit improvement. It's basically being pushed because there is a wealthy landowner downtown who wants a parking shuttle for suburbanites to sports arenas, bars and the like.
The suburbs probably won't want it, but that would be a long way away. The first phase goes nowhere near the suburbs.
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I agree that 90% of communities in metro Detroit and more specifically Oakland County don't support the M1 rail, but Ferndale, Royal Oak and Pontiac all supported the rail and it wasn't that Birmingham was completely against the idea of the rail possibly coming up Woodward through it. The people who live in dense part of the Woodward corridor were supportive of the idea but with the city of Detroit lacking the matching funding at the present to extend the rail up to 8 Mile the idea of an Oakland extension was put on hold. The idea would be revived if the current project succeeds with its goals of ridership and attracting development then the idea of funding an extension up to 8 Mile would be revisited.
As to what kind of benefits the city is seeing you can argue that the recent wave of investment in the Lower Woodward corridor have been just a natural part of the recent wave of reinvestment Greater Downtown has seen. But before the rail is even completed there is debate on where all the new development is coming from is it nature or nurture or a combination of the both. I'm of the opinion that improved mass transit is one piece of a large effort that is happening in Detroit to help revive te city and the M1 rail helps make the statement that the city is going to do it right this time. The area of Woodward Ave from the river to Grand Blv has a diverse mix of business, municipal-civil complexes, entertainment, educational and residential, it isn't just about sports stadiums, casinos and their parking lots.
That's why groups and corporations with stakes in the city unpresidentaly came together because they saw the potential improved mass transit including light rail in the dense center of the city could do. Now I agree that the line being so small it's just a shuttle along the lower Woodward corridor right now. But the plan is for it to be linked to the greater BRT system that is planned to be region wide and the people mover small as it is, but the point is there is a greater plan that private leaders have put their own stake into to make sure that we wont make the same mistake we did 25 years ago.