Go West Young Man

I was working the Taste Fest in the New Center Area a few weeks ago for Transportation Riders United, when a young couple asked me why they could not get a train from Ann Arbor, where they lived, to Detroit Metro Airport. "Because the dang thing does not stop at Merriman Road", I tells 'dem. They were not satisfied with this answer, so I asked Mike Whims of the a train passengers association about this and he said Amtrak will stop where enough people will get on or off, all they have to do is ask. OK. So I'm asking; will you stop the train at Merriman Road so people can catch a plane?

But of course this got me thinking about our great City of Detroit. The auto,manufacturing and financial elite left the City for Birmingham, Bloomfield and points North after World War Two and into the 50s and 60s. This powerful group of movers and shakers headed out for whatever reasons and never looked back. This left the City with a lower and middle-class with out leadership, (much like a so called Magnet School skims-off the high achieving, leadership students and leaves the other schools rudderless). Ever since, the City has looked longingly to Oakland County, (not Pontiac!), for leadership.

I was at a MOSES meeting in,yes,as always, Very Fashionable Ferndale, when the discussion turned to partnering with Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County for a transit system. Now think about this: Detroit and Wayne County must stop looking to Oakland County as their guiding light. Look West instead, Ann Arbor as the Western wheel and Detroit as the Eastern wheel. Metro Airport, Michigan Avenue, I-94, and the rail line as the axel. Not only for transit, but politically and culturally as well. This is a well matched and balanced metropolitan Region. This Metropolitan Region will be an economic, educational, and political powerhouse.

"well detroit
i don't know,
we've done so many shows in a row"

Jackson Brown