  Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4213 Registered: 10-2003 |
The biking threads and businesses got me thinking and after becoming a fudgie this past weekend for the first time in about 15 years, more thoughts were triggered. Every year, around the first of June, the mucka-dee-muck powers-that-be of Michigan gather at the Detroit Area Chamber of Commerce's Mackinac Summit to wring their hands over the state's present and future woes -- a giant bi-partisan huddle of everybody who is anybody gathering in search of answers brought on by the demise of the automobile pot of gold. While pedaling around, I got to pondering. What part of this don't they get? Right under their nose is a thriving, indeed booming, economy without a car in sight.   In fact it is prospering in part because there are no cars. Almost all of them must have taken mass transit, the ferries, to get there then moved about by foot, bike or horse taxi to their accommodations and parties. And they have a blast. So what are they [we] missing? Sure Mackinaw City parking lots are jammed with their cars and, sure, Mackinac Island is a visitation point, but somewhere, somehow there must be some nuggets of truth laying there in plain sight before their eyes. What happens when the automobile is made secondary, or even unnecessary, and surrenders its almighty right of way? | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1435 Registered: 04-2006 |
What??? Don't you listen to what they talk about? Every year they agree... "its we have to get our act together about transit!"  I have always questioned why the Regional Chamber held this out of the region. It seemed silly when there are so many good venues to hold it at around here, and most folks would be able to stay at home and save $400 a night. | ||
Johnnny5 Member Username: Johnnny5 Post Number: 614 Registered: 06-2005 |
Actually Mackinaw Island is suffering the same slowdown that we're seeing in South East Michigan. | ||
Rocket_city Member Username: Rocket_city Post Number: 428 Registered: 04-2006 |
You know what would be interesting is if the conference was held in a structure somewhere along Woodward...say in Highland Park overlooking the most desolate, traffic-ridden, and broken section of the thoroughfare. Or better yet, have it in the same type of environment in a suburb to show no bias regarding transit. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2062 Registered: 01-2005 |
Only when you tear the steering wheel of my SUV from my clammy, dead hands........... | ||
Oldoak Member Username: Oldoak Post Number: 39 Registered: 09-2007 |
The topics, problems and resolutions have all been decided well before a conference. The conference part is where they all get to socialize and show off the results of the work. The idea is that getting into a more casual setting allows for new ideas; however, the content is scheduled around existing ideas. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 192 Registered: 03-2005 |
I vote for putting the mucka-dee-mucks up in the hotels in Highland Park. Then take all their cars away so they can use the bus system. How's that going to work for them? | ||
Rocket_city Member Username: Rocket_city Post Number: 430 Registered: 04-2006 |
Well, L. Brooks has his own private Dial-A-Ride for those tipsy events. I'm sure he'll have one reserved for his stay at the Townsend after putting in his two cents (literally) at the conference. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1352 Registered: 02-2006 |
quote: Yes, based entirely on good-weather tourism. Your point is taken, but the comparison is invalid. | ||
Dhugger Member Username: Dhugger Post Number: 195 Registered: 03-2005 |
FOCUS: New York has it, Boston has it...and they are not known for fabulous weather every month of the year. I know the 'mass transit' issue has been beat to death on other threads. So I will let it rest now. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 284 Registered: 07-2007 |
if people had to pay for mass transit "At Cost" there would not be many riders. It would be too expensive. | ||
Ben Member Username: Ben Post Number: 6 Registered: 09-2007 |
I like to think that one of the useful parts of being a member of society, is the society helping people in need. A society can agree that, in addition to human rights or other ethereal things, some material conditions, like food, water, shelter, and yes, transportation, should be a shared expense, since everybody needs at least a basic level of these things. Mass transit falls into this category of an-expense-to-be-shared-by-all in some societies because a society may recognize that it's in their best interest to allow people to move around more economically. It seems like a shoe-in in SE MI, but the free-market Ayn Rand style thinking of pulling-ones'-self-by-the-boot straps is an easy cop-out of coming up with viable solutions to our problems. | ||
Andylinn Member Username: Andylinn Post Number: 585 Registered: 04-2006 |
lefty2, don't forget that the roads you drive on are paid for with taxes... as are the police used for rushing to auto accidents... all transport is subsidized... it's just that mass transit is progressive and auto transit is regressive... not everyone can own a car, but even a bum can occasionally pony up 50 cents or a dollar or two to go somewhere... | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 2908 Registered: 06-2004 |
Shoot, the friggin' ferries are up to what, $21 a trip now? | ||
Fishtoes2000 Member Username: Fishtoes2000 Post Number: 317 Registered: 06-2005 |
Lowell's post reminded me of a presentation I saw long time ago that asked, "Why do we build one type of a community (showed a photo of sprawl) yet prefer vacationing in another (showed a European marketplace)?" And similarly, I saw a Riverwalk presentation that said something like, "Imagine the place that gets you where you want to go is also a place you want to be." | ||
1953 Member Username: 1953 Post Number: 1465 Registered: 12-2004 |
Mackinac Island is a space-limited and non-industrialized community, where as southeast Michigan is an ever expanding, intensely developed community. What, again, are the similarities that would lead to a comparison - besides both being in Michigan? | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 796 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ben, good way of explaining that. | ||
Expatriot Member Username: Expatriot Post Number: 14 Registered: 09-2007 |
There is a strong innate desire to experience a lifestyle like this. People flock to places like Mackinac, Disneyland's Main Street, New Orleans, "old towns "across the county, and even Greektown to experience urban street life. Yet somehow they refuse to make the connection that it would be possible to routinely live more like this if the private automobile were not put at the center of their universe. There is an axiom that seems quite true to me that the desirability of a city is in direct inverse proportion to it's accommodation of cars. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4224 Registered: 10-2003 |
^" There is an axiom that seems quite true to me that the desirability of a city is in direct inverse proportion to it's accommodation of cars." Great point Expat. When I think of some examples of this, the Stoget in Copenhagen, Koenigstrasse in Stuttgart [and auto city!], almost all of Amsterdam and Venice, and the old colonial center of Guadalajara, one sees the most booming and vibrant sections of those cities. I think Detroit could do something similar by starting with the creation of an uninterrupted pedestrian walkway from Fox Town to Renaissance Center. With a couple of bridges or tunnels it could be possible and would be a huge hit. ONce these get established they tend to branch out from there. | ||
Jsmyers Member Username: Jsmyers Post Number: 1931 Registered: 12-2003 |
quote: Though I agree with the premise of your original post Lowell, I think this is a horrible idea. Why don't we give space on the streets back to pedestrians (as many recent street improvements and campus martius have done)? Creating a separate, new city for pedestrians is like the separate but equal theory. Separate is not equal. Check out these 2 NYC based groups: http://www.transalt.org/ http://www.streetsblog.org/ And this national one: http://www.pps.org/ | ||
Ben Member Username: Ben Post Number: 10 Registered: 09-2007 |
Jsmyers, aside from Campus Martius, what recent street improvements have given space back to peds? |
