Experpts from WDET’s Mackinac conference interview with Brooks Patterson and Bob Ficano, May 29, 2008
Listen to full interview at http://www.wdetfm.org/detroittoday/entry.php?entry=395.
Interviewer Question – “Let’s talk about regional cooperation to make this stuff happen. Listening to young people yesterday about what it will take to keep and retain young people – the answer was always transit, transit, transit. People want to have that option. For that to happen, the counties are going to need to work together. . . . Is transit something that is feasible for the region, perhaps from downtown Detroit to Pontiac?”
Patterson – “We had that. We had exactly that. Grand Trunk, from Pontiac to downtown Detroit when Detroit had a critical mass of about 1.3 million people. It was abandoned in the 80’s for lack of ridership, so we can rebuild it . . . I just don’t know. If you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.
“That said, there’s a private sector development coming out of Detroit to the New Center area, I’m all for it. If the private sector wants to build it, let’s see what happens. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe there’s a whole new generation that’s dying to get on that fixed route and go from one area to the other. Personally I favor a more flexible system, a seamless, efficient, cost-effective bus system that gets us from point a to point b.”
Interviewer: “You mentioned the private sector financing. Is this something you don’t think your county could afford?”
Patterson: “We want to talk about Cobo, okay we’re gonna fund that. You want to talk about light rail, okay we’re going to fund that. Whatever the public wants to set as their priority, I can live with. SEMCOG said over the next 25-30 years, we’re going to have a $100 billion price tag on roads, air, water, sewers. That’s obviously before us. Now we want to add another item, I don’t care. Just tell me what the priorities are. That’s really a public decision.”
Ficano: “It’s natural for one generation to look at the issues from one perspective, through our prism. What we don’t do is actually get the input from the people we want to live here. For example, up at Michigan State, it used to be 75% of students that were from Michigan and graduated, 75% of them stayed in the state. We’re now down to 50%. Unless we go to them and say, what will keep you here?
“We know that jobs are important. And that’s always part of it. But it also becomes lifestyle. Those of us of a certain age look and say this is what attracted me, this is what I wanted to do. It happens to be, from a young person’s perspective, from UM charette we did . . . if you had to design systems for an urban area, every single one of those young people said public transit. They’re telling us, we like Chicago because of the public transit, we like NY because of the public transportation. We have to get into their minds, because they’re the ones making the choice of whether to leave or not.
“Brooks and I are of a different generation. . . . We have to get to the young people and say what we keep you here and what’s necessary.”
Patterson: “It’s a false syllogism. . . . Just because Chicago is a thriving town and Chicago has mass transit, doesn’t mean that you need mass transit to have a thriving city. . . . You can have bullet trains all over southeast Michigan, but if you don’t have a jobs for those kids. Their sons left Michigan, went to NY, out west. Why? To get a job. Jobs become number one. Then t other good things, the quality of life things will follow.”
Interviewer: “It’s a chicken and the egg questions. If you build it, you attract the young people, the jobs will follow, because the talent is here.”
Patterson: (Snarky comment about the People Mover)
. . .
Listen to full interview at http://www.wdetfm.org/detroittoday/entry.php?entry=395.
Interviewer Question – “Let’s talk about regional cooperation to make this stuff happen. Listening to young people yesterday about what it will take to keep and retain young people – the answer was always transit, transit, transit. People want to have that option. For that to happen, the counties are going to need to work together. . . . Is transit something that is feasible for the region, perhaps from downtown Detroit to Pontiac?”
Patterson – “We had that. We had exactly that. Grand Trunk, from Pontiac to downtown Detroit when Detroit had a critical mass of about 1.3 million people. It was abandoned in the 80’s for lack of ridership, so we can rebuild it . . . I just don’t know. If you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it.
“That said, there’s a private sector development coming out of Detroit to the New Center area, I’m all for it. If the private sector wants to build it, let’s see what happens. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe there’s a whole new generation that’s dying to get on that fixed route and go from one area to the other. Personally I favor a more flexible system, a seamless, efficient, cost-effective bus system that gets us from point a to point b.”
Interviewer: “You mentioned the private sector financing. Is this something you don’t think your county could afford?”
Patterson: “We want to talk about Cobo, okay we’re gonna fund that. You want to talk about light rail, okay we’re going to fund that. Whatever the public wants to set as their priority, I can live with. SEMCOG said over the next 25-30 years, we’re going to have a $100 billion price tag on roads, air, water, sewers. That’s obviously before us. Now we want to add another item, I don’t care. Just tell me what the priorities are. That’s really a public decision.”
Ficano: “It’s natural for one generation to look at the issues from one perspective, through our prism. What we don’t do is actually get the input from the people we want to live here. For example, up at Michigan State, it used to be 75% of students that were from Michigan and graduated, 75% of them stayed in the state. We’re now down to 50%. Unless we go to them and say, what will keep you here?
“We know that jobs are important. And that’s always part of it. But it also becomes lifestyle. Those of us of a certain age look and say this is what attracted me, this is what I wanted to do. It happens to be, from a young person’s perspective, from UM charette we did . . . if you had to design systems for an urban area, every single one of those young people said public transit. They’re telling us, we like Chicago because of the public transit, we like NY because of the public transportation. We have to get into their minds, because they’re the ones making the choice of whether to leave or not.
“Brooks and I are of a different generation. . . . We have to get to the young people and say what we keep you here and what’s necessary.”
Patterson: “It’s a false syllogism. . . . Just because Chicago is a thriving town and Chicago has mass transit, doesn’t mean that you need mass transit to have a thriving city. . . . You can have bullet trains all over southeast Michigan, but if you don’t have a jobs for those kids. Their sons left Michigan, went to NY, out west. Why? To get a job. Jobs become number one. Then t other good things, the quality of life things will follow.”
Interviewer: “It’s a chicken and the egg questions. If you build it, you attract the young people, the jobs will follow, because the talent is here.”
Patterson: (Snarky comment about the People Mover)
. . .
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