Detroit is America’s eleventh-largest urban area and (unless you count the insipid people mover) the largest without rail transit. So, naturally, the city suffers from light-rail envy. In 2008, the mayor promised a Detroit-to-Ann Arbor commuter train by October 25, 2010–a promise that, since then, has been deferred indefinitely.
The city also wants to build a light-rail line up Woodward Avenue (home of the Woodward Dream Cruise in which people show off classic cars). This leads the Antiplanner’s faithful allies at the Reason Foundation to ask: Why?
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The city is falling apart. Huge swaths have been largely abandoned. People lack many essential services. Yet the city thinks it can fix these problems by spending half a billion dollars on a light-rail line.
Of course, to the extent that Detroit leaders are not just engaging in crony capitalism, they probably base their expectations that rail will help revitalize the city on Portland. But many of the same problems can be found in Portland. A dismal 53 percent of Portland Public School high school students graduate in four years. This is relevant in Portland, where city officials think nothing of stealing money from schools in the form of tax-increment financing in order to build light rail.
Detroit’s problems are far worse than Portland’s–according to one measure, only a quarter of the city’s high-school students graduate in four years. Those problems will not be solved by pouring money down a rat hole into light rail.
Pardon the tangent.
“A dismal 53 percent of Portland Public School high school students graduate in four years. This is relevant in Portland, where city officials think nothing of stealing money from schools in the form of tax-increment financing in order to build light rail.”
How much money is “stolen” from Portland Public Schools in this method?
There are many problems in in the PPSD, and money is arguably one of them.
Other problems include entrenched bureaucracy and an unfair and complex hiring process. Add to that incompetent and/or lazy teachers, and a larger causal picture emerges. (My cooperating teacher during my student teaching experience in PPSD told me the only reason she was still teaching was so that she could retire in three years with full medical benefits; meanwhile, she screamed at students and used outdated pedagogy and relied heavily on busywork and worksheets.)
Money is only one of many factors affecting the PPS graduation rate. There are districts and independent schools operate with less money while obtaining higher quality results.
I don’t know what to say about this post. Detroit looks like a war zone. I guess the federal government is throwing money at the problem and Detroit is taking help where it can get it. But it is hard to see how any new transportation system in Detroit is a priority right now.
Again, where is Dan & Highwayman to provide a defense of this sham project. Surely they can think of something to justify this nonsense. After all, every rail project dreamed up in Planning HQ makes sense!
I’ll fill in for Dan & Highman, to defend:
Detroit is in bad shape becasue the Big Three have been too greedy for decades & didn’t listen to the unions enough.
More transit & other looting of taxpayers could have prevented the downfall.
The market was not regulated enough.
Exactly what I was counting on…but where is Highwayman with his usual, “Scott, STFU!”. Lol.
Compare Detroit to Hiroshima.
http://www.silentnomorepublications.com/Money/Hiroshima.html
Great social experiment. I would love to see how a light rail line will reverse the fortunes of a city that is losing population and employment.