Editorial - Daily Detroit

We're supposed to have working streetlights

This week came the news that the $185 million relighting program for Detroit’s streetlights is complete. It’s not that the city being re-wired and re-lit with LED streetlights is a bad thing. It’s a very good step forward. It seems to have been quite the effort over multiple years to make it happen, involving the hard work of many organizations like DTE Energy, the Public Lighting Authority, and countless people. More details are here, but here’s the main point: On Thursday, December 15, t...

EditorialFuture of Detroit Mass Transit Mass Transit

When It Comes To Transit, Maybe It's Time We Left Brooks Patterson Behind

It’s a common saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. As we told you earlier today, the RTA board — after four years of work, and thanks to some last-minute objections from Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and Oakland County Executive Brooks Patterson — defeated a proposal to let voters decide whether they want to fund an improved regional mass transit system. To most modern cities, this is the kind of basic thing you just do. Here...

EditorialMass Transit Regional Transit

Metro Detroit's Future Could Go Off The Rails If We Walk Away From The RTA

This is why we can’t have nice things. That was our reaction, along with a cynical shrug of the shoulders, to the news that the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority was forced to postpone voting on its master plan. This, after literally decades of false starts and setbacks that have left the Detroit region a woefully underserved backwater of public transportation, with two competing bus systems and a service area with glaring holes where virtually no transit service exists. The vo...

Detroit bankruptcyEditorial Governor Rick Snyder

Detroit, It's Time To Write The Next Chapter

On Friday, Judge Steven Rhodes announced he will confirm Detroit’s bankruptcy plan. It is the start of a new era for the Motor City. And it is a major milestone in accelerating the recovery underway in our largest city and our state. The bankruptcy relieves the city of more than $7 billion in debt. With the judge’s decision, the city can now also move forward and invest $1.4 billion over the next 10 years, continuing to improve and bolster services for its residents and building a solid financ...

Editorial4

We're supposed to have working streetlights

When It Comes To Transit, Maybe It's Time We Left Brooks Patterson Behind

Metro Detroit's Future Could Go Off The Rails If We Walk Away From The RTA

Detroit, It's Time To Write The Next Chapter