Comments on: Dig Michigan: Kalamazoo Region http://absolutemichigan.com/michigan/dig-michigan-kalamazoo-region/ All Michigan, All the Time Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:31:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: farlane http://absolutemichigan.com/michigan/dig-michigan-kalamazoo-region/#comment-38976 farlane Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:24:30 +0000 http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/?p=1385#comment-38976 I agree. Definitely something that needs to be covered more here.

Up in the Traverse City area we have a 50 year transportation and land use visioning project going right now called The Grand Vision that’s looking at some of these issues.

(full disclosure back – my company is working to promote The Grand Vision)

]]> By: Advocate Man http://absolutemichigan.com/michigan/dig-michigan-kalamazoo-region/#comment-38972 Advocate Man Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:36:12 +0000 http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/?p=1385#comment-38972 My first post to Absolute Michigan. Lots of terrific information and conversation here. I’m not finding much about public transit, which will play a much larger role in the future of Michigan. An expansion of the Grand Rapids transit system has already been approved. A 3.4-mile light rail loop along Woodward between Hart Plaza and roughly Midtown is moving forward in Detroit (entirely privately funded). SEMCOG and MDOT are eyeing a 48-mile commuter rail line between Ann Arbor and Detroit. At 11 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 23 in Lansing, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, Detroit Regional Chamber, Michigan Municipal League and others will hold a news conference to urge the state Legislature to pass House Bill 6114 before the end of the year. The bill would help spark new commercial and residential development around transit stations. It would also provide some funding to build and operate future mass transit stations. Why all of this now? The spiking prices of gasoline is one reason. But jobs and economic development are the primary reasons. In the past 15 years, Dallas, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Charlotte, N.C., have embraced transit as a powerful economic development tool. Each of these cities is generating thousands of jobs and billions in new commercial and residential investments directly related to their transit system. New hotels, retail stores, cafes, apartments and condominiums, office buildings, movie theaters, restaurants and more are being built near transit stations in these cities. The same could happen in Michigan. In the interest of full disclosure, my public relations firm has clients that support transit expansion. But in the interest of objectivity, the evidence is pretty overwhelming: cities that have rapid transit are largley prospering. Young, college-educated people are moving to these places. That’s why conservative business organizations and local governments in Michigan are now working together … finally … to move this ball down the field here. There is more momentum for transit now in Michigan than ever before. A good conversation about transit could only benefit all of these efforts. Stay tuned for more.

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