If you could fix one thing about metro Detroit, what would it be? (Caro: taxes, move)

[JPROPS]

In Detroit, certainly the public school system. In the Metro area generally, the roads need addressing badly.

[fmax]

I'd stop the purely speculative questions we'll never know the answers too.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

Coldjensens,

I think freeway tolls would solve a lot of the problems you detailed.

Tolls are one of the reasons that States like Indiana and Ohio have better roads. They are also pass through states (meaning a lot of people pass through the state on their way to somewhere else)

When people drive on toll roads, they also buy gas. When they buy gas, they pay taxes for road maintainence. However the maintenaince of the toll roads is paid for by tolls. Thus, those people are paying for roads they do not use. Also those states have higher taxes.

With more money, they actually repair their roads, they do not shut the road down, do a temporary repair and then shut the road down again for more temporary repair 3 years later.

We do not get a lot of pass through traffic (almost none). We also cannot convert most of our roads to toll roads (federal highways cannot be made into toll roads). They would have to build new roads to have toll roads.

The amount of pass through traffic that neighboring states get is huge. Thus, the sell a lot more gas and collect more taxes. Couple that with higher taxes and toll roads and they have hundreds of millons more to spend on roads. We also have worse soil and weather conditions. While Indiana and Ohio have simlar weather and soil conditions in part of the state, they extend much further south where they have milder weather and better soil conditions for roads.

Now add in years of deferred maintenance and repairs, a massive decline in the number of people able to drive a lot and pay taxes, and huge losses of money to graft and corruption and incompetence (Detroit). You have the perfect storm.

Now we are stuck. We either pay a little more in gas tax and registration, or we watch our roads decay until they start closing them down. Bridges are a bigger problem. While a decayed road is often still somewhat usable, a failed bridge closes the roads. Most people do not even realize that almost every road has several bridges. They do not notice them, but if the bridges fail, they will certianly notice them then.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by Rwarky

If you had the power, influence and resources to fix one thing about metro Detroit, what would would it be?

I think of hundreds of things.

But if I had to fix one?

I would expand Detroit's borders to include much of its suburbs.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

But...the city of Detroit will want to own the whole system. Therefore, it will be a horrible system that would never have enough money to function properly, let alone entice people to use it.

LIKEWISE, the suburbs would never want to fund a system that services Detroit.

[leroythelion]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

I think of hundreds of things.

But if I had to fix one?

I would expand Detroit's borders to include much of its suburbs.

Hahahahahaha...what exactly would that "fix"?

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by leroythelion

Hahahahahaha...what exactly would that "fix"?

The better question is how exactly has the status quo benefitted us (unles you call stagnation/slow decline "progress")?

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

I would expand Detroit's borders to include much of its suburbs.

I'd say the exact opposite: A hostile takeover of Detroit by the suburbs. A coup d'etroit so to speak.

[313Weather]

Originally Posted by Retroit

I'd say the exact opposite: A hostile takeover of Detroit by the suburbs. A coup d'etroit so to speak.

Whatever. The outcome would be the same.

The way I want it to play out, the super city would still be named Detroit

[PosterExtraordinaire]

The freeways in and around Detroit have improved since I moved back. At least I remember them worse. I hate tolls, and I never paid them. In California there were only a few toll freeways however in Miami I think I built over 2000+ from missed tolls + late fees

Anyways, I think improving the freeways is more a Michigan + than a Detroit +. Some of the side streets in Detroit are awful but what do you expect when a city loses more than 1/2 of her population?

I don't use public transportation at all because I have a car but I hear from people that it's awful, especially if you want to access some of the suburbs from Detroit. The first thing to fix, the sooner the suburbs and city began sending people easily back and forth the better for all of us.

I think making Detroit into a 'hip' place to live might gentrify part of the area. I'm not sure if that is a plus or minus for people already living here (more employment but higher cost of living, less crime but more arbitrary law enforcement) but it will definitely get rid of the eye sores and bring in more business. I'd start by attracting young people and the way to do that is pour money into Wayne State and relax the alcohol laws (no open container, 24/7 service), improve the public transportation, and market Detroit's image. People associate Detroit as gritty so play it up, make it a positive instead of a negative.