Metro Detroit and the M-1 Rail

Part I

The M-1 Light Rail Line Initiative is making progress towards their goal of creating a mass transit system between Hart Plaza and New Center. For those of you unfamiliar, it spans from the base of Downtown at the riverfront to about three and a half miles north just beyond Wayne State University. I applaud their work and hope to see it before the expected 2015 opening. It is a start.
     However, I personally don't think it will do much good.
     It frustrates me to the point of sadness to think that this feeble attempt to put Detroit on the map is being perceived as such a profound and altruistic move. I hardly see it that way.
     The truth, as I see it anyway, is that Detroit will only become more gentrified and more segregated with the exclusivity of M-1 Rail. The Woodward Corridor from Downtown to New Center is increasingly occupied with young professionals and college-aged people. This trend will only extrapolate if and when the M-1 Rail is built.
     I think that these people are absolutely essential to the vibrancy and success of any city, however, I also think that the isolation of this area invites a limit to the potential of Detroit. The people who move to this corridor will be confronted with the realization that they are connected to one other hip community, either Downtown or Mid-Town. The meager Mid-Town will never attract the attention that Royal Oak nightlife will. Downtown is definitely growing in popularity as far as nightlife is concerned, but many people aren't quite ready to take the plunge into living there.
     Therefore, it is my contention that the M-1 Rail must stretch from Downtown to Pontiac.
     However self-evident this may be to me, it remains one Detroit's most highly contested questions of our time.
     Ever since Detroit began losing its density in the 1950's, there has been a theme of segregation that has tainted our area. "Urban Terrorism" lurks over suburban communities who have impressed fear into their children and perpetuated the cycle of forging barriers with Detroit.
     The plans of a Bus Rapid Transit is certainly an important part of the overall feasibility of using mass transit on a day to day basis. I fully support the implementation of buses by a Regional Transit Authority that would incorporate Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties.
     However, Woodward Avenue is the main artery of Metro-Detroit and it deserves to be treated as such. There is no other road that is even remotely as iconic and vital to the identity of Detroit. The Woodward Dream Cruise has engraved a sense of history, as well as, urban sprawl. It is time to declare a new identity.
     An M-1 Rail that would cover all of Woodward would start the long awaited Renaissance of Detroit. It would invite the growth of the Woodward Corridor and the desire to live along it. However, I think it would go far beyond that. By symbolically linking the suburbs and Detroit, it would invoke a sense of equality that has never really existed here.
     I know that crime is the main fear that has stymied any sincere thoughts of connecting Detroit and Pontiac with some of the wealthier, northern suburbs of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. I believe this is a legitimate concern. Gandhi once said "Poverty is the worst form of violence." Many of the surrounding communities have been viciously weakened by poverty and I am not blaming any individual community or entity. Its just what has happened to our City by forces beyond our control: unsustainable growth in the Auto Industry, population loss, massive highway projects, ect.
     Yet, what message do you send an inner-city child when access to a place is filled with obstacles to deter them from coming because they pose a threat by no fault of their own? I am straddling lines of race and I acknowledge that, but I think that class, age, and LGBT marginalization are also reinforced by those at the helms of the civic infrastructure.
     What the M-1 Rail from Detroit to Pontiac symbolizes is a socialization of the stark borders that separate us, both geographic and demographic. I want my children to grow up in a place where all forms of people are genuinely accepted and present in social spaces. I know that people are apt to have their niche, but being systematically uninvited is what I believe is ethically wrong.
     Metro Detroit is waning. In an age, when connectedness and easy access are essential to staying competitive, Metro Detroit is quickly falling behind. As we continue to lose people, the possibility and success of such massive rejuvenating projects as the M-1 Rail from Pontiac to Detroit is dwindling.
     The world is seldom fair and not everything pans out as we hope it will. Yet, it is our responsibility, as it was the responsibility of the writers of the Constitution, to impart a platform that aspires toward equality.