a:1:{s:15:"field_blog_body";a:1:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"value";s:2190:"<p>What does Detroit need most? If you guessed more businesses, more police officers, or less corruption, you would be wrong in the eyes of Marie Donigan, a State representative (Democrat) from Royal Oak, among others. <a href="http://detnews.com/article/20101014/MIVIEW/101014001/Detroit-boondoggle--$500-million-for-light-rail">Light rail </a>is what Detroit needs most. But she understands the challenges:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But Marie Donigan, a state rep from Royal Oak, says &ldquo;it&rsquo;s not a whacky Birkenstock idea.&rdquo; (Well, not when it&rsquo;s OUR money she wants to spend.) She admits, however, that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s going to take a huge effort to educate the the public&rdquo; to use the product.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>See, you need to get your mind right to this idea to bring people to a city that doesn't deserve to have people brought to it.</p>
<p>&quot;We&rsquo;ve got 44 ambulances,&quot; says Detroit News award-winning reporter Charlie LeDuff about the city&rsquo;s broken EMS system. &quot;Twenty-two by law are supposed to be running. We got 17-18 on any given night because they&rsquo;re broken. . . . LIGHT RAIL?!!&quot;</p>
<p>Now there is a man after my own heart. A light rail system in Detroit will NEVER make money. EVER. But that's not the point. The point is to reward Detroit for throwing votes to Obama, and to make Detroit seem like a thriving, recovering city, Michigan's jewel. At one point, it was. But that was decades ago, and it will never again regain that status.</p>
<p>If you really want a light rail, put it someplace where it would be useful. That pretty much excludes anyplace in Michigan, but if our elected officials insist on spending good money after bad, at least put it in <a href="http://www.visitgrandrapids.org/">Grand Rapids</a>, an honest to goodness growing city with great potential for future growth. I was in Grand Rapids over the weekend. It has grown since the last time I was there earlier in the year, with more construction started. An actual thriving city in Michigan.</p>
<p>But Grand Rapids doesn't have the critical mass of Democrat voters or a self-caused sob story, so it is out of the running.</p>";s:6:"format";s:1:"2";}}}