The county executive and the mayor.
"At least now we no longer have any illusions about his position on the issue," Detroit's mayor says of a suburban county leader's adamant stance against regional transit cooperation.
"I would have preferred the courtesy of [L. Brooks] Patterson just telling us honestly [earlier] he couldn't support regional transit," Mike Duggan says in a response to comments Wednesday night by the Oakland County executive, summarized below in this article's original text.
Duggan characterizes the 79-year-old Patterson as a barrier to progress that may come after he leaves the office he has held since 1992. "Some day, Southeastern Michigan will join the rest of America in recognizing the critical importance of regional transit."
Wayne County Executive Warren Evans comments also feels Patterson is "wrong on this." He adds: "Regional systems work because everyone is in it as a region as a whole."
Similar condemnation comes from nationally known journalist Ron Fournier, editor and publisher of Crain's Detroit Business.
"The 79-year-old Republican is sticking with his tired old script. The one with racially tinged tropes propping up a politics of division and grievance," he says in a Thursday afternoon column. "Patterson knows what buttons he's pushing."
Under the headline "Playing games instead of leading on mass transit," Fournier characterizes Patterson as "a follower, nodding to his constituents' baser instincts rather than leading them to higher ground." The result is a failure "to unite metro Detroit behind a mass transit system that would fuel economic mobility and growth."
The business journalist adds:
It would require leadership to explain to Bloomfield Hills residents that the companies they own or run can't thrive if the region's talent isn't hyper mobile; that their children won't stay in Michigan if companies like Amazon and Foxconn continue to bypass the state for more mobile communities; that the people who work in the businesses around Bloomfield Hills, and who serve food and drinks to Oakland County residents, often come from south of Eight Mile.
Below is the mayor's full reaction, followed by earlier coverage of Patterson's remarks in his yearly State of the County speech.
Original article, Thursday morning:
Unlike other metropolitan areas like Washington, New York and Seattle, Detroit has a woefully inadequate regional public transit system that makes it hard for carless commuters. The car is still king here.
L. Brooks Patterson: "I will not betray them."
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson wants things to stay that way.
In his annual State of the County address, after discussing his county’s economic successes, current and future jobs and innovative programs, Patterson drew a line in the sand over a proposed regional transit tax, noting that nine communities had already opted out of joining public transit in a failed 2016 millage, reports Mike Martindale of The Detroit News.
"As long as I'm county executive, I will respect the wishes of the voters of the select nine Oakland County opt-out communities," he said Wednesday night. "I will not betray them and slip some, or all of them, against their will, into a tax machine from which they can expect little or no return on their investment."
Patterson assumes Oakland residents would not take advantage of a regional transit system, no matter how efficient and convenient, and that employers wouldn't benefit from easier transit for workers.
Here's how the editor and publisher of Crain's Detroit Business sees his stance:
There are two kinds of politicians. Those who lead. Those who follow. This guy is following his constituents’ baser instincts rather than leading them to a higher ground. https://t.co/7TDskDbKUY
— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) February 8, 2018
