[milwaukee-electric] Milwaukee streetcar route.

[Louis Rugani]

Me, I'll just be happy when the skies are once again black with trolley wires. 

Rail shouldn't be tied in with race because buses already go all over those same areas, so let's build nice clean, sexy, attractive rail.  

Milwaukee's biggest problem, as I've always seen it, is its chronic indecision about absolutely everything. No matter how small the issue, Milwaukee likes to yell, argue, point fingers, create alliances for and long hatreds against, burn bridges, and do everything except not sweat the small stuff.

=Lou=

~~~~~~~~~~ **-=\/=-** ~~~~~~~~~~

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.       Robert Anthony


-----Original Message-----
From: Ken and Tracie
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 2:53 AM
To: milwaukee-electric at lists.dementia.org
Subject: [milwaukee-electric] Re: Milwaukee streetcar route.

I see a "chicken and the egg" issue. If a major city's Downtown is no longer 
as relevant as it once was (as a center of commerce, culture, education, 
etc.), would a rail line help it regain its former position of community 
importance? Or does an existing common central destination make new rail 
transit service practical?

I believe Milwaukee needs address its long smoldering racial issues and the 
perceptions some members of both the city's White and African-American 
communities have of each other. Might that help to reverse urban sprawl?

There, I said it.

Some displaced, White former Northwest Siders seem to act like the riots of 
1967 never ended. And some Milwaukee Blacks act like they seem to believe 
the local White community wants to push them back into a Near North Side 
ghetto.

I believe part of urban sprawl (and its dependence on private auto usage) is 
due to people of means (regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity) 
using their financial position to move and live away from other people they 
find undesirable.

Many Middle Class Whites here in the Las Vegas Valley initially supported a 
light rail proposal between the main resort corridor and suburban Henderson. 
Then a politician pushed for an extension to less prosperous Downtown and 
further north into a ghetto which was transitioning from poor 
African-American to poor Mexican-American.

The physical link, by rail, seems to push people's fear buttons in a way 
that ordinary streets don't seem to. Seems irrational to me, as I never 
heard of non-White street gangs taking the trolley into a non-Black 
neighborhood to hassle White people.

Go figure.

But once that extension was announced, White people in Henderson went nuts 
and pushed to defeat the light rail proposal. They even started an 
anti-light rail website, showing photos of an accident involving a French 
high speed intercity train and a photo of a German high speed train wreck. 
Sort of like comparing a GG-1 to a PCC.

And yes, I remember the old joke about the 27th Street Viaduct being the 
longest bridge in the world because it connected Germany to Poland. My 
racially blended cousin (half White, Half Black) says that now it connects 
Africa to Mexico.

K.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Schnabl" <gSchnabl at SWDetroit.com>
To: <milwaukee-electric at lists.dementia.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 12:06 AM
Subject: [milwaukee-electric] Re: Milwaukee streetcar route.

> Detroit has its few, but very vocal, lightrail and commuter rail
> proponents. I suppose my former home and birthplace--Milwaukee--has its
> share of them.
>
> My primary reason for not wanting either rail projects here is the co$t
> factor. The city of Detroit had a combined deficit this year of $800
> million between DPS (schools) and the city, and those rail-transit folks
> will not get it into their heads that the city is essentially bankrupt
> and has only survived without Chapter-9 bankruptcy the past decade by $
> multi-billion bailouts from the state, county, and federal governments.
> It's like they go around with fingers in their ears and shouting, "La,
> la, la" in order to drown out anything that they do not ever want to hear.
>
> SEMCOG has been planning its intercity (Ann Arbor to MidTown Detroit)
> commuter rail for years now but last month put it on hold indefinitely
> due to not getting boondoggle megabucks from the feds this year (or any
> year) because their plans always show the route to be a colossal
> potential failure that the feds will not fund. Nobody here seems to
> really want it anyway. The primary users of the Amtrak runs are college
> students at the University of Michigan and nearby Eastern Michigan
> University, and many of them (most?) head the other way--towards
> Chicago, not toward Detroit.
>
> Metro Detroit's two expensive bus systems also have low riderships,
> except for those few hours for commuting. Many go around nearly empty
> otherwise, even after three major route or service cutbacks the past 
> decade.
>
> Gary
>
> -- 
>
> Gary Schnabl
> Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is...
>
>
>
>
>