At Birmingham Panel, Experts Ask: How Can Mass Transit Revitalize Michigan's Economy?

If you wanted to travel from Detroit to Traverse City, would you consider taking the train or a bus?

That's what one group is doing this week, and they're hoping that through their journey, Michigan starts talking a little more about mass transit.

At Birmingham's on Wednesday evening, with Amtrak trains rumbling in the background, the first evening of the kicked off with a panel discussion on how mass transit can help revitalize the economy of southeast Michigan.

The project is organized by Transportation for Michigan (Trans4M), a coalition of four groups looking to revitalize the state's transportation policies. Members are the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Environmental Council and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

During the three-day Michigan Transportation Odyssey, participants will travel across the state — eventually ending up in Traverse City on Friday — using only Michigan transit systems and state passenger trains.

That journey began at noon Wednesday at Detroit Metro Airport's North Terminal, when a group of mass transit advocates from Transformation for Michigan boarded a SMART bus to River Rouge. From there, they transferred to a DDOT bus to downtown Detroit, and from there, boarded a SMART bus and disembarked in Birmingham.

On the panel Wednesday night was Birmingham Mayor Mark Nickita; Oakland County Commissioner Dave Potts; Michele Hodges, executive director of the Troy Chamber of Commerce; Dennis Schornack, senior adviser for strategy for Gov. Rick Snyder; and Laura Trudeau, senior program director for Community Development and Detroit at the Kresge Foundation.

According to Nickita, walkable, transit-oriented communities are "in control of their destinies." Nickita noted that Birmingham's retail and office occupancy rate is around 90 percent.

"We believe very strongly that it has much to do with us being a walkable community," he said.

Major topics of discussion Wednesday night included questions collected from around the state:

How important is transit to the future of the state?

Potts pointed that employers looking at Metro Detroit and southeast Michigan have been turned away because of the lack of transit options.

"Employers were saying, 'We're not coming because we can't get our employees to work," he said.

Schornack said in the past century, development built up around intersections and interstates. In the future, he sees economic development will occur around transit stations.

How can Michigan move on past the political dysfunction that has stymied transit plans in the past?

"It doesn't do us any good to talk about the dysfunction of the past," Schornack said. "We need to talk about the function of the future."

Nickita said that attitudes about mass transit have already shifted among the millennial generation, and is beginning to among the baby boomers. More young people want mass transit, Nickita said, and those mandates will eventually be reflected in political agendas.

"The trends can't be denied," he said. "Who wants mass transit is growing and growing."

Should we continue to justify Detroit?

Hodges said she loves wearing her "Imported from Detroit" T-shirt whenever she goes out of town, and loves talking about Detroit even more.

"We are Detroiters whether we like it or not," Hodges said. "We need to continue to be soldiers for our communities and not settle for less."

Nickita agreed.

"We've been dragged through the mud for years," Nickita said. "But it's a different day and people are starting to take note of that. Part of that begins with us not being afraid of being from Detroit."

Should mass transit be seen as an economic driver?

Trudeau said at one time, having a car was seen as having freedom. Recently, she said she drove into Washington, DC, but never felt more trapped as she drove around for hours, searching for a parking space.

Hodges said there is a market for mass transit. During the fight over the Troy transit center, she said several companies wanted to be a part of it.

"We've had a few Fortune 500 companies who up and said, 'How much?'"