Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Macomb, Oakland, Washtenow, Wayne counties: Contact your county executive. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to put mass transit funding on the ballot.

Action Network is facilitating contacting L. Brooks Patterson and Mark Hackel, the executives of Oakland and Macomb counties, respectively, concerning their non-support of the ballot proposal back in 2016 for funding the RTA. A handy email form is supplied here. Here's the message I sent to Mark Hackel:
I'm quite disappointed that you lobbied against the RTA ballot proposal in the 2016 election.  You have done our county inestimable harm by doing so.  This is one of the most car-dependent counties in America and it may surprise you that that is a bug rather than a feature, unless your goals actually include social filtering.  If you think that means higher property values, you are a fool.  If you took the side you did as a way to pandering to the up-county McMansions 'n' SUVs set, you're really a fool, because the northern Macomb County vote will go Republican no matter what you do.  Your career is best served by following your conscience (which I hope is the conscience of the Democrat you run as), not pandering to the media stereotypes concerning Macomb County public opinion.  Please do better if similar measures appear in the future.  It is an investment we can't afford not to make.  It is not in our best interest to be the county standing in the way of progress on mass transit.