Regionalism NOW!

That was, effectively, the mantra of our transportation speakers tonight at Russel Industrial Center, hosted by Model D and the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. Regionalism will save us. From regional trailways to regional mass transit, regionalism is the word we should be embracing.

However, i should point out one little blip, that might have been overlooked at the meeting tonight. The very last speaker (i forget his name), said something profound. He was talking about the importance of TIFF (Tax increment finance fund) money to be used as the local match to federal dollars. What he said was so critical to our nations survival that words fail me in expressing the importance and ramifications of its portent. What he said was simply this 'we need to invest in our transportation corridors'. He precluded that statement with the historical argument of why this is so important, he said 'we have tried the whole sprawl thing, and we know now that it simply does not work'.

O.K., so i'm 'paraphrasing'. but whatever. He is right, we tried the whole endless suburb thing and have subsequently witnessed the complete meltdown of our economic and environmental foundations. We are now a country without a firm footing. Call me paranoid, but i'm scared to death of 1.3 billion Chinese holding the note to our land. If you were scared of Iran getting Nuclear weapons, you should be more scared of the United States of China.

Hopefully, those fears are unfounded, and i'll welcome anyone that wants to come to this country to start a business and help us grow (but i won't stand an invasion). But it doesn't lessen the importance of investing in stable development patterns. We are a mobile civilization. We built this country on transportation innovation. We will save this country by innovating again.

So get too innovating :).