urbanMSP

Just because the story has gone viral, here's that profile of James Robertson who walks many miles each day to get to work.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/m ... /22660785/

The paper says his one-way commute distance is 23 miles, though when I tried figuring out where he starts and ends, I came up with a bit over 21 miles. The big thing is that he walks about 7 miles from a mall to his workplace on the outer end of his trip. It looks like there's actually better service to his workplace at certain times of day, but he has a second-shift job. He's been spending 20 hours a day commuting, only managing about 2 hours of sleep at home.

Someone started a GoFundMe campaign for the guy, which is now just about to tip past $290,000.

I tried finding some rough equivalents in the Twin Cities. It's about the same distance as going from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie or Anoka -- barely tolerable commutes for transit riders if you can catch a reverse-peak bus, but no good if you miss the peak-time window, particularly in the evening (his shift ends at 10 pm).

So I dunno -- I have plenty of sympathy for the guy, but is this just an example of trying to push the transit system in ways it just won't go? I definitely see it as an example of how we've let development sprawl out much more than it ever should have, and how companies manage to boost their bottom lines while eating into employees' pocketbooks when they situate themselves off in unwalkable/untransitable office parks.

On one hand, the guy should have just gotten a bike and/or moved anywhere within 7 miles of work and/or started working somewhere else. On another, he's won the sympathy lottery.

#jobsprawl

exactly. Re(urbanization/centralization) could save Detroit. The money and jobs are so far spread around the metro, nothing is efficient. (my opinion)

exactly. Re(urbanization/centralization) could save Detroit. The money and jobs are so far spread around the metro, nothing is efficient. (my opinion)

No, you're absolutely right. But good luck convincing employees in Troy, Canton, etc. to move.

My Brother in Law works for GM they live so far out in the burbs... and then the GM office is way out in the burbs... Anytime I say I want to go into the City they look at me like I'm a lunatic. I understand there are bad areas but I've only see dilapidated things, nothing dangerous. Downtown and the surrounding areas have SO much potential.

My Brother in Law works for GM they live so far out in the burbs... and then the GM office is way out in the burbs... Anytime I say I want to go into the City they look at me like I'm a lunatic. I understand there are bad areas but I've only see dilapidated things, nothing dangerous. Downtown and the surrounding areas have SO much potential.

Downtown Detroit has HUGE potential. I mean, Michigan Central Station! There are loads of historic mansions and large houses that could make for a really beautiful Victorian historic neighborhood. Lots of great old commercial buildings too. Plenty of space to build obviously. It's a designed city so the streets are interesting.

I got into all this transportation and development stuff due to a Habitat project in Detroit. First time I'd really been to the bombed out part of any city. Empty lots everywhere, broken windows, etc. Except for the newly-built stone mansions across the street from the Habitat house. With a big iron fence around 'em. It was at that moment that I realized something is very wrong with the way we build cities. Then I learned about the freeways and the rest is history.

It's totally true about metro Detroit though. When talking to someone not from the area, a Bloomington MN resident would probably say they live in Minneapolis. An Aurora IL resident would say they live in Chicago. In Michigan, people live in Troy, Bloomfield Hills, Plymouth...no one says they live in Detroit.

It is a really, really odd place, culture-wise.

I wrote a big piece about why Detroit is a dump and probably not going anywhere, but pretty much everyone on here knows about the problems the city faces. I don't know if there is a solution for Detroit or Michigan, but I guess it will have something to do with creating new jobs. Perhaps it could become a reborn manufacturing center because the cost of living must be some of the cheapest in the nation.

I guess I also wonder if sprawl is still happening despite the region losing population now.

Not that it's going to fix the larger problems facing the overall metro, but there's actually a lot of investment happening in downtown Detroit proper. Also, parts of Detroit have a higher hipster quotient than Williamsburg. Presumably because it's so authentic.

Looking again, I have to correct an assertion I made earlier -- the "new" Google Maps can sometimes surreptitiously include a car trip even when you request transit directions, and re-examining the routes I got the other day, it looks like that happened to me. The closest bus stop appears to be just under 3 miles away from James Robertson's workplace, but the timing of the service is still bad, and duration of the trip to that point can be terrible at certain times of day.

Jane Jacobs and Detroit.

http://openyourcity.com/2015/04/jane-ja ... ign=buffer

I highly recommend going through Detroit on Google Streetview. Look at 2007 and compare it to the most current year. Some has gotten better, some has gotten worse. What makes me laugh is that some vacant corners have better accessibility than some of the busiest parts of Minneapolis.

The Bad:

2009: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3932513 ... 312!8i6656

2013: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3932508 ... 312!8i6656

The Good:

2009: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3296334 ... 312!8i6656

2015: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3296246 ... 312!8i6656

CNU in Detroit this year. I may take Amtrak there. Who's in?

The Bad:

2009: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3932513 ... 312!8i6656

2013: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3932508 ... 312!8i6656

The Good:

2009: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3296334 ... 312!8i6656

2015: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3296246 ... 312!8i6656

Are you crapping me? Are they really renovating their old central train station? How did I not hear about this?!

Detroit's Woodward streetcar will operate off-wire for 60% of its length: http://m-1rail.com/brookville/. That seems amazingly risky to me, requiring heavy and expensive batteries on board the streetcars, but I guess we'll see.

I thought this was pretty neat

http://theavalonvillage.org

Detroit getting the TCF HQ after the merger.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/busin ... 698636002/

That story includes this rendering of the 20-story mixed-use building Chemical Bank was already planning to build across the street from Comerica Park (Detroit Tigers). Chemical Bank is moving employees from Midland (central MI) and Troy (Detroit's Edina/Eden Prairie). What a strange twist of fate for TCF, which moved out of Downtown Minneapolis just 3-4 years ago, to be acquired by a company that was leaving the suburbs for downtown.

EDIT: While an awesome investment for Downtown Detroit, fully half of that building looks like parking. No public funds, the article says, so really no one is in a position to complain.

I think that TCF's actual headquarters have been in Wayzata for a long time, probably with a very small employee headcount. The office workers who were moved from downtown out to Plymouth or wherever are *probably* back of house employees who the combined company will still need, and most of those jobs will probably stay put. Right?

You're probably right. The Wayzata offices likely close entirely (as the execs will be in downtown Detroit), while the Plymouth office is likely to remain, perhaps losing jobs gradually (as departments are merged, redundancies eliminated, etc.) They say they will keep large operation centers in "Minneapolis" (Plymouth) and in Midland, MI. Kinda similarly to TCF, the Chemical Bank execs were in Troy (not in Midland with the office drones). The locations that stand to lose (a few) workers immediately are Troy, MI and Wayzata, MN, neither of which will be hurting for lack of executive jobs. This is a huge win for Detroit, small loss for Troy and Wayzata, and the jury will be out between Plymouth and Midland as to how the merger gets sorted out. Minneapolis is still TCF's biggest market and home territory, even if the headquarters and executives will be in Detroit, so it makes sense that they'd keep a major presence locally.