News: Detroit Abandons LRT, TIGER Grants, Minnesota TOD Fund, Extending Hudson Bergen Line, Bay Area Industry

Tracks News - In this section you'll find news from cities around the country as well as interviews and general reporting on issues.  It might be from a newspaper or a blog, but it counts as news.  The Chatter, commentary and opposition articles will be found towards the bottom.

National: Detroit Abandons Plan for Rail Line

Wall Street Journal

After kicking the tires on a shiny new train system, the Motor City has decided to take the cheaper bus instead. This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Mayor Dave Bing suddenly abandoned a roughly $600 million plan to build a light-rail line along a key corridor that supporters had insisted would attract new residents and jump-start economic growth...

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National: Half of TIGER Goes to Roads, 29% Transit

DC Streetsblog

If you live in Stamford, Connecticut and your walk to the train station gets safer next year, you can thank USDOT's TIGER grant program. Or when your hometown of American Falls, Idaho suddenly gets complete streets downtown, accommodating people on foot, on bikes, on buses, in cars, and in wheelchairs, encouraging local shopping. ..

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Detroit: Kresge Foundation Not Willing to Walk Away

Crain's Detroit

The largest private funder behind the Woodward Avenue light-rail plan for Detroit said today it is not ready to walk away from a plan that has been four years in the making...

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Minnesota: Met Council's $26M TOD Fund

Minnesota Post

Over the next year, the Metropolitan Council plans to invest $26 million in economic development and job creation along metro transit corridors through the council's Livable Communities grant program...

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Detroit: Downtown Development Won't Die with LRT

Crain's Detroit

An end to light rail in Detroit also ends the idea of transit-oriented development but not development as a whole, real estate experts say. The redevelopment of historic buildings up and down Woodward Avenue near the central business district is likely to continue, but not at the density level that mass transit would bring...

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New Jersey: Hudson Bergen Line May Extend

Star Ledger

It is called the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, but to date, all of the service has been in Hudson County. But now that NJ Transit has scheduled public hearings next month regarding a plan to extend the service to at least Englewood..

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National: Factories Closed, Now Tee Time

New York Times Magazine

On the northern edge of Benton Harbor, just beyond the grim grid of housing projects, shuttered storefronts, boarded-up homes and junk-laden yards that dominate much of the town, sits an emerald oasis known as Harbor Shores...

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Bay Area: One Time Industrial Hub Has Few Prospects

New York Times

Down the Port Chicago Highway in Bay Point - past the half-empty Shore Acres shopping center, across the railroad tracks - sits the McAvoy Marina, a decaying boat dock where a giant restaurant is shuttered and crumbling on the southern edge of Suisun Bay. ..

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