Developer Action Needed to Spur Light Rail Plans

"Anonymously and behind the scenes, they have worked for more than a year on a plan separate from one the city unveiled this week. The sooner their efforts become public, the better. The city and the entire region need transparency to figure out how this proposal -- using private money to build light rail from Hart Plaza to Grand Boulevard -- can mesh with a larger plan being worked out by the Regional Transit Coordinating Council and its CEO, John Hertel."

"Unless these developers show their hand, they will be perceived, unfairly, as trying to compete with or even undermine Detroit's plan."

"However, no one should believe the city's plan is a done deal. To raise hopes again on transit, and then dash them, would be lethal for southeast Michigan, which desperately needs a success after decades of high-profile flops."