Just three weeks after the city announced it was cancelling plans for a 9.3-mile light rail line, a truncated version may be built, but with some key caveats.
Mayor Dave Bing recently announced plans for a light rail line down Woodward Avenue, just three weeks after abandoning city-led efforts to build a longer line down the same corridor. What's new this time? Requirements that the line be funded by a private group and that an acceptable business plan be submitted within 90 days.
Writing in The Transport Politic, Yonah Freemark analyzes this recent turn of events and its larger implications: "the circumstances in which the project's reactivation has occurred speak to a continued dysfunction not only in the City of Detroit but in American transportation politics in general.
FULL STORY: Back to Basics for Detroit Light Rail

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Defunct Pittsburgh Power Plant to Become Residential Tower
A decommissioned steam heat plant will be redeveloped into almost 100 affordable housing units.

Trump Prompts Restructuring of Transportation Research Board in “Unprecedented Overreach”
The TRB has eliminated more than half of its committees including those focused on climate, equity, and cities.

Amtrak Rolls Out New Orleans to Alabama “Mardi Gras” Train
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