Comments on: County Commissioners Debate Aerotropolis

By: Al Feldt

Al Feldt — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:28:51 +0000

Though Conan Smith raises a number of important questions, he overlooks the point Wes Prater made – the major tax benefits would come from job creation in a depressed part of the county. This project would also increase demand for rail connections between Ann Arbor and Detroit. In my opinion this is an ideal opportunity for economic stimulous and potentially too important to be held up by the need for relatively small amounts of funding – especially during a recession.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:09:24 +0000

I commend Conan Smith for his opposition to this wrongheaded proposal. I was especially dismayed to see the proposal to take the money from ETCS. This department provides most of the human services badly needed in these difficult times, including job search. If there is stimulus money coming, use it for what it is designated for, not to fill a funding gap left by expending the funds already appropriated. Congress and the Obama administration did not put forth the stimulus package to allow municipalities to spend it for discretionary projects.

By: Joel Batterman

Joel Batterman — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 05:17:44 +0000

As badly as the region needs economic development, I have serious doubts about the aerotropolis concept. It’s southeast Michigan’s older towns that need the most help, so they can become the healthy, livable urban centers that my generation wants to live in. Our downtowns have suffered because we’ve poured money into sprawling greenfield development, instead of maintaining and enhancing the cities we have.

The aerotropolis basically amounts to building a whole new city from scratch where there was no city before. To me, that seems like more of the same, and at a time when the region’s economic pie is shrinking like never before, this sort of investment is especially dangerous.

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:54:11 +0000

i don’t want to live in aerotropolis.

can we make a velotropolis instead?