{"id":18128,"date":"2016-11-20T03:55:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=18128"},"modified":"2016-11-20T03:55:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T03:55:00","slug":"disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/disappointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Disappointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I interrupt the\u00a0regularly scheduled programming with a post in response to the events that transpired on Tuesday, November 8th.<\/p>\n

This was my first time voting in a national election in Michigan. This was my first time voting in Detroit. And on Tuesday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a long line at the polls at 7:05 am – a line so long that I had to leave without voting to make it to my 8:00 am meeting downtown. When I returned at 6:30 pm, I found my place in an even longer line, but I waited patiently to cast my ballot. I know I went right home, but the rest of the evening is a blur. It’s hard to describe the emotions I experienced in the next few hours.<\/p>\n

Although I am incredibly disappointed in the results of the national election and America’s choice for the 45th President of the United States, I am equally disturbed by the results of the local proposals, specifically the millage for regional transit. After experiencing many of the seven stages of grief in response to all election results, I came to a conclusion: I am an outsider here in southeast Michigan. I reside in a region where my values do not align with the values of the majority of the voting population. For the 27th time, a proposal for regional transit failed in the Detroit Metropolitan Region of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washtenaw Counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt leaves southeast Michigan as the only large region in the nation (and one of a few in the world) without a functioning regional rapid transit system.\u00a0 That means residents still will lack a convenient transit connection to jobs, communities will remain unconnected to one another, economic development will be more difficult and seniors and people with disabilities will lack the greater independence a fully functional transit system would provide.” Source: RTA<\/a><\/p>\n

I firmly believe that cities and regions that do not change will not succeed; they will not become thriving urban areas. And the residents of this\u00a0region are choosing to fail. The proposal might not have been perfect, but it was a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Without regional transit, it is unlikely that Michigan and its\u00a0southeast region will grow, attract young diverse residents, or\u00a0become\u00a0a thriving urban region.<\/p>\n

I value public transit and I prefer to live in a region where my values align with my community, city, region, and state. I am disheartened and the failure of this local proposal has made me question the longevity of my residency in southeast Michigan.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well I interrupt the\u00a0regularly scheduled programming with a post in response to the events that transpired on Tuesday, November 8th. This was my first time voting in a national election in Michigan. This was my first time voting in Detroit. And on Tuesday morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find a long line at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}