GM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered

I am becoming borderline anti-Detroit as this bailout simmers, Lions, Tigers, Motown, Oh My, what a mess.

Here's another feather in the proverbial carburetor ... a quick primer from Common Dreams on GM and its early meddling with Mass Transit.

GM Must Re-Make the Mass Transit System it Murdered | CommonDreams.org

"FDR forced Detroit to manufacture the tanks, planes and guns that won World War 2 (try buying a 1944 Chevrolet!). Now let a reinvented GM make the "weapons" to win the climate war and energy independence."

I concur.

More: The StreetCar Conspiracy

OK, I still like Detroit the city, but we're really moving into 'Boston' territory here ...

Will We Be Talking About this in 2044?

A former Interior Secretary wrote an article on the impending decline of the domestic car-making industry and called for a shift in strategy towards 'transportmakers'

"Mr. Udall recognized that the country could not afford the economic consequences of losing all of the automobile industry’s jobs and profits. He proposed that the auto companies branch out into “exciting new variants of ground transportation” to produce minibuses, “people movers,” urban mass transit and high-speed intercity trains. Instead of expanding the Interstate highway system, he suggested that the road construction industry take on “huge new programs to construct mass transit systems.” And he called for building “more compact, sensitively planned communities” rather than continuing urban sprawl."

He wrote that in 1972.

I still can't believe those CEOs took 3 separate jets to 'ask' for money from Congress. How disconnected can you be?

Op-Ed Contributor - Have You Driven a Bus or a Train Lately? - NYTimes.com: