Granholm To End DRIC

Remember when I said back in November that MDOT's Transportation director, Gloria Jeff, may be leaving her job. A Michigan paper reported recently that "Jeff is on her way out." She was called a political liability for Governor Granholm.

Jeff is a key player in the border crossing game. Interestingly, the Governor played a very important role in the process seemingly undercutting her own Department, MDOT.

As the News Herald reported "Granholm, who had not actively participated in the debate or even the unveiling of the bi-national study in December, suddenly announced that any new border crossing between the United States and Canada would not be anywhere but in Detroit...it was not made by the Detroit River International Crossing Project partnership, as MDOT Senior Project Manager Mohammed Alghurabi had planned...A reluctant Alghurabi said ... that "it's very difficult to assess an action of the governor."

Actually, it's very easy. The Governor made a political decision since my informants tell me that she acted to preserve her political position Downriver and moreover to prevent a number of legislators from trying to pull the DRIC funding at that time.

Clearly the News Herald got it right. The Governor's announcement damaged the credibility of the binational partnership, especially by catching our side by surprise too.

The Jeff leaving means that the Governor must take over control of the process and that will mean, as I predicted, DRIC's ending soon. DRIC is too much out of control...the Downriver alternatives stirred up a hornet's nest that the Governor did not need. It is re-election year for her too and she does not need supporters mad at her.

Speaking of supporters, as I reported previously, "Big City Politicians Take Charge" on December 8, Detroit Council member JoAnn Watson said

• "flat out that the bridge was not going in Delray, that the SouthWest of Detroit was growing in population and that a bridge there would stop this growth at a time when Detroit needed more people. As for politics, and this was the good part, she let everyone know that Detroiters cast more votes for Governor Granholm than the people did Downriver. And isn't next year an election year for the Governor and Members of Congress?"
  
  

Council President Kenneth V. Cockrel, Jr pointed out as well

• "SW Detroit was going to be the proposed home of a number of major developments and no one had looked at all of them in total to see what the impact on the community was going to be. One at a time perhaps, but not altogether. Accordingly to him, nothing would happen until Detroit finished whatever studies it was going to make."
  
  

So my Delray friend can rest easy...Detroit Council has said no one is going to construct a bridge there so a Prospect crossing is out on the Windsor side. Now Sandwich residents better start getting worried about a Brock street crossing. As the Governor said in her press release killing any Downriver bridge, her concern is "the right decision is made for the residents of southeast Michigan." Not a word for it being right for Windsor too.

Guess who Sandwich's only friend in the world is now! I wonder if Brian Masse, Sandra Pupatello and the Ward 2 Councillors have finally figured out the answer yet.