This sort of thinking could impact any public museum, and it is not for the better.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130525/METRO01/305250324

To make this rail preservation related to some extent, recall that the Detroit Department of Public Transportation still owns and stores a collection of 900mm (nearly 3' gauge) trolley cars - many of them restored and operable.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions, as I type the Michigan State Legislature is working on a law that would prohibit this.

That said, the Detroit Historical Society's collection is also vulnerable including the Glancy train collection.

Bob H

The current Governor of MI and the legislative majority is running nothing short of a criminal looting enterprise, mostly against poor and minority populations with this "Emergency Manager" law. The voters of the state even recognized this, voted for a referendum repealing the law last Fall, which the legislative majority then re-passed in the lame duck session, rewritten in such a way that it is not subject to another referendum. This law is the excuse they use to take over a town, install a crony as pretty much an absolute dictator who then dismisses the elected officials, and sells off town assets to insiders at fire-sale prices. The lakefront park in Benton Harbor being the most outrageous example - donated to the city in perpetuity for use as a park for children, but sold off to be a very expensive condo/golf course development - over the outraged objections of the citizens, who are powerless to stop it.

Since this law was passed, with the inclusion of Detroit under it, nearly half of the African-American population of Michigan now live under emergency managers. The real kick in the teeth is - they don't work for the purpose intended. They do NOT bring those communities back to financial solvency, and have been documented to do real damage to the long-term interests of the people of those communities. You bet the Vandals are at the gate, and they intend to rob, loot and pillage the treasures of the Motor City for the benefit of their rich political patrons.

Detroit would only make a few thousand dollars for all of the 7 trolleys that it owns. The Swiss tram and the double-decker tram don't belong to the city. They should not have the rights to sell them. It would not be smart to give another city the chance to make millions of dollars in revenue and development for the price of a few thousand dollars. Those in charge here need to realize that if they put some effort into it like other cities have with their trolleys, then Detroit could have the money and development that trolley can generate.

Tim Davis
Detroit, MI

There's only one museum I can think of that has 3-foot gauge track and a supply of 600 volts DC, and I don't think European streetcars fit its Mission Statement. This whole story of Michigan sounds bad and smells worse.

Get ready for more stories like this one. Here is an indicator of what is around the corner in the US economy:

http://rustysmetals.com/railcar-loading ... isis/.html

The gold line in the upper chart (barely visible, click on the chart to make it larger) behind and slightly higher than the red 2013 line is the traffic in 2009, in the middle of the recession (depression)........

PC

That's one of those gloom-and-doom sites, whose purpose appears to be to earn advertising revenue for precious metal sales. (the point being that precious metals tend to be recession proof, hence the standard sales pitch in any economy is to predict downturn.)

As far as Michigan, there's more than one side to that story, you can be sure of that. "Michigan's circling the drain" seems to be the customary refrain, but a wide variety of economic indicators disagree, especially when you cross Eight Mile. Of course the more tempered message doesn't sell newspapers.

Try this.:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... n-in-sales

Another indicator to watch is the consumption of petroleum products. After rising in 2009 and again in early 2012, the trend is back down:

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHa ... pupus2&f=4

There are a lot of indications we are headed back into another recession. This is not good news for organizations that are already financially strained.

I realize economic discussion is OT, but it can have a big impact on preservation organizations.

PC

We actually have been seeing stories of this ilk for a decade or so, and we're going to see more and more such stories to come. If you haven't seen the numerous big-city/urban museums being shut down, scaled back, or even sold off to the highest bidder, especially city-administered museums, you're just not paying attention.

It's true that Michigan isn't Detroit. But by the same token, Detroit isn't Michigan. And without getting offensively political, this same dynamic is in play across the country, pitting "red" against "blue," urban versus rural.

In my own city, I've seen several city-owned/administered museums (and some deserve quotation marks around that term "museum"), many opened in the 1990s, shut down due to fiscal crises in the past decade, and a couple more, including the Baltimore Civil War Museum, in President Street Station's headhouse, turned over to public/private operation (the Civil War Museum devotes a sizable chunk of its cramped space to a franchise gift shop/bookstore, from which the folks that keep the doors open and lights on derive income). Meanwhile, the Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art tried a risky tactic in 2006--going to free admission, while soliciting donations both from visitors and from benefactors willing to underwrite the cause of art education and sharing. This was underwritten initial;ly by a city/state grant of $800,000; as I understood, the reaction was positive enough that it spurred an increase in revenue/income.

We have long discussed the pros and cons of "public money" in historic/rail preservation. The fickle hand of government "benevolence" is part of the equation--those that giveth freely can take away just as freely, and it's best not to become dependent upon political graces and whims.

Often it is easy to get money to build something, but continued funding for maintenance and operation is never considered or is the first thing eliminated when times get tough.

The residents of Detroit and a number of other cities in or near this point are not blameless and are not mere victims of rich outsiders picking the bones clean. Detroit citizens have elected corrupt and/or inept mayors and city councilmen for over 60+ years. It was inevitable that eventually it would catch up to them. It is a tribute to how productive the place was that it took this long after the retraction of the auto industry before the end came. The one party state model works equally poorly whether its North Korea or Detroit.

This is likely to be repeated in a lot of places in the next few years. California leads the way with a lot of cities in default or close to it. The only thing we are rail preservationists may be able to do is be aware and if necessary have the organizations (and the fundraising drives) ready to make an offer for potential government liquidation sales.

"Often it is easy to get money to build something, but continued funding for maintenance and operation is never considered or is the first thing eliminated when times get tough."


Man that should be inscribed in granite. It's especially true when donors are given nice brass plaques to commemorate their contribution to the erection of the structure and it's new and splendid. Unfortunately, no plaques are given to pay the custodian or janitorial service that comes to unblock the porcelain throne on the third floor.

Ain't that the truth. Feds do an 80% match to build the freeway or transit system, but 0% match to maintain and sustain it. It actively punishes designing for low long-term TCO (total cost of ownership). For that matter it is illegal for governments to have endowments, so there's no such thing as a "maintenance endowment". This is a place where a nonprofit might actually be able to do better, and yes, there is precedent for nonprofits doing governmenty things like transit.

Our governments have been spending money for a loooong time like it's going out of style... and it finally is. This pace of "investment" is not sustainable, but the good news at least is we're spending more of it on durable things which produce an economic return, instead of, what amounts to annihilation of economic power, e.g. XB-70 bombers, ugly little wars, etc.

What's got me spooked about California is that too much of the economy is the government. I think that despite short-term conditions, places with much smaller government "empires" may actually be more economically stable in the long run. I read an article whose gist was basically that (sorry I can't find the link). The "engine of the world" is not government. That has been tried. These big-government states have too small an engine for the metal they're dragging around.

Amen there. That phrase should also be cast into a bronze plaque and attached the gangplank of ANY ship being considered for a museum ship in a community that has no idea what they're getting themselves into (which is most communities and groups who take on ships as museums, then doom generations of people with scrounging enough money to keep the things from sinking at their moorings)...

Pennsylvania is an exception to the illegality. "Rainy Day Funds" and the like can exist,
and the contents can be invested for income until needed.