Local bourgeoisie meet

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2004 MACKINAC POLICY CONFERENCE:


MIKE WENDLAND: Wi-Fi invading placid Mackinac resort

June 3, 2004



BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST



MACKINAC ISLAND -- For the hundreds of business and political bigwigs who
will be arriving here today for the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual policy
conference, the adjustment to the island time forgot will be a little easier
this year. There's now high-speed Internet at the Grand Hotel.

At a place where motorcars are prohibited and the "down below" mind-set is
supposed to be left behind at the ferry docks in Mackinaw City, the
conference headquarters has become a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can bring your
wireless-enabled laptop and connect to the Internet via a broadband
connection from the porch of the Grand.

Why you'd want to do that, though, is beyond me. It's still more winter than
summer up here. After 10 minutes of writing this column Wednesday morning
from one of the rockers on the porch of the world's largest summer resort, I
had to go back inside to warm up.

The 118-year-old Grand, where single rates start at more than $300 a night,
now offers Wi-Fi Internet throughout every nook and cranny of its four
stories and 385 rooms.

"We only put TVs in our guest rooms a few years ago," says Bob Tagatz, the
Grand's concierge. "We are seriously in the business of low-tech
entertainment and a quieter way of life, and we are very careful about what
new things we add so as to always protect our heritage."

But with 70 percent of the Grand's business coming from business
conventions, high-speed Internet became a necessity, he said.

The Grand's Internet line comes from St. Ignace via an underwater cable.

I connected with my Wi-Fi-enabled laptop throughout the lobby, in the
meeting rooms and on the porch. The hotel says anyone attending the
conference can use the network, whether they're staying at the hotel or not.


Alas, the availability of Wi-Fi broadband at the Grand won't do away with
one of the island's biggest irritations to the Type A's who'll be pouring
off the ferries today: Cell phone service is still not what the Detroit area
folks are used to back home. And devices like the Blackberry are dead up
here.

Mobile phone service throughout most of northern Michigan is pretty much
analog only. That means you can't use your phone to check e-mail, send
photos or do text messaging.

It's always a comedic highlight for me to watch the conference newbies come
off the ferries and pile onto horse-drawn taxis with their state-of-the art
digital cell phones pressed to their ears and quizzical looks on their faces
as they wait for ring tones that never come.

While the analog signals for most of the carriers are plenty strong enough,
when 1,700 corporate and governmental execs suddenly descend on the island
and start using their phones like they do back home, the local system is
often overwhelmed. Calls are dropped or simply don't go through, and
analog-only coverage means some services users take for granted don't work.

I ran into a frustrated Amy Hennes, a senior marketing director for the
chamber in the hallway Wednesday, frantically preparing for the rush. "I
can't get my phone to get my messages," she said. "It dials out and receives
calls but doesn't retrieve messages. It's driving me crazy."

The reason was because she was using a couple of programmed commands that
only work back in the Detroit area. I explained that all she had to do to
get her messages was dial directly to her number and manually enter the
retrieval codes.

Michelle Gilbert, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, says she hears a lot
about the high-tech inconveniences every year but tells complainers it's
just part of the charm of Mackinac.

"I smile and say the whole point of the conference is to get away from the
office," she said. "Usually, they end up OK with that."




Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx




Bus service isn't on agenda


A regional system was last year's big project


June 3, 2004

BY KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

For the first time in nearly a decade, public transportation won't be a
focal point at the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual leadership policy
conference on Mackinac Island.

There will be no talk of merging the bus systems that serve Detroit and the
suburbs, no celebrations of regional cooperation on mass transit and no
souvenirs bearing the acronym DARTA, short for all things public transit.

The christening of the Detroit Area Regional Transit Authority at the 2003
Mackinac conference was supposed to solve all the thorny issues surrounding
public transit.

Then reality stepped in.

There aren't more buses on the road or added stops for the 134,000 people
who ride the buses daily. In fact, the Detroit Department of Transportation
(DDOT) is facing the loss of more than 100 employees to cut the city's
budget.

A survey of 205 southeast Michigan business leaders released Tuesday
revealed that 87 percent felt the region's public transit system is below
average.

And a lawsuit filed by AFSCME Local 25, the union that represents DDOT
mechanics and clerical workers, stalled the federal funding needed to begin
staffing the agency and making plans to improve service in metro Detroit.

Still, business and political leaders and transit advocates take heart that
some progress has been made since the agency began on May 31, 2003.

"We've gotten something started," said DARTA Chairman Gerald Poisson. "But
we're doing it in very small steps. Has it been enough? No. But it's been
pretty good under the circumstances."

Although $850,000 was approved for DARTA by the federal Transportation and
Highway departments last year, the money was held up because of the lawsuit.
The first $350,000 was awarded in March and the federal Highway
Administration released the rest Friday.

The money will be used to hire an executive director -- at an annual salary
range of $110,000 to $150,000 -- and develop a master plan for public
transit in the region.

In the meantime, the creation of the authority has opened up a better
working relationship between DDOT and the Suburban Mobility Authority for
Regional Transportation (SMART).

"What customers don't see is that our scheduling departments are getting
together all the time now and coordinating trip times," said Dan Dirks,
general manager of SMART.

Other little things also have occurred, including: the coordination of
emergency radio backups if one of the dispatch systems is interrupted by a
power outage; joint training, marketing and ordering opportunities, and the
development of a seamless ticket transfer and Internet trip planners for bus
customers.

"I'm optimistic, but I do get impatient," said Richard Blouse, president of
the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said DARTA won't be on his front burner at
Mackinac this year.

"The people do not want to have a conversation on how to pay" for mass
transit "until we have a conversation about how we pay for anything in a
regional way," he told members of the Lansing Regional Chamber Economic Club
on Wednesday.

Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 248-351-3298 or gray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Staff writer
Chris Christoff contributed to this report.