Excuse Me: Entitlement Run Amok

Royal Oak is hot: condo's are being built all over the center of town. They even displaced a fine wine store. The main source of heat is nearness to downtown, I-696 and I-75, and semi-urban living without white people having to live in Detroit City itself.

However, a reason for land for building in Royal Oak is the trains which run through on an active rail line. Trains make noise, but not enough by themselves to clear the tracks. Proximity of trains and large numbers of cars and people, especially people who have been drinking long into the night, might be imagined as a safety hazard.

Now comes this guy who bought the condo when the trains were already there, making noise, complaining that the trains make noise!!

GIVE HIM PEACE, TRAIN: Rattled Royal Oak residents take on trains, demand quiet, please

June 30, 2005

BY SHARON GITTLEMANFREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

Think the click-clack of trains rolling along the tracks is romantic?
Then you probably haven't heard the blaring horns locomotives belt out to signal their approach at rail crossings.
Thomas December has. And he'd like to quiet things down.
"If you live in the community, the train horns are pretty loud," said December, whose new downtown Royal Oak loft is just yards away from a rail crossing near Main and Fifth. He has lived there a year, he said.