On July 20, Traverse City commissioners voted 4–3 to make the two-way traffic pattern on State Street, Pine Street, and Boardman Avenue permanent, ending a pilot that began during the Grandview Parkway reconstruction. Mayor Amy Shamroe and Commissioners Heather Shaw, Laura Ness, and Lance Boehmer carried it; Commissioners Jackie Anderson, Mitch Treadwell, and Ken Funk opposed, citing thin pilot data and no defined timeline for the street improvements the change is supposed to enable. The decision followed recommendations from the city's Complete Streets Advisory Committee and two traffic engineering consultants, one retained by the city and one retained by the DDA. That the DDA retained its own traffic engineer, and that the two consultants reached the same conclusion, is the operational detail worth copying. A district that funds its own technical work in a contested streetscape decision does not have to argue from advocacy, and it does not have to accept the city's consultant as the only expert in the room.

Watch: Whether the promised street improvements get a funded line and a date, and whether the DDA's consultant spend becomes an issue in the November TIF campaign.

Source: The Ticker (Traverse City) and 9&10 News, July 20–21, 2026