As 2019 gets underway, I'm sure we all have our wish lists of things we'd like to see happen this year to make life better in southeast Michigan. Here's mine:

A new UAW contract

On the automotive front, I hope the UAW and major automakers settle their contract talks this year without a strike. This region doesn’t need a major labor dispute.

But the many thousands of UAW workers who have sacrificed to help the automakers succeed deserve to share in the industry’s success. So, among other things, I hope that General Motors allocates a new product to the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant to avoid layoffs there.

Build the District Detroit

I really want to see the Ilitches actually start building some of those projects in the District Detroit they’ve been talking about for the past couple of years. When first announced in 2017, the half-dozen projects were going to be residential. Later, the Ilitches’ Olympia Development said some would become office space instead.

But whatever they become, we need to see some progress soon on those projects. Granted, development is a slow, expensive process. But new development is going up all around the District Detroit, in places like Brush Park, which Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock is building out its City Modern project.

If the District Detroit is indeed to fulfill its vision as a dense, lively neighborhood anchored by Little Caesars Arena, we need to see progress on those promised developments. Otherwise, the District Detroit could become the hollow center while the rest of the greater downtown fills up around it.

It’s regional transit, stupid

I’d also like to see Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the new legislature revise the regional transit authorization for southeast Michigan to make it more likely to pass next time it comes before voters. And then I’d like to see the RTA plan get on the ballot here as soon as possible, and for voters to approve it.

Over the holidays, I attended a family wedding in Minneapolis. Flying into the airport, I took that city’s fine light rail to and from downtown. It was easy and cheap, running every 10 minutes from my downtown stop.

Here in Detroit we ought to remember that reliable public transit is how most of our biggest cities operate — with light rail or commuter trains an everyday convenience in Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, and other cities.

Detroit is the outlier. It's time to change that.

Whose streets and sidewalks?

Right now, we see almost a free-for-all on the streets and sidewalks of cities like Detroit as scooters, bicycles, shuttle buses, streetcars and private vehicles all vie for their space.

I think we’ll need to evolve a system that takes all into account, and in this new system, private cars ought to be the big loser. We can no longer tolerate a system that so clogs our streets with vehicles containing just one person each.

Maybe it involves banning street parking in the central downtown, forcing motorists toward parking lots on the outskirts where they park and then take “last mile” options into downtown.

Certainly any solution involves more investment in public transit (see the previous item). Maybe we need either wider sidewalks or more protected lanes to be shared by scooters and bikes, leaving sidewalks clear for pedestrians.

Add self-driving cars and autonomous delivery vans into the mix, as we will soon, and it gets even more complicated. Let’s get some serious discussion going this year on how all these modes can best work together — and let’s not privilege the private car as we have for so many decades.

More:GM's Hamtramck plant closing reopens old controversy in Detroit

More:UAW talks, Gilbert's projects likely to make headlines in 2019

Work on climate change

Michigan’s reliance on coal as a fuel source continues to decline, and wind and solar power are slowly advancing beyond the infancy stage. But we have a long way to go if we're to limit the damage that burning fossil fuels does by changing our climate.

Climate change threatens to be the world's most crucial challenge of the coming decades. We are making a little progress toward mitigating the harm we've already unleashed, but we could be doing so much more. And that means in Michigan, too.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep